//------------------------------// // Blue Dawn // Story: Can't I Pick Which One? // by Kyle_67 //------------------------------// The familiar smells of my bedroom prompt me awake; it’s always nice to wake up somewhere familiar. Even if I’m not always in the most familiar form… Except, wait. I feel different; irregular—something’s not right about me. I’ve woken up as a small alligator before but this feeling is quickly freaking me out as I lay in bed. I open my eyes in a rush of anxiety and quickly bring my arm to my face to see whatever I might have in place of a hoof. A claw, a talon, a paw, a fin, a hand; I’m prepared to see what’s giving me these pangs of oddness. Only, I’m not prepared. The appendage that meets my eyes is a hoof. A cyan hoof. A cyan hoof with the very same scar I got last week; this is my hoof! I about do a double take after the following investigation of my body that yes, I’m back to being me: Rainbow Dash. Amidst my childish and giddy prances about my room, I realize why I had felt odd. All this time, I had been anything but myself, so now that I’m back to normal, I’m now feeling what I did for 22 years, minus this little adventure in shapeshifting. Before I analyze any further the abnormality of being, well… me for the second first time, I’m knocked against my wall with the force of an explosion and the noise level to match it, and dammit if the impact doesn’t hurt like hell. When I get up and look to the opposite wall of my room, I see that an explosion somehow managed to happen in the middle of my bedroom; several pieces of furniture are out of place and my rug is singed—currently burning, as well. “Rainbow Dash!” I hear a voice from somewhere and know immediately it’s one of the voices that Philomena had said were the original element bearers. A figure emerges from the empty space the explosion cleared away in my house. At first, it doesn’t look recognizable, but a few moments pass and the image of a pony is formed; a mare with a red mane and tail, light brown fur, and magenta eyes. I trot a few paces closer. “Hello?” I say, trying to keep the fright out of my voice. “Uh, Rainbow Dash speaking, ma’am.” I’m not sure adding the “ma’am” was necessary, but I feel the same way talking to her as I do a police officer. She trots a few steps closer as well. “My name is Loyalty,” she says in a proud stance. “I was one of the original bearers of the Elements of Harmony.” “Which one?” I ask. She gives a disapproving glance at me. “I see you’re not taking this seriously.” “No, I am!” I reassure her immediately. “My life is on the line, of course I’m taking this seriously!” Loyalty studies me. “Whatever,” she replies with a roll of her eyes, “I’m here as a messenger by the Harmonic Committee to tell you that we are not happy with your recent disregard for what it means to hold an Element of Harmony.” I sigh. “Yeah, I heard you guys tell me that.” I look off to the side, too ashamed to look the pony whose element I now carry for her in the eyes. “You uh, mentioned something about redeeming myself?” I look back hopefully. “Speeding right past any guilt or blame, as always…” she mutters under her breath. Avoiding blame? Is that something I do? More loudly, she says, “Yes, some outside forces made sure that we allow you to prove yourself in the six categories that one such as I naturally excel at.” Loyalty ends with a short but cocky grin about herself. Jeez, she’s more arrogant than me. She continues, “Until that point, of which I’m still in great doubt that you’ll ever get to, we’ll be stripping you of your…” Loyalty trails off. “My what?” I ask. What is it that she isn’t saying? “Your uh, hm.” She continues to hesitate. “I think it’s better if you see for yourself.” She claps her hooves and a shockwave of awful force quakes through my body, and though at first I feel no change, Loyalty holds a mirror up to my face and it’s clear what she took from me. Gone from my body is one half of my name: the colors of my mane that I pride myself in. There are just separate lines of different shades of gray, and I no longer have my streaks of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or violet. My thought process jams up when I connect something in my head. “This… this is just like the rainbow you showed me!” I say through a shaking voice. She nods. “Do you remember the things associated with each color?” I think for a moment. Every time one was named, a color of the rainbow reappeared. “You want me to get my mane back, don’t you?” “You got it,” Loyalty shoots back. “Think of it as a scorecard. We also thought there was no harm in letting you to continue transforming into whatever animal you please.” “So, before when I would wake up to a new form,” I say slowly, trying to nail the phrasing of this question, “where was I? Was I in a different Equestria?” Loyalty thinks for a moment, as if trying to dumb down the answer for me, and finally says, “We put you in a different… timeline then the rest of your friends.” She seems to remember something. “We simplified the process by selecting a point in time and then manually rewinding back to that point every so often while we negotiated.” She rubs her neck. “Sorry for keeping you in an alternate universe against your will.” The explanation goes way over my head, minus the last part of course, since I understand what kidnapping is, but I still have a question regardless. “Why have me change form every time?” “We sort of just put the universe on auto-pilot when moving you back in time,” Loyalty says sheepishly. “You weren’t supposed to become anything but a pony, but after we caught the mistake, you looked like you were having enough fun as it is. That’s why you can keep that ability, now.” I hear a knock on my door and we both turn our heads to the source of the noise. “Rainbow Dash?” I hear Fluttershy say through the door. “I heard an awfully loud sound come from your house! Are you alright in there?” “Who is that?” Loyalty says in a hushed tone. “She sounds a bit like Kindness…” “That’s Fluttershy,” I respond, matching her whisper. She looks nervous. “Is she an immediate danger to our privacy?” “Well, she knows the door code. Click! The lock clicks and, before the door even opens, Loyalty disappears in a cloud of white smoke. “Dashie? Are you oka-” My friend stops dead in her tracks as she sees the scene before her. