Twilight Trouble
The stores were busy and crowded, as one would expect on a Saturday morning. Cheerilee tried to pay it no mind, but she was getting very nervous with all these people around. How long before the changes were apparant, and undeniable? She wasn’t sure she wanted to be surrounded by shoppers when her clothes fell off and she dropped down to all fours. Cheerilee could already feel a—a thing hitting her leg. She didn’t understand why her tail kept moving; it was turning out to be a very active thing, possibly somehow attempting to correct her balance beneath the baggy sweat pants she wore.
Cheerilee got a whole lot of dried goods, beans, rice, cereal grains. That would last the longest if they all had to hide out on Granny Smith’s farm as ponies. She suspected it was too high density calories, even for the altered ponies that she knew of, but she really didn’t have much to lose at this point. And then there was the ponies’ curious resistance and even affinity for sugar to consider. The supermarket may or may not have found half of their cookie shelf completely depleted that day. Cheerilee was going to be a very popular pony when she arrived.
She figured on getting some extra blankets, or at least some sort of bedding material that her inexperienced eye guessed that a pony could rest underneath, without too many aches or pains. $300 on inflatable mattresses; she’d been meaning to get one, so Noi didn’t have to sleep on the floor as she was, but just in case Cheerilee got as many as she thought her pocketbook could handle. If this was happening to Cheerilee, it could be happening to Applejack too, or even Granny Smith. Cheerilee doubted she and Noi would be the last. The beds were expensive, but they were portable, and compact, and had a hand pump.
On her way back to her car with another armload full of bags, Cheerilee was startled to realize that she wasn’t able to see over the top of her own car anymore. She looked over herself with concern, and a morbid sort of curiosity. Certain parts of her that will remain uncommented on were looking quite... saggy, but Cheerilee was still mostly herself. Her finger in the middle of each hand was larger than it had been before. The finger also felt more... present, if that was the right way to think about it. Cheerilee supposed that was what would be her new hooves, and her farewell to opposable thumbs. For now, it wasn’t... too much trouble.
Cheerilee kept discreetly looking in mirrors she passed, telling herself she wanted to make sure she wasn’t showing too much, but also fascinated by what she could see. Cheerilee always had something of a button nose, but this was ridiculous! It was still her face though, even as it slowly started proceeding more towards that you might find on some quadrupedal being. She was losing height like nobody’s business. Everything just looked so much higher as the day went by. Cheerilee didn’t know what to think!
Blankets, extra beds, dried bulk foods, half a trunk full of fresh water jugs, the kind that looked like they could be refilled, Cheerilee then went to the sporting goods store. She passed on the shoes obviously, but sleeping bags, flashlights, hammocks. She also got some tents... not that she wanted to be camping outside in sub-zero temperatures, but perhaps if the legends of pony metabolism had weight to them, then it wouldn’t be as much of a problem. With herself added to Scootaloo’s friends and Noi, the Apple family surely could use the space, even in their already spacious farm house.
Dropping another $200 on bags of charcoal seemed like a foolish idea, but Cheerilee wasn’t sure what the Apples had in the way of natural gas, and it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. Unlike their wood pile, charcoal was compact, lightweight, and easy to keep dry. Towels; couldn’t be a bad idea to have a couple of extra towels, especially with having fur all over your body.
Cheerilee itched at her side nervously. Her fur was starting to spread in blotchy patches from her hips up, from where her... her tail was coming out. It hadn’t hit her face, so she looked... passably normal. Her tail, she had to keep in her pants, but it seemed like whenever she covertly looked, that tail had gotten longer and more volumnuous, with hair eerily similar to that which cascaded down the back of Cheerilee’s head. She was pretty well hidden, with how concealing her clothes were, but she didn’t have much time left. Cheerilee just felt so excited about all this. She was going to be a cute little pony!
Wait, where did that come from? Cheerilee blinked and looked around, but nobody noticed her little impromptu jig there. Was she happy about this? She couldn’t imagine why. It’s just that the ponies she saw were so very adorable, and... she didn’t want to be one, but it was just exciting to be able to... to... to see them again? Cheerilee never would have thought herself a fan of horselike creatures, but it certainly was going to be a bizarre, yet novel experience to be one of those creatures. It was like a free pass to... give up her role and her responsibilities, a chance to be with the ponies more... with her daughter more. She just... liked that idea.
On a whim, Cheerilee went and gathered about fifty bucks worth of seeds. She didn’t think they’d be useful right away, but spring was just around the corner, they could possibly plant things with their mouths, if worst came to worst. That Twilight girl seemed to think that flowers were particularly edible for ponies, so Cheerilee had a lot of those, from begonias to zinnias, and of course daisies. Cheerilee sure did like daisies, for appearance’ sake. Most of her clothing was moderately decorated with them. She wondered how they would taste. But also, Cheerilee snatched up corn, squash, cabbage, carrots, broccoli... just anything that looked good, really.
It actually was making her really hungry, so Cheerilee threw one of those... pre-wrapped sandwiches you can get at the supermarket into her cart. She picked the vegetarian one because, well, she knew ponies could eat a little meat, but she wasn’t sure that a whole sandwich would agree with her, depending on how totally she’d transformed. Eating it on the side of the road was fine, once she’d gotten the wrapper open in her clumsy fingers. Nobody to come look at her, and suspect she was changing into a horse. But, of course, her teeth were getting loose already.
Perhaps it was less of a whim, and more of a concern: Cheerilee’s teeth fell out all of their own volition. She was definitely joining the ranks of the plant eaters. The afternoon was getting on, and she didn’t have much time left. She just... collected the teeth in a napkin and kept going. Cheerilee didn’t feel as exhausted as she expected. She wasn’t used to running around this much; she was used to just sitting around at the library, or standing and reshelving books. But far from exhausted, if anything, Cheerilee felt... downright peppy! So, she pepped right along, and tried not to pay too much attention to how her teeth were changing shape, as her mouth grew longer and more extended.
By the time she was finished shopping, people were mistaking Cheerilee for somebody’s child! Cheerilee’s clothing was becoming so ill-fitting, she could barely keep it on. If Cheerilee hadn’t known better, she’d think she was one of those new generation “hip” kids; the ones who thought it was cool to walk around with your pants sagging down. And it was... unsettling, when one such youth came up to address her as an equal.
