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// Opened Eyes 
// Story: Welcome to Batstralia 
// by Damaged 
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Language check. Everything here is in English.



Joyce was already cooking dinner when her children, Candela, and little Misty came home. "In the kitchen!" she called, lifting the vegetables into the oven to bake. When Mike was the first through, Joyce was quick to approach him and pulled him into a hug. "How was school?"

"Aww mum…" Mike made his usual verbal protest, but hugged his mother back. "School was good. I can't believe it, actually…"

"I am actually getting a report from you on how things went?" Joyce was a little shocked at her son, in all his years since prep, he had never once said anything about school that was more than a noncommittal grunt. "This I have to hear. Oh, there's my little muffin." Reaching down with her left arm she pulled Robin into the hug too.

"Mum! Mum! There were so many ponies at school!" Robin practically bounced up and down. "There was Maud, she's really funny, and Pinkamena… their sister is Marble. Oh, oh! And Ball Clay is the same age as me!"

Joyce blinked a little at the information that almost made sense. "Ponies?" She felt a bit confused. "Like horses?" She caught Mike turn to Candela, and a significant look passed between them. "Okay, out with it, what is going on here?"

"Mum, look at Candela." Mike's voice sounded more serious than she had ever heard him. "Really look at her. Now, Candela, flap please."

"Flap?" Joyce felt more confusion, but a moment later she felt a breeze, a strange pulsing pressure of air that was like a big set of wings buffeting her. "What is…" She froze. "C-C-C-Ca—"

"Candela and Misty are pegasi, mum." Mike took her hand, grasping it tight in a way she really needed. "Look at them closely, they are ponies."

"N-N-N—" Joyce's other hand reached out to the woman who had shared her house for a month now. Soft fur was pressed to her fingers, she started to close them a little and feel a snout. "Pony?" The moment she said the word, she felt a pressure drop, like her ears popping. Standing before her, smiling, was the most colorful pony she had ever seen. Lovely yellow fur, with a vivid violet mane and tail, Candela was the strangest sight Joyce had seen in her life. She turned her head a little, and her heart melted. Misty Rainfall wasn't the little tiny girl she had been seeing, she was the cutest little filly, easily supplanting Candela as the strangest thing.

The world seemed to dim a little, Joyce blinked a few times and felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, guide her to a chair. "M-Mike, what is going on? Why did Candela and Misty turn into… little horses?"

"We have always been ponies, Joyce." Candela's voice was the same, but it was so strange for Joyce to see it coming from a pony's mouth. "Something here is making adults see us differently, I promise we aren't doing this on purpose."

"Five," Joyce took a deep breath in, held it, and let it out. "Four. Three. Two…" She repeated the calming trick at each number and then smiled. "Okay, the world isn't spinning anymore." Joyce lifted her hand away from Candela and rubbed her forehead a little—closing her eyes. "So I have been the idiot in all this?" She didn't hold any accusation, she loved her kids too much for that, and liked Candela. Her brain chose then to poke the image of Candela and Misty, as ponies, into the front of her brain.

"You alright, mum?" Mike crouched down. "We're trying this with you, first. I figured out of everyone in town, you're the least likely to freak out that ponies are people too. Besides, mum, look at them."

Joyce turned and looked at her son. Lifting her hand, she rested it across his temple. The droll look he gave her when she "checked if he was alright" was worth her effort. "Okay, it isn't easy to understand exactly, but what is actually going on? I know there is nothing like you on Earth… that came from Earth."

Candela blushed. "I don't really know. We got here through a mineshaft. One second we were in Equestria, the next, there was electric," the mare looked to focus a little at the word, "lights, and humans."

"I think I will have to talk to some people about this." Joyce's mind raced. 'First option, hallucination. If that's the case, I am not sane enough to diagnose myself.' With the first thought crossed off, she pondered further. 'Second option, it's all real, I should accept what my eyes see and there are nice ponies living with us. Not really terrible, and it explains the vegetarian diet.'