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must look like; there’s a small crater in my cloud floor, the fire that engulfed my rug has now spread to my potted plant, my dresser is on its side, and my mane looks like it went through the most toxic bleach in Equestria. Fluttershy rushes to my side. “Rainbow Dash! What in the world happened to your room?” She asks in a worried voice. She steps back to examine my mane. “What happened to your colors?” “Um…” I struggle to think of a way out but nothing’s coming to me. I could tell her that a robber came, but that doesn’t make the most sense. Should I say that lightning struck? It could’ve zapped all of the colors out of my mane as well, right? Shit, the weather forecast for today is clear skies, there are no storm clouds in the system! Should I… should I just come clean? Can I come clean? Would she believe me? It might be my best option—after all, I’m pretty sure I won’t just keep waking up with a clean slate after the meeting with Philomena; that’s one of the conditions, I suppose. I could try to have a companion in all of this… and who better than Fluttershy, right? Hell, she’s the one pony that can somewhat understand animals. Would the connection we’ve had since we were fillies be enough to convince her that this whole scenario I’m in is my reality and not some crazy fiction? You know what? Fuck it, I trust her. “Ever read the book Metamorphosis?” -----------oOo----------- “And so, uh, that’s the story!” I finish. I’m not lying when I say that it took an hour and a half to explain everything. Here’s the thing, though: Fluttershy never once interrupted me. After we stamped out the fire, the first part of my explanation was spent trying to segue into how I could (and I guess still can) turn into animals. Even when I dropped that bombshell, I got no response from her. A little discouraged from the lack of any change in emotion, I went on to my interactions with her, how I met most of our friends’ pets, though I did leave out the… experiences I had with Angel. Story after story, respawn after respawn, I finally got to the time I spent with Philomena and how I haven’t been the best holder that the Element of Loyalty. I told her about Loyalty, the quest for my mane, and how I decided to trust her with all this information. And still, Fluttershy has no readable emotion on her face except for a thoughtful look. Didn’t there used to be an old saying about keeping the same face for a long time? Y’know, I guess it is possible that her face is frozen. I mean, it takes some serious talent and dedication to hold the same face for an hour and a- “Turn into a bunny.” “…what?” Did I hear her correctly? She wants me to… in front of her? I’m not even sure how it works yet! “Um… why, exactly?” “I want to see you as a bunny,” she replies simply. “Then I’ll believe you.” “Uh… sure thing, Flutters,” I tell her, even though I really don’t know how to use the, er, ‘powers’, if they can even be defined as much. Should I try the changeling approach? I close my eyes, focus inwardly, and imagine myself as a rabbit. I practically scream ‘rabbit’ mentally only to open my eyes and not see any difference. I see Fluttershy, still waiting patiently. I nervously face her. “I don’t exactly know how to do it yet,” I admit. Her ears droop a bit. “I think I’ll need more time before I turn into a rabbit, Flutte-“ My sentence is cut short as I feel cramps across my body causing me to collapse to the ground. The room grows around me and I struggle to think of what the hell is happening to me, until I realize I’m turning into a rabbit. Managing to quickly glance at my hoof, I see it shrink into a white paw as my eye catches a tide of white fur crawling across my body. I feel the urge to vomit as my center of gravity shifts and, finally, all bad sensations dissipate until I’m left as a tiny bunny one tenth the size I was ten seconds prior. Loyalty never mentioned this part of the deal! I look up and see Fluttershy and, even though I feel like I’ve gone through hell, the look on my friend’s face is just about the funniest thing ever. It’s saying both “my friend is a rabbit” and “I could have sworn the field of science existed”. Standing up, I present my body to Fluttershy in a little stance and say to her finally, “Ta da!” OOF! My entire little body compresses as she swoops me up in a hug. “Ohhh, you’re so CUTE!” she says during a high-pitched squeal-fest. “Nngh! Flutters? Smaller lungs, remember?” I get out in the middle of gasping breaths. “Oh, sorry, Rainbow,” Fluttershy apologizes while letting go of me. “Thanks,” I say brusquely before I realize something. “Wait, you can hear me?” I say in shock and, sure enough, she nods happily. “But alternate universe-you couldn’t understand me!” “I didn’t know who to listen for,” she responds, only confusing me further. Whatever; I could never place exactly how her animal talent all works. She continues, amazed, “So you just say an animal and then you change forms?” I immediately go to correct her only to realize I’m not sure how I changed. What Fluttershy said makes the most sense, though. “I