“Sup!” the orange haired blue boy said to her. “Haven’t seen you hangin’ around before!”
“Oh! Um...” Cheerilee refused to look at him. “Shorry, gotta go, heh heh!” she blurted, turning to walk briskly away from him.
Thankfully he didn’t follow, and Cheerilee scurried back to the parking lot, dumping the last of her bags in the open window, and pulling up her pants again, cinching them tighter around her... breasts. Nope, not worrying about that at all, perfectly normal, NOT PANICKING.
Her car seemed huge now, and if Cheerilee wasn’t standing up on her toes all the time, it would have seemed even larger to her. That gave her a little extra height, which was important if she was going to be driving back. Taking her earlier encounter as a sign, Cheerilee decided to stop tempting fate, before she really did start to get alarmingly small.
Cheerilee wondered if she was ready to be the same height as her own daughter.
She shuddered.
It was surprisingly easy to drive, even as far along as Cheerilee had let herself go. Turning the ignition was next to impossible, but besides that, it only took one toe to push the pedals, and you didn’t need fingers to turn a steering wheel. It was harder to reach the pedals, and she was very low in her seat, but really it wasn’t too bad. As she drove along, she glanced west, where the sun was already low in the sky. Cheerilee didn’t bother trying to pull out and unlock her phone to check the time. There was no way she could possibly manipulate that little touchscreen with what remained of her fingers. With a bemused laugh, Cheerilee realized that she’d never have had a problem, if she had just kept her old, outdated wristwatch instead. But times changed, and nowadays everyone seemed to do everything with their phones.
The pressure was finally too much, and Cheerilee didn’t see any reason to hide it anymore. She pulled off on the side of the road, and... let out her tail. She leaned against her car, regarding it with a dazed awe. So this was her life now. Standing there close to the edge of town, discreetly pulling your pants down to let a bright pink fluffy tail slide out of them, before cinching them up again. It was... well, it was not unlike Apple Bloom’s in shape and size, if a bit more wavy. It was like Cheerilee was looking at her head, but... it was attached to her back. It was... odd that Cheerilee could feel her tail, but she had no idea how to make it move on her own. She just opened the car door and lifted the sensitive thing in what was left of her hand, like a glorified pink boa. She then sat herself back in the car, this time with it kinked off to the side, instead of squashed up against her leg.
That was... marginally more comfortable.
By the time she reached the Acres, Cheerilee was quite ready to just... spend the rest of the evening changing, and wake up the next morning, fully pony. This halfway status was just maddeningly difficult, where it seemed like you could do things, but your body wasn’t quite the right shape to do them anymore. On a related note, Cheerilee’s mirrors were hopelessly askew, and she reflected that perhaps she wasn’t the safest driver right now.
As she drove, she wondered... Cheerilee wondered what she was going to do for clothing. It was a silly vanity, when there were far more important things, like speaking and walking, and it’s not like you can just go out and buy pony clothes. That poor Rarity girl was driving herself to her limits trying to design entirely new forms of clothing for the girls. But Cheerilee still sort of... wondered what she was going to do for clothing. No answers came to mind.
Cheerilee was completely “hooved” below the belt when she arrived at the farm, and seeing over the dashboard was actually becoming an issue. Her poor beat up old car was so loaded down, it was a wonder it made it along that gravelly dirt road at all. Cheerilee realized she’d have to get some kind soul to take her car after she couldn’t drive it anymore. So many things still left to take care of. As she parked, she took a look at herself in the rear view mirror. There was a purple pony there, lost in some very baggy clothing, it looked like. Her pony-like head shook in detached disbelief as she saw of herself what she could. Cheerilee knew full well that like all the ponies, she would look like herself, but... pony. But actually seeing yourself looking like a pony was a whole different experience.
She got out of the car and almost fell over. Cheerliee pulled herself up the side of her vehicle, quite aware now why her daughter and friend hadn’t walked around much toward the evening. Her feet were just... her toes were just not meant for standing normally. From within the farmhouse, a little pony known as Apple Bloom, with a big pink bow and overalls, came galloping out the front door shouting spryly, “Cheerilee! Ya made it! Y’alright?” Close behind her was Scootaloo, the little orange filly just cute as a button as she trotted along, not that Cheerilee would ever accuse Scootaloo of being cute. And... Sweetie Belle remained inside, but Applejack came next, followed by Rarity. Two normal, everyday, average human girls, that Cheerilee was well familiar with.
That familiarity ended, with how she was now. She was looking up at Applejack and Rarity in a way she never expected she would ever have to do. “Oh my, you girlsh do look... bicg, now!” Cheerilee stated, clinging to the side of her car. She immediately blushed, as she remembered how ponies and speaking went together. Her mouth felt so... different now. She couldn’t keep silent, with everyone clamoring for attention. She’d just have to try to remember the speech lessons that she and Scootaloo studied together.
“Oh my dear you look awful!” Rarity exclaimed in distress, picking up her pace to run to Cheerilee’s side, “What on earth are you wearing?”
Cheerilee blinked.
“Hoh, this?” Cheerilee looked down at her baggy, olive colored hoodie, and her rumply, tightly cinched grey brown pants, that her legs barely fit in anymore. “It looshed be’er thish morning,” Cheerilee said with an apologetic—
“Wow,” her eyes widened. “Idh... it... really is har’er to speag... speak, like zis!” And it was so much harder to speak like this. “Didn’ think I... waz sho far along,” she admitted, blushing guiltily.
“Don’t worry mom, you sound good already,” Scootaloo said in good cheer, rearing up to put her hooves on Cheerilee’s hips... which were low enough for Scootaloo to do that easily now. “I bet you even remember how you pull your tongue back more to not say thuh all the time,” her daughter said hopefully.
“Id’ll th...take shome time for me to get ushed to,” Cheerilee told her, with difficulty.
“What the hay is all this?” Applejack exclaimed, ogling the tents hastily tied to the top of Cheerilee’s car.