"She's thinking, give her a bit more." Mike got up and checked on the oven, then started filling the kettle with water. "Mum always gets like this when she has a big problem on her hands, don't worry about distracting her, can't be done, but she'll be like this until she's happy with how things need to be, and th—"

"Okay." Joyce was aware that her son had been explaining things, but it didn't matter, she had a plan. "Tomorrow I have my first duty to attend to, for the town. But after that I am going to get to the bottom of this, and it all starts in the mine."

"Oh, uh… I'd meant to ask you, mum." Mike started pouring out cups of tea as he talked. "I knew I should ask you first before I do this, so here it is. Can I visit Maud and her sisters, on their farm, tomorrow?"

Joyce's mouth was opening, halfway to telling her son no, when she thought about it. "That… that would be a good idea, a reason for me to head up to the mines. What time were you going to go?"

Mike's excitement was plain on his face, but he managed to school it back to "normal teenager." Passing out cups of tea, he replied, "I was going to head out there in the morning, what were you going to be busy with all day?"

"A bunch of idiots standing out in the summer heat all day long, watching one or two of them hit a little ball around." Joyce's personal philosophy on sport was quite clear. "I just don't get why they don't play a more active sport all year round!"

"Mum, it's cricket. You know, national pastime, have to beat 'mother-England and her colonies,' and all that." Mike took the last cup of tea for himself. "So you're on duty, and when you're done, come to the mine and ask your questions… I will try not to be too late."

Joyce took the moment to sip her tea, the calming herb soothing stress, letting their little plan lock all its details into place. She looked at Candela and saw a wide smile on the mare's face. The little girl in her, that had played with pony toys, that had gotten into both veterinary and human medicine because all she wanted to do was help everything, returned the smile. "Please tell me you will come and keep me and Robin company at the cricket tomorrow?"

"Cricket being the ball game involving two teams, each trying to score the most 'runs,' by hitting a little ball the other team are desperate to interfere with?" Candela surprised Joyce with the question, but the mare got a nod. "Then I would be delighted, so long as you don't leave me there alone. This seems like the sort of thing stallions would flock to."

Joyce felt an instant rekindling of their friendship. "Huh, you got that right. Men." 

"Hey, I happen to be one!" Mike sipped his tea, leaning against the counter. "Hold on, back this up. How did you find out so much about cricket?" He looked at his teacher with more surprise than accusation.

"Misty taught me how to use the computer at the school. I looked it up on Wikipedia. It's great. Like a whole library meant for looking up…" Candela gave a happy little sigh, "everything. And it has pronunciation guides, and I found a proper English pronunciation page!"

Stealing a look at her son, Joyce confirmed that this almost-manic enthusiasm for learning was a surprise to him too. "Well, that's good, Candela. I'd noticed your words were getting better." The tea was almost already gone, Joyce looked into the bottom of her cup mournfully, not spying much more tea. "How much longer do those vegetables have, Mike?"

"Fifteen more minutes, by the oven timer." Mike gulped down his tea and rinsed his cup out. "I'd better go do some homework. My teacher set me up with a pile and I doubt I am ever going to have another day off in my life." He rolled his eyes, grabbed his school-bag, and barely dodged the groans that chased him from the kitchen.

"He is just like a young stallion, so full of himself, wanting to see everything." Candela turned to Joyce. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to his father?"

"He decided that a doctor can find a lot better prospects in a bed-partner, than a trained vet and student of medicine. I can't believe that such an…" Joyce wasn't sure why, but swearing felt wrong around the pony, then Steve's words came back to her, "arsehole, could be the father of two wonderful children. Of course, not that he spent any time helping raise them. It was all 'his' training, and 'his' career. I don't think he realized how hard it was to do all the same things he did, and care for—" She stopped, Candela's forelegs had wrapped around her neck and Joyce couldn't stop herself from hugging the pony back. 

"I am sorry, not all stallions… or men, are like that. Look at Mike, over this week I've watched him fuss and care for a little filly who can barely stand to talk in front of strangers. She was telling jokes in the class, laughing…" Candela gave her human friend a squeeze.

"Is hugging so much a 'pony thing'?" Joyce wasn't complaining, she needed the hug right then. Candela started to pull away quickly but she gave the mare another squeeze. "It's sometimes a human thing too, but I don't think it's often enough. Thank you, I needed that."