guess so!” I say back. Fluttershy has always been exceptionally observant. I, too, make a revelation: there’s only one rabbit in the room right now. “Where’s Angel?” I ask. “He normally came with you all those mornings.” “When I heard the blast, I left him at home in case it was dangerous here,” she explains while I fend off her attempts to hug me again. “Hold on, Dashie.” Fluttershy says after giving up the effort to hold me again and trots over to the kitchen and opens my fridge. I want to tell her she should have asked before rummaging through my drawers but don’t feel in the most authoritative position right now. She races back with something in her hoof as she lays it in front of me. “Here you go!” She gleefully chirps. She brought… a carrot? I think that’s what it is. I pick it up in my paws—still not comfortable with having apposable digits nor being this small compared to a carrot—and take a bite off of it. “Mmm…” I audibly say in delight. Fluttershy must have put some spices on this or something because this is divine! Well, for a carrot. I scarf the rest of it down and toss the leaves aside. “Flutters! What did you put on this?” My enthusiasm confuses her. “Oh, um, it was a carrot.” Fluttershy informs me. I blink. That wasn’t a carrot; a carrot tastes like dirt! “Why did it taste so good?” “Well, rabbits like carrots-“ she point a hoof at me “-and you’re a rabbit!” I think about it for a second, and feel a little weird. I’m not actually a rabbit, I just sort of… became one for little bit. If I’m a lion, I’m not going to have an appetite for meat, am I? “What was your favorite animal to be?” My friend snaps my attention back to reality. “I always wanted to be a flying squirrel.” Pondering her question for a second, I immediately reach an answer. “Well, the first thing I became was the best! I looked just like a dragon!” Shit. I realize my mistake too late, grasping my stomach as my body does internal gymnastics. God dammit, the last thing I want to turn into right now is a dragon! I close my eyes from the overwhelming amount of pressure I’m undergoing and when I open them just a split second later I find myself much closer to matching Fluttershy’s height, even surpassing it after a few moments. My fur seems to melt away revealing scales underneath and my tail painfully changes from a puffball to a that of a reptilian’s and, after a few huffs of air to regain my energy, I’m left as a dragon. I turn to Fluttershy in time to see her creeping slowly towards the door. “Wait!” I yell, but since my volume level isn’t controlled she lets out a little eep! as she hides behind her tail. “Flutters, you know it’s me!” I try to reassure her, but she’s still shaking. “Um, uh, I- I-, just need to g- go fetch Angel!" She gives her excuse and an uncharacteristically large grin to go along with it, then bolts out the door. Though I sigh in defeat, I do catch the shout she gives as she rockets away. “I’ll be back at 3:00!” I glance at the sun through a window and realize it’s not even noon. I figure I should change back to being a pony before the mailmare or someone else sees me. “Uh… pony!” I say, feeling silly. Barely having time to process the changes, I transform into a pony again. Once again, it feels somehow strange as I hold my arm up and can’t separate my hoof into individual digits. I slump my body against the wall and sigh. Right before I decide to go back to bed, I… I don’t know if ‘sense’ is the right word, but I come to notice a second presence in my head. [Dash!] I hear the voice of Loyalty in my head. Freaky. How do I reply? “Uh… hi!” I say out loud [This is Loyalty speaking. I had to leave before I could finish what I was saying, so I made base in your head.] I guess I’m supposed to just accept what she said, but it’s hard to. “How is it in there? I probe her for more information, because her “being inside my head” truly mystifies me. [Surprisingly empty,] Loyalty remarks [You went to school, right?] “Alright, shut up!” I get a little annoyed. “What were you going to tell me?” I can hear her giggling, though she recovers quickly. [I was going to tell you how to change form, but you already figured it out.] Loyalty is silent for a moment. [I saw what you did,] she says at last. “What I did?” I repeat. It makes sense that she would know how I handled the encounter with Fluttershy, but what would be comment-worthy? [You told the truth to your friend. It was very adult of you; Honesty would be proud.] I blink. I guess I do have the reputation to lie, especially to somepony that seems to know a lot about me. “I don’t know what it is,” I tell her. “I guess I just have put a lot of trust into Fluttershy over the years. We’ve known each other for such a long time that I feel okay with telling her everything.” I smile. “I’d like to think the feeling is mutual.” In an instant, I feel a sensation wash across my body. Only, this time, it isn’t as painful—I don’t think I’m changing at all. Warmth and a slight glow spread from the ground up my leg and into my mane where I feel a rush of energy. I’m lifted into the air by an unknown force and when I meet the ground again, I step to a mirror and gasp in awe. My mane… the blue! It’s back! My mane is partly colored! I think I finally get it; this whole ordeal isn’t a punishment, it’s a chance for me to correct my awful tendencies. Somehow, even though I still have five colors left to get, I’m confident that I can get back to being a good pony. “Loyalty! I got my blue streak back!” I say as I turn around in a circle, trying to catch glimpses of it. I feel like I could burst with excitement. [Do you know what you need to do next?] Loyalty asks. I stand tall an proclaim confidently, “I’m going to get my Element back!”