“Tol’ you Applejack,” Cheerilee said curtly, if sloppily, “s’ going get a few things. Th’ books you ashk for... in the trunk... and in th’ back sheat.”
“Well, thanks for doin’ that, but you really didn’t have to,” Applejack said abashedly. “You shoulda got yourself here right away, and let us deal with the supplies. Still, ah never look a gift horse in the mouth. Tha—oh.”
Blushing deeply, the orange girl ducked her hat brim over her eyes and said, “Ah never ...say no to a gift freely offered, if’n ah cain make use of it.”
“Pleash Happle—” Cheerilee’s face twisted in frustration. Or, her nose did, at least. Weird. “No’ inshulted... at all,” she said carefully.
“Well,” Applejack said, managing to get the rope untied so she could unload the tents, “Thank you kindly nonetheless.”
Cheerilee smiled and nodded.
She didn’t want to say anything more, in fact, but there was one problem still vexing her. Apple Bloom was already trotting away possibly to inform the rest of her family. Cheerilee looked from one (human) girl to the other, and then down at Scootaloo, who was sitting there on her haunches, just staring silently up at Cheerilee with big eyes.
“Coul’ um... somebo’y help me get inshide, perhaps?” Cheerilee asked with an embarassed wince, looking around again from where she was leaning against her car. “No’ too... good at balanshing righ’ now.”
She laughed nervously, and Scootaloo burst out in a guilty squeak, “I’m sorry mom! I didn’t think it would happen to you too! I didn’t—”
“Hush dear,” Cheerilee said putting a hand...thing on Scootaloo’s maroon colored head. “You aren’ shangeing anyone into a pony. I’m just a li’l... diffrn’ now. Oh don’ gih me tha look. I know you know how it is.”
Giving Cheerilee a look, Applejack stated, “Apple Bloom! Can y’ stay here, and help me with unloadin’ these uh, things,” thus halting her ponified sister from trotting away back to the farm house.
“Yes, sis!” Apple Bloom chirped responsively, spinning on a dime to gallop back, then clambering up bodily into Cheerilee’s car to unload it. It was kind of impressive, really, how much that pony could toss at once.
“And I will lend an arm, if you will,” Rarity offered, holding out her hand to Cheerilee, distracting Cheerilee from the sight of Apple Bloom treating Cheerilee’s little car like an excavation site. Cheerilee smiled gratefully, and took the other girl’s...
Cheerilee’s smile wavered, as she laid what passed for her hand, on top of the other girl’s hand. Rarity—to her credit—was trying valiantly not to shudder.
“Hope you don’ mind my hand is hawfully... strange,” Cheerilee told her soothingly, helpless to let go as she leaned against Rarity for support. “’s even stranger, from my pershecive...pershpec... from inshide! Id’ll be a nice little ...hoof inna morning,”
The snow white girl smiled weakly at Cheerilee, but only tightened her grip, saying, “That it may be. But don’t worry about my sensibilities; I’ll do whatever I can to help you with this, just like... everyone else.”
Together, Cheerilee clumped, Scootaloo trotted, and Rarity strode into the farmhouse. It was so strange to Cheerilee, being alongside a girl half her age, who was a head taller than her. Cheerilee felt like a little girl again, walking alongside the now very tall Rarity. That was somehow even stranger than the experience of her daughter being totally a pony. You can get used to anything, I guess.
As she walked in the farm house, and looked around, Cheerilee... didn’t know what on earth was going on here!
“When were there sho many poniesh?” Cheerilee blurted in surprise, as she tottered into the living room. There, she could see four complete unknowns lounging around. There were still streamers hanging up on the wall as if from a celebration, and confetti scattered here and there, as well as the remains of some cupcake trays collected on the counter dividing this room off frome the kitchen. And there were four cute, little, new ponies, each looking up at her from their activities, with varying degrees of curiosity and fear.
“The police were here!” Scootaloo suddenly declared excitedly at Cheerilee’s side. “They’ve been looking all around town for ponies who turned into—for people who turned into ponies! Miss Twilight said it’s getting faster, and she doesn’t know if maybe everyone will be a pony or something! Mom, you look so... pony! Are your wings coming in yet?”
Cheerilee stiffened in surprise, Rarity holding her steady and looking at her worriedly. “I... really need to si’ down,” Cheerilee admitted. She looked at Scootaloo worriedly, who looked back equally worriedly. Clearly the girl was wondering why Cheerilee wasn’t excited about her... wings. Rarity helped Cheerilee to the couch, where a pink pony there was in the process of climbing clumsily down to make room for Cheerilee.
Sitting there relatively soundly, Cheerilee looked at Scootaloo, and she didn’t know what to say to her daughter. Cheerilee didn’t know if she even could say it, with her entire jaw structure changing shape even as she speaks.
“Scoo’aloo I...” Cheerilee began hesitantly, then just sighed, slumping there where she was sitting. Cheerilee didn’t want to make her poor daughter feel even worse than what was already self inflicted!
Cheerilee testily pulled forward the neck of her very baggy shirt, looking down inside it, at what appeared to be a somewhat patchy looking... pony’s upper body. Nothing to even cover up anymore. Cheerilee just pulled her shirt over her head, and then her t-shirt, until she was bare naked to the world from the waist up. It felt... odd, because the furred patches were less chilly than the parts where fur was still growing in.
It felt really odd, because Cheerilee’d never been able to bare her chest before, not since she was a very young girl!
With her blouse removed, Cheerilee turned to show Scootaloo what Cheerilee suspected was a smooth back, quickly growing furry, but unbroken by any new, oddly altered limbs that she could possibly sense. She admitted to her daughter uneasily, “Scoo’aloo, I don’ sthink I’m gonna have... wingks.”
“W-what?” Scootaloo exclaimed in confusion, staring at Cheerilee’s back. “But you’re my mom! You have to be a pegasus! How could a earth pony mom make a... pegasus?”
“Theshe transfor...the changes don’ have any hrhyme or reason,” Cheerilee said to the little orange filly, who hopped up on the couch next to her, looking at her as attentively as Scootaloo ever did. “Maybe i’s jush... random?” Cheerilee tried, shrugging helplessly at Scootaloo.
