//------------------------------// // Playing a New Song // Story: Welcome to Batstralia // by Damaged //------------------------------// Language check. Anything wrapped in < > in this chapter is spoken English, everything else is in Equish. Mike was sitting outside, under a tree in her backyard. A pack of batteries filled her little practice amplifier, and she had her big bass guitar across her lap. She watched Pinkie Pie—who was sitting across from her—working her hooves on the strings of the guitar, and tried to mimic the action. Pinkie pulled her hooves up and stuck them over her ears in reaction to Mike's horrible chord. "What are you doing? You have to press down with your frog." When Mike stared at her, she held up her hoof again. "This part. Push it down as far as you can, like you were going to pick something up with it." It wasn't the first time she had been given the instructions. "Hold on, that is only two fingers… finger-like things. How do you press all the strings?" She struggled with her hoof, bringing it under the guitar's neck and pressing down. Another strum, another horrible sound. "Your hoof touched the low B string." Pinkie reached out and teased at Mike's hoof until it wasn't on the offending lowest string of the bass. "It was kinda hard to work it out first, too, but you have to feel for the vibrations." Mike looked at her green hoof, and flexed her frog as much as she could. "No wonder you sounded so terrible at the start." Her hard hoof made a great substitute for a pick, but so far she hadn't worked out a way to slap her bass. Strumming, the chord came out clean, and lacking the horrible buzzing that it had a moment earlier. "Okily dokily. Now put your hoof back on the string and feel for the vibration." Poking at Mike's hoof again, she pressed it down and nodded to strum again. The vibration was tiny, and Mike didn't feel it at first. She strummed again, ignoring the buzzing through the speaker. Closing her eyes, she strummed a third time, and was able to feel the string against her hoof. Everything felt strange with hooves, with most of her nerves being in the frog, but there was apparently some in the hoof itself. Tilting her hoof, she strummed again and felt a rush of excitement. Real magic poured through her, and her hoof danced over the strings while she strummed and plucked. Tilting her head up, Mike looked Pinkie right in the eyes and played her a song. The song had never been heard before, and nor had it been even a tingle in Mike's head, but it was suddenly alive, and Mike was playing. Caught up in the music too, Pinkie Pie laughed loudly, and began playing a rhythm to support Mike's bass. Though neither of them had practiced together to perform, the sound of their guitars fit perfectly together. When the right moment came, Mike brought her cannon down against the bass' strings, rolling her limb back off. She wanted to stop and work out how she has done it, but the music carried on. Again and again she slapped the bass in a way that sounded perfect. The song wouldn't last forever, though, and Mike found herself winding it down. As her strumming slowed, she couldn't keep the smile off her snout. But when she stilled the strings, the bass rumble continued. Pinkie tilted her head to the side in consternation. "How're you doing—" She froze. That is, all of her froze except for her tail. Pinkie Pie's tail curled around in an unusually tight spiral, and started bouncing as if it were a spring. "What's going on?" 'An explosive blast,' Mike reflected, 'sounded nothing like in the movies.' She didn't so much hear the shock wave, as feel it. Rushing pressure in a wave rushed past, and for a second Mike thought it might be over and done. On the heels of the blast, something very different happened. Mike felt like she was turned inside out, then right side back in. A sensation like drowning, then dry, repeated over and over. She gasped as the feeling settled on dry, and left her be. "W-What was that?!" Pinkie could only wave a hoof, pointing at what had been an empty house beside Mike's. "Why is Ball and Ball's mum's house right there?" She lifted her voice, and waved. "Hi Ball!" Ball Clay, when Mike turned to follow Pinkie's directions, had been playing some kind of game in his backyard. When he saw Mike and Pinkie, he galloped over to them. "Hi Pinkie. Hi Mike. I thought you lived on Earth?" Ball pointed to Mike's house, showing surprise that it was right beside his own. "I—I do!" Mike stood up on her "back legs," and looked around. There seemed to be some kind of balloon-like layer hovering in the air between her house and the Clays'. Walking over to it, she lifted one hoof up and reached to it. There was no resistance, and Mike's hoof sank through the layer as easily as Ball had. As pony as she was, she stepped forward, and felt her back scream in an instant of agony. A buzzing started in Mike's head, and shake it as she might she couldn't stop it. The buzzing grew louder by the second, and started to develop into a dull pressure. A rush of release, and Mike felt a pleasant rush of sensation. Pure, golden light bathed the world with its warm light, and Mike couldn't help but laugh in excitement. "MIKE!" Pinkie cupped her hooves before her snout. "YOU'RE DOING MAGIC!" She bounced from side to side, standing on two legs, and cheered wildly for her friend. "I know!" Mike was in awe of the power. It felt just like music, and the moment she made the comparison, it became music. A roaring symphony suddenly played, and Mike was playing every instrument at the same time with her magic. Screaming in joy, Mike danced around as her magic kept roaring from her horn. Pinkie trotted over to Mike, and she shivered as she walked past the same spot Mike had poked earlier. "Tingly!" Seeing Pinkie Pie, Mike was confused at first as she was looking at her friend at the same eye level. "This is amazing, Pinkie Pie!" She lifted one foreleg from the ground and gestured to the floating instruments. "Mmmmaybe you should stop now. You don't want to do too much all at once." Pinkie, however, found herself floating into the air and was suddenly bedecked in a dozen instruments. A huge drum played as she kicked, a harmonica sat to one side of her mouth, and a saxophone on the other. Without hesitation, Pinkie threw herself at the instruments, and was suddenly just playing them all. Mike was having a great time, but she knew she had to stop the magic. Scrunching her face up, she realized suddenly that she had no idea how to stop magic. "P-P-Pinkie?" Relentlessly playing the instruments, or perhaps being played by them, Pinkie Pie managed a glance at Mike as she marched around, a one-pony-band. Mike felt something push at her back legs, and the insistent shove made her stumble forward, back into her own yard. The golden glow of Mike's magic dimmed, and she felt suddenly drained. In another few seconds the light winked out completely, and Mike slumped to the ground in shock. Dizziness flooded Mike, and she blinked up as Pinkie appeared in front of her. "Pinkamena?" She felt a rush of strange sensations, feelings she hadn't ever had before. Her back ached, her legs all tingled, and something deep inside felt really odd. A rumbling in her belly seemed to grow, and before Mike could do more than turn her head, she lost her lunch and breakfast on the grass. Pinkie had just a moment of seeing Mike throw up, before she galloped to the house. "!" She reached the back