“It’s not random though!” Scootaloo said, her eyes full of determination. “Twilight, she knows all the other ponies, and who’s going to be a pony of what!”
Scootaloo blinked and briefly looked away, staring into space in confusion.
“Twilight knows our alternate reality selves,” Scootaloo said more carefully, looking at Cheerilee again with less fervor in her eyes. “Like, she knows that me and AB and Sweetie are totally best friends, and her world’s Sweetie is a unicorn, and her Scootaloo is a pegasus!”
“There are little differences between them,” Scootaloo cautiously explained, “But she gave this big, long boring speech, that pretty much said that lots of people here are ponies she already knows. And since her world is leaking or... something, that means we’ll turn into the ponies that they are!”
“Leagking?” Cheerilee asked in confusion.
“Like... in Twilight’s world, Apple Bloom was an earth pony. And she is in this world too, and she’s the same color. So the poniness...stuff leaked from there to here? And that means you should be a pegasus, because if Scootaloo’s a pegasus in the other world, then her mom has to be too!”
Cheerilee looked blankly at Scootaloo, having... had no idea that Twilight was anything other than a very helpful crazy girl who knew a lot about pony physiology. Just how out of the loop had Cheerilee been all this time? “I may have to ashk this... Twiligh’ for more informashion,” she admitted dourly.
“I bet she’ll give it to you,” Scootaloo replied, with a roll of her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle talks even longer than Mr. Doodle! Oh, she’s here too now. She and Sunset moved in to help ponies with pony things. And um...” Scootaloo tilted one ear, in a way that looked uncannily like she was trying to find the words to say this.
“Maybe you should wait to talk to her, until you can talk again,” Scootaloo said almost apologetically to her mother. “Or at least tomorrow, when your mouth isn’t changing anymore.”
Cheerilee nodded solemnly. “Prolly a gool idea,” she said. “Hyou looking forward to a pint sizhed... ‘pony’ me?”
“I...” Scootaloo glanced away briefly. “A-a little,” she admitted, “But you’ll still be my mom, even if we look the same age.”
“It’ll be okay, Ms. Cheerilee!” a walking bag of charcoal said to her. Oh wait, that was Apple Bloom, who had become entirely obscured by the bag of charcoal she was carrying on her back.
“Piña Colada is a mom too,” Apple Bloom chirped out, “And her daughter ain’t even changed yet! You should talk with her, when you get a chance. Piña ah mean. She can tell you what it’s like, bein’ a mom and a pony like this.”
“Apple Bloom, c’mon!” Applejack called over from the door.
“Oop, gotta go,” Apple Bloom said hurriedly, dashing over to toss her bag where they were piling up stuff from Cheerilee’s panic fueled supply run.
“I ha’ no idea things were sho... acgtive around... here,” Cheerilee said, just getting quiet then, and leaning back against the couch, right onto her tail. She sighed in frustration, shifting sideways so it could bounce out from behind her.
“Can’ talk, can’ walk haround, might as well just wait for it thoo finish,” she grumbled.
“Ms. Cheerilee?” a sweet voice spoke up shyly behind her. Cheerilee looked over to see Sweetie Belle rounding from behind the couch. “Rarity has um, a place set aside for you,” Sweetie said, “Over in the laundry room. It’s on the first floor, so you don’t have to climb stairs. It’s still kinda noisy, but you can sleep in there, when you’re ready.”
That is what Cheerilee ended up doing, instead of just changing the rest of the way on this couch like Scootaloo did. Cheerilee was already practically a pony when she went to sleep. Well, she hadn’t quite shrunk down to pint sized yet, and she still had a... mostly human shaped torso, but she certainly was on her way. She was about the height of a young girl, and her lisp was only worsening. She ate a few crackers, and drank some water, but didn’t really feel like there was much else she could do, until this transformation had run its course.
It was so strange how subtle this transformation progressed. Cheerilee didn’t feel like she was changing at all, but she couldn’t deny the loss in height, the fur over all her body, and the bizarre experience of her limbs turning into a pony’s equivalent. Every time she stopped to pay attention, it seemed like something else had changed profoundly. Even in her fitful sleep, Cheerilee lay there in peace, and no changes even alerted her enough to fully awaken again. The quiet woke her up, but not any of her changes.
So she slept, and changed, and as she slept in that improvised pile of blankets and pillows bed in the laundry room, her dreams were peaceful and undisturbed. The sounds of activity outside diminished to silence, and when she awoke once in the middle of the night, Cheerilee was startled by just how very quiet it was. She lifted herself onto her el...wrists, and looked around in the pristine silence. Everybody was asleep, and the city noises were so distant. Even her amazing new ears weren’t picking up much of anything, other than the creaking of boards, and the wind whispering in the trees. The silence woke her up, because Cheerilee just wasn’t used to it being this peaceful. No noisy neighbors, no cars driving right outside. Just... peace.
In the dark, Cheerilee didn’t know how much of a pony she was at all, but she didn’t really care to find out at this point. She just let herself slip back into sleep, with the warmest feeling flowing in her heart. Cheerilee hadn’t been able to sleep here before, until she was forced to tonight. And now that she did, she realized how nice it was to be away from the hustle and bustle, and relax for once to let her guard down. She’d forgotten what a quiet night like this even sounded like. It was... nice.
An actual rooster awoke her the next morning. A rooster, it turns out, from a neighboring egg farm, but a rooster nonetheless. Cheerilee lifted her head and—only her head lifted. That was new!
Cheerilee turned her head left and right, surprised at how very flexible her neck was. She shouldn’t have been surprised, since obviously Scootaloo was the same way, but it still was a surprising feeling. The rooster’s crow in her conical ears came accompanied by sunlight gently filtering in through the window, so with enough light, it wasn’t hard to see herself at all. Cheerilee woke up laying on her side, with her arms and legs kicked out beside her. Underneath the blanket, Cheerilee’s pants were still draped over her rear end loosely, and as Cheerilee looked herself over, she was... a pony.
Cheerilee was a pony.
She was a small, plum colored pony. Her hair still cascaded down around her ears in pleasant pink curls, but it attached to her head very differently now, and somewhere beneath the blankets, beneath the clothing she’d previously worn, there was a thick, volumnuous tail fashioned from the very same hairs as her head, laying limply beside her horselike rump.
A giddy giggle threatened to fight its way up in her chest. Cheerilee was looking at herself, at the body she was in, and... and she was a pony!
She’d gotten half of herself righted again, trying to work her legs under her into some sort of sitting posture, when the green Ms. Smith poked her head in the door. “Hey there, yer awake huh?” she said to Cheerilee in a quiet tone. “Careful, the other ponies are still sleepin’.”
Cheerilee looked at Granny like a deer caught in headlights. “I’ a phony,” she stated lamely. Then, Cheerilee remembered she couldn’t talk yet. She tried to facepalm, only to slip back onto her side with a whump. “Still thrying thoo...” Cheerilee stuck her tongue out and woah not that far! She just licked her... her lips, and blinked at her own muzzle. Because she had a muzzle now.
The most shocking thing about it was her new muzzle didn’t seem to be obscuring Cheerilee’s vision at all, when she didn’t have her eyes crossed. Her eyes were just further apart to compensate, and... she should have been totally confused by how far she could look behind herself now. Somehow, it just looked like it always looked, just with a wider... peripheral. There was no fishbowl lens effect, just... looking at things normally. And in full color, Cheerilee would notice, gratefully.
Cheerilee looked directly at Granny again and said, “Shtill—” but there was no Granny to speak of. The elderly matron had left the room already, while Cheerilee was distracted by her own... eyeballs and snout. Cheerilee sighed in frustration, and began going about trying to get a good look at herself, at her whole body. Removing the blanket was easy enough, but it was more difficult to remove her pants than she anticipated. Cheerilee was much smaller now, but not that much smaller. Her legs were differently proportioned, and the already tightly cinched waist had to seriously strain to get around her much broader thighs.
But at last, she managed to push with her arms and kick with her legs, and her pants came off revealing Cheerilee’s horselike rear end in all its glory, with that tail of the same style as her hair, and... flowers? What?
“Up and at-em already, eh?” that orange girl known as Applejack remarked, broadly striding in and pulling Cheerilee’s attention away from her own rump. “Granny said I...”
Applejack stopped short. “Oh, my,” she said in a note of dread, upon seeing Cheerilee.
Applejack stared down at Cheerilee in open surprise, while Cheerilee stared up in confusion. “Thomething wrogn—wrong?” Cheerilee asked tenuously. Why were there flowers on her butt?!
“Well uh,” the rather large looking Applejack said to Cheerilee, “Ah don’t rightly know, but weren’t you supposed to be uh... smaller?”
Cheerilee blinked, and looked down at herself. She saw a strange, herself-furred pony, with its front hooves braced between its hind hooves. That’s what she saw, is a cute little pony, a deep, dark cerise like she always was, but still a pony. A pony who, sitting up like this, was only just over half as tall as Applejack. And that was being generous.
“No?” Cheerilee offered cluelessly, looking back at Applejack again. “I’ nothaposed... supposethoo be rike dis?”
“Ah dunno!” Applejack replied, kneeling down to peer at Cheerilee in worry and curiosity, “All the other ponies were just pint sized. You’re like... big or somethin’. Like a giant pony!”
Cheerilee wasn’t though! Everything and everyone else looked so big now! If Cheerilee ever managed to stand up, she wouldn’t even... be past that girl’s shoulders, in height!
“Buthtill small,” Cheerilee pointed out in confusion. “If I coul’ sthand up, I wouldn’ evebee patht you thsho... shoulders!”
At that absolute failure to explain, Cheerilee blushed and looked away again, but it looked like Applejack had caught on to what she was trying to say. “Ah’ll get Apple Bloom,” she said kindly. “She knows everything there is to know about... movin’ around as a pony.”
“Don’ neetoo throuble her,” Cheerilee said sloppily, struggling to raise her strange ass in the air. “I ca’ justh... just thry thoo um...”
“Nonsense!” Applejack said, in a very artificial sounding confidence, “She’ll be happy to help you out. More’n happy even. Just wait there while I go see if she’s up yet.”
Cheerilee sighed in defeat as Applejack just left the room and closed the door, and Cheerilee thought that was that. But then, before Applejack went walking up the stairs, the girl leaned back against the door to the laundry room where Cheerilee was. Cheerilee actually felt like her ears were perking up, when she distinctly heard Applejack say to herself,
“Apple Bloom is not gonna like this.”
Cheerilee hadn’t even been meaning to eavesdrop. It was just so quiet that she could hear everything. How did that even work? Pony ears... were weird to have, whether or not the rest of you was a pony. Cheerilee stubbornly fought with her uncooperative limbs, bending her ankle experimentally, finding that her ankle didn’t really bend much anymore, but her knee still did. It was easy to rotate her hips in ways that horses never could, yet it was still... a horse’s ass.
Pushing her arms—her forelimbs straight, with her rear on the ground, her haunches?, Cheerilee tried one more time to stand. She managed to slip one leg under her, and then another. Were they all legs now? No time, must concentrate—there! Every finger... hoof was firmly on the ground, and Cheerilee just straightened up a bit, and she was successfully standing on all fours. She lifted her head up and—
Wow, that was weird.
Cheerilee felt like she was standing, but sort of... curving behind her. That was literally true of course, but it felt like a contradiction to her. She was used to her whole body being underneath her when she was standing up. And she was used to not actually feeling her tail dragging on the floor. Nor was she used to feeling her neck able to curl back with a swanlike grace, firmly settling atop a pony body standing there on all fours, without any difficulty or strain she could detect. However odd it felt, Cheerilee did manage to get to a standing position at least, before Apple Bloom came in.
It was a very cranky looking Apple Bloom who came to see Cheerilee, yawning and saying, “Yeah yeah, ah’m up,” on her way down the stairs. Cheerilee could hear that too, and, “Ah don’t see why you gotta bring the camera. She cain’t be that bad.” Cloistered here in the laundry room, Cheerilee was starting to get really worried. But worried or not, she could do little more than stand there with a concerned look on her horsey face, while Apple Bloom pushed open the door and trotted in.
Apple Bloom started out exclaiming gladly, “Oh, you already figured out standing! Ms. Cheer......” but her words died, as she slid to a halt, and Cheerilee could easily understand why. She could understand everything, now, and yet she understood nothing.
Two ponies were standing there in that room, both on all fours, one facing the other. One was surprised and a little alarmed, and the other alarmed, and a little surprised. The yellow one of them, with the cherry red hair, was approximately half of Cheerilee’s height. Cheerilee could only estimate it, but she was definitely looking down at this pony. Significantly looking down at this pony. Apple Bloom was tiny! There was the sound of a camera photo being taken.
That seemed to snap Apple Bloom into action. “What?” she exclaimed stridently at Cheerilee, eyes aflame in turmoil, “Why’re you so big? What? You’re... what?!”
“...wha?” Cheerilee asked in complete lack of understanding, why Apple Bloom was getting so... upset?
“I don’t get it!” Apple Bloom shouted angrily, “You’re all huge, like a big old, old pony. Why are you so old? You don’t look like the other ponies. You don’t look like a... like a little kid!!”
Cheerilee was starting to understand what was going on, but... she couldn’t say anything! Her verbal skills were so poor, she was kind of afraid to try speaking, and before she could, Apple Bloom just turned without another word, and galloped out of the room. She didn’t stop there, though. Apple Bloom galloped all the way across the next room, and Cheerilee could hear a brief scuffle as she fought with the front door, upset enough even to cry!
To her great credit, Apple Bloom got the door open in short order, and Cheerilee looked at Applejack in confoundment. Applejack’s face went from shock to an unhappily guilty expression, as she gently set the camera down on a laundry shelf. Cheerilee distantly heard Apple Bloom charging outside, shouting through tears, “Twilight! Twilight where are...” before at last the little pony’s tiny voice diminished far enough, that Cheerilee could no longer make out the words with these... freaky radar dish ears.
“Ah’m gonna go try an’ smooth things out,” Applejack said nervously, “Sorry, just scuse me for a sec. You gonna be okay for now?”
“Hwellli—” Cheerilee frowned. “I’ll be... fine,” she said slowly, “Go hel’ your shishter.”
Apple Bloom wasn’t upset. She wasn’t upset. She was furious!! How could—how dare Cheerilee be so big and... and not like a little kid? How could Twilight not know this? How could Twilight not tell her? How could... well, she could understand if—but no! This was all wrong! The stupid door wouldn’t open, making Apple Bloom cry like a stupid little kid, and she ran out hollering for Twilight in her stupid... little kid’s voice! Apple Bloom was so not upset, it wasn’t funny!
The chilly air embraced her as she blasted outside, galloping right for the trailer that Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer had... borrowed from a friend. Apple Bloom must have been making quite some noise after she got outside, though inside she didn’t dare make a peep, with all the little teeny baby ponies sleeping all around her. “Twilight!” she shouted, hammering on the door. “Wake up! You didn’t tell me ah was a little kid! Ah’m not a little kid! Why is Ms. Cheerilee so big?!”
There was no answer, so Apple Bloom wiped off her eyes so she could see again, and jumped up, clinging to the edge of the window as she peered inside. Amid all the sciency looking equipment, there were a couple beds, one of which held a very amused looking Sunset Shimmer, and the other was empty, because there was Twilight Sparkle, trying to climb through the window on the other side of the trailer!
Apple Bloom just charged right underneath the trailer, which was easy to do on account of what a little pony she was! Twilight tumbled clumsily to the ground, and before she could run away, Apple Bloom just jumped onto her chest, accusing down at the guilty looking purple girl, “Ah ain’t a little kid—ah’m already a Freshman, and Piña is a grown woman, and so is Noi, and so is Elias, except he was a grown man, so why are we all ponies who look just like little kids? How come we keep gettin’ all weepy, and ah just woke up and ah’m still tired, were you laughing at us, when we were using crayons to draw, because those are just because they don’t taste like a pencil eraser not because we’re dumb little kids ah don’t wanna be a baby pony, and you didn’t even tell us?!”
Twilight just stared at the pony on her chest, like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar. “Answer me!!” Apple Bloom demanded hotly.
“I didn’t think it was... important?” Twilight tried with the most hopefully awkward of smiles.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes so hard she practically fell off of Twilight. “Aggh,” she whuffed, jumping off the prone girl. “How could it not be important?” she said pacing beside Twilight, “Look at me! Ah’m just a little... baby pony, and ah cain hardly do anything!”
“You’re not a baby, pony,” Twilight said in some irritation. “You’re closer to the pony equivalent of human primary school age. Or, that’s just what my gut feeling tells me. My human gut feeling, because if you haven’t noticed, I’m still a human!”
“So what?” Apple Bloom sniffled, “How do you scientifically tell that sorta thing?”
“You don’t,” Twilight stated. “I have no way to know that this world isn’t simply larger than my own, because nopony has ever walked on this earth as a pony before. I have no way to determine your relative age, because of the more rapid transitionary periods in ponies. And with my human instincts, for all I know adult ponies look like little children to a human! And...”
Twilight paused, which was a good thing, because if she kept on tearing down Apple Bloom’s outrage, there would be no way Apple Bloom couldn’t have just started bawling right there on the spot, because she was just some stupid, unstable little kid.
“And because I was afraid,” Twilight said more softly, shocking Apple Bloom out of her inner struggle.
“I know how important your maturity was to you, Apple Bloom,” Twilight told her earnestly, sitting there right on the cold ground, on her knees underneath the hem of her night gown. “I haven’t known you especially well, but I have been around your counterpart in my world, and she has such doubts about herself, because she doesn’t think she’s grown-up yet. And I have seen you these past four loops, not especially, but... it was just nice to see you so confident and carefree. You were just beginning your higher level education! That must have been...” Twilight sighed plaintively. “It must have been so hard for you to give that up. I just couldn’t... I just couldn’t tell you that you had basically gone all the way back to kindergarten.”
And now Apple Bloom was more confused than upset. “You didn’t tell me,” she said warily, “Because you thought I liked school?”
“Well, don’t you?” Twilight asked, as if the answer were obvious. And the answer was obvious, but not the one she was thinking of.
“No!” Apple Bloom told a surprised Twilight in irritation. “Nobody likes school! We just gotta do it, or we’ll get in trouble later in life!”
“Well, what about—” Twilight frowned, looking at her fist for some reason, and starting to shiver. “There was one... some people like school!” she retorted frustratedly. “It’s just that everyone who doesn’t, in this crazy mixed up world has to do it anyway! Y-you were taking what, G-geometry? Why?!”
Apple Bloom moved back a step from the suddenly accusatory, shivering purple girl. “It’s the next math class ah had?” she said uncertainly. “You cain’t just not take a math class.”
“B-but you d-don’t even like g-geom-metric f-figures!” Twilight shivered fiercely. “T-that’s w-w-what I don’t get a-a-about this c-c-crazy—”
“Twilight, please,” Apple Bloom interrupted, moving forward to put a hoof on Twilight’s chest. “Can we talk about this inside your trailer? You’re colder than an icicle!”
“M-m-maybe I s-s-should tell e-everypony I c-c-an prepare a p-p-presentation...” Twilight suggested with a beseeching pout. Apple Bloom sighed, and whatever rage she had built up was just gone... before this brilliant, yet pitiful shivering girl in the snow.
“Just get warm, get dressed, and... you can do whatever,” Apple Bloom said bleakly. “Ah’m gonna go back to bed. Because it’s mah n-n-nap... time.” She choked back a sob. It wasn’t really her nap time, but it might as well have been. Apple Bloom couldn’t believe that all this time she had just... wished she could deny it. All this time she just pretended to be some big, strong budding woman, and she was just... Apple Bloom all along. The little kid, who nobody took seriously. Again.
Twilight wanted to follow after the pony so very much, and just somehow make it all better again, but it really was a cold morning, and she certainly had inherited the human resilience to adverse weather, or lack thereof. Twilight hustled into the trailer, and rifled through the chest they’d packed all their clothing in, trying to find something appropriate to say to the poor girl. Her trusty assistant-gone-dog Spike—who’d woken with all the shouting—walked his little doggy self beside the kneeling girl, to look up at Twilight levelly.
“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Twilight grumbled without looking at him. “And I tried to tell her.” Twilight couldn’t find any clothing worth wearing digging around in there, so she admitted, “Okay fine, I didn’t try to tell her. But what was I supposed to tell her? Congratulations, you’re prepubescent again?”
Spike rolled his eyes, but before he could speak, Twilight cut in saying, “I really didn’t think it was all that important! I mean, it was obvious! How could she not know?”
Spike sighed and shook his head. He managed to say “Twi—” before she told him,
“I am not stalling,” she retorted, “I’m just not sure what to wear. She already knows, I already told her, and I have no reason to stall.”
Twilight finally groaned in exasperation, and shoved on a sweater, and a moderately long skirt. “There, see?” she said fighting with her boots, “Not stalling.”
“It doesn’t bother me!” he said quickly, startling Twilight and himself as he barked out the words before she could interrupt. “It... doesn’t bother me,” he repeated more slowly, “Being a baby dragon. Even when I’m not. Because, I mean... I’m not all that younger than you are, right? But it doesn’t bother me if I’m still a baby, because I know what I am.”
“I’m sorry, Spike,” Twilight told him tenderly, “You’re right as usual. I really should have said something. She just seemed so... happy not having to worry about it.”
“I agree,” Sunset remarked from where she was still lounging on her cot. “You should have told her. You gave a whole speech on your history with the ponies in Ponyville, and you never mentioned that all the people here who transformed just happened to be foals.”
“It... I thought it was more important that I talk about...” Twilight dropped her foot grumbling, “You’re right, I screwed up.” She rubbed her face with her hands, mumbling, “What am I supposed to tell them? Should I tell them about the Boundary? What about the Elements of Harmony? They have those here, you remember. But what does it mean that they have those here? Is it my place to tell them?”
“Look, it’s not complicated,” Sunset advised Twilight, “You don’t need to blow her little mind. Just tell her why you think she’s a little filly. And tell her the whole truth about what you know about her. Apple Bloom’s a smart filly—girl; and if she’s anything like me when I was a filly, when she learns what’s really going on with her, she’ll forget all about being upset.”
Twilight nodded solemnly. She made ready to leave, but—and she totally wasn’t stalling at the door, but Sunset clearly wasn’t done with her yet.
“Did you hear her?” Sunset added at Twilight in genuine agitation, the fire haired girl gesturing at the window, still lounging on the fold out bed. “She thinks she has to take naps! She still has the wrong idea, and you’re the only one of all of us who knows her... filly self, across the mirror.”
“Not the only one,” Spike pointed out. “I know her lots better than Twilight! Why can’t I tell her?”
“We’re trying not to freak them out with a talking dog just yet,” Twilight said flatly. “You can behave yourself once we’re in their house, right?”
“Yeah yeah, I’ll be quiet,” Spike grumbled, turning in a circle and laying down again.
“Anyway, you saw Apple Bloom just now,” Sunset leaned over the bed, to tell Spike there on the floor, “She didn’t go looking for Sunset Shimmer, or Spike. She went straight to Twilight. Not me, not you.” Sunset looked up at Twilight somewhat sympathetically, saying, “Afraid it’s gotta be you, princess. But the worst is over. You knew Cheerilee was gonna...”
“Yes, I... I could have been wrong though?” Twilight suggested hopefully. “I was so worried that she would be a foal too.”
“A city of foals, now that would be a disaster,” Sunset said darkly.
“We don’t know that everyone is going to be changing,” Twilight cautioned her. “Only that it has a worryingly accelerating rate of incidence.”
“Just find Apple Bloom and tell her,” Sunset grumped, throwing her pillow at Twilight’s face, “It’s too early to argue semantics with you.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
810 users online
643,321 hits today, 2,454,720 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
7319406
Oh, well yes. Some ponies will be changing from women to colts. A vanishingly few though, for various reasons. And while Prince Solaire would be hilarious, I'm not going to arbitrarily flip the genders of the ponies in Equestria. Twi already referred to Princess Celestia anyway, I think.
Oh, I know. Did she die, or go to the pony side, or what? That's one reason I wrote this story, is Twilight and Sunset didn't seem to have any alternate self, despite easily finding those of their friends. (And I haven't watched the other movies, so I totally am completely, totally unaware that human Twilight is very real, attending Crystal Prep, and invents a magic sucking device that turns her into demon Twi and rips holes in the fabric of their universe.)
My goal is to stick with established characters on the human side who are in the movie, and with established ponies on the other side. Everything else is pretty much up for grabs though, and I might easily miss some human established from the movie, since I can't stand watching the darn thing.
Can any translate the image at the bottom?
As pleased as I am with Cheerilee being an adult, I was surprised by AB's reaction. It does make sense though. And seriously Twilight, tell them about Spike already. They are already broken. Better hit them with everything instead of shattering them all over again everytime they pull themselves together.
7319658 From Derpy
This chapter made me so happy. I love the drawn out and contemplative nature of examining transformations. It never gets old. And the bonus of Apple Bloom and the rest figuring out that their pony counterparts aren't the same age, or gender, as their human selves, and unfortunately for them, the pony side dictates what happens.
Twilight not sharing that... I'm unsure how to feel about it. Would you want to know in advance that you may turn into a pony, and for that matter the pony is a wildly different age than you (enough to shock a Freshman in High School, let alone an adult!), and for that matter may be a different gender.
7319800
To be fair they probably had bad experiences in the past loops to keep Spike hidden. Otherwise that seems rather mean of Twilight and Sunset. It can't be any worse than transforming into magical ponies.
Uhhggghh. *Massages head* Alright. Alright. That's alright with me. I think I got it. You left a rhetorical question in the last five passages, but this here answers it unless further events refute it. I guess this explains Dinky providing s/he ever comes back into this picture. (I hope not).
I'm glad Cherilee did not have to endure the same misfortune the last three adults had to endure. Also, kudos for keeping the ponies to scale. In most fanfics, authors tend to shrink them down when they are actually roughly the same size as humans. An easy one to make when the reference point isn't in the films themselves. All the promotional art and bloopers confirms human and pony mass to be mostly equal.
Cherilee should have known better than to tempt fate. AJ was right. It's true, you cannot make scientific remarks without a precedent or contrast point. You would need others of the kind to establish the universal commonalities in order to find the contrasts that determine individuals. Oh, Twilight. It's staring you right in the eye and you are blissfully oblivious. You and your two companions need to find a way to go home and do it.
I'm liking this more than when I started in part due to the reveals that are kept secret. Kind of like never knowing even the name of the narrator in you-know-what until the final chapter. Fortunately, these characters aren't being stripped entirely of their original bodies, only ponified for the most part. Still having all their stuff with very, very few exceptions, (unlike that other one where everything is taken way), these characters can make a more smooth transition and possibly correct this. I hope equestrian Twilight Sparkle and her companions will be able to go home and that will fix this mess. It is what started this, I hope it can finish it. If not, at least these characters still have their homes, families, memories, and mostly same hair, eyes, voice and genitals, the biggest difference being age regression. Which is more than the LOPE characters who almost always lose all of it.
7319800
It does seem like an extreme reaction, but consider this. The truth has been hounding her relentlessly for the past 3 months, reminding her every day of her true age while she tries to act like her old self. She's been trying so hard to regain some form of control over her life, and now the huge assumption that she's been making this whole time just gets ripped to shreds in one single moment of terrible realization. She wasn't sharing her worries with anyone either, spending all that time with doubts in her mind that she couldn't even put words to, that she was afraid of anyone finding out about. So even her sister doesn't realize how hard this is going to hit Apple Bloom. I know I'd be freaking out if that happened to me. But sadly, I can only write about it happening.
Considering her last loop, I can understand if Twilight's walking on eggshells around them a bit.
7319843
Y' know it's funny, because I don't. I love drawn out and contemplative examinations, but that it's a transformation isn't really that important to me. I absolutely love the aftermath of transformation, the wonder of being something different than you were, as one has to adapt to their new life, and new form. But the actual process... since it's physically impossible for it to actually happen in real life, how transformation happens in fiction just seems... arbitrary to me. Nevertheless, the transformation in this chapter it was really fun to write, since Cheerilee has such a pragmatically introspective mind, it gives her a uniquely objective way to observe herself, and there was always something for her to do while it was happening.
Depends how far in advance. If it's happening in a week, or in a month, go ahead and surprise me with it. But if I have to wait 30 years, I'm gonna want some notice beforehand.
7319984
I'm not sure if "I could have been wrong though?" is a question...
Well, how else are humans going to ride them?
But no, pony scale is pretty easy to deduce, as several have done, all with very similar results. 3 foot, something, not counting hair volume. Foals are a bit higher than half that. But as you note, they're roughly the same size as humans, just with their bodies in an h shape, instead of an l shape. I might be making them a little smaller than they should be
I do find it very pleasant when people scale ponies down to the point that their heads are the same size as human heads. Because their proportions are still different, but at least this way one of their eyes isn't as big as your entire face.
Sorry, but there's some weird ferret standing at the portal, and fighting off anyone who tries to cross!
Huh?
Well, Cheerilee's x-formation did advance the plot. Ehh?
7324348
You can't see it? I thought derpibooru lets us link to their thumbnails? It's just an interesting picture vaguely related to something barely mentioned in the chapter.
And yeah, Cheerilee's TF was more an excuse to talk more about the city in general than to advance any particular plot. But after her transformation, some things happened.
It's not often that I read such long fics, but darn if I didn't read all of the currently posted chapters in three days (would've been less, but... work T_T ). Really enjoying it and can't wait to see where you go with it. Keep up the great work. =D
7319800 nothing against your translation, but what does that have to do with anything that happened this chapter.
Also,
CALLED IT
7368510 Cheerilee contemplating after her transformation. She mentioned that her vision, in terms of colour perception hadn't changed.
7342431
Glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for reading. Maybe I can stop my stupid self-indulgent FoE fixfic, and work on it some more...
7368510
It's dumb. Cheerilee—
7368629
yeah, that. She was just the only one who knew that obscure fact about horses. Not even the cattle ranchers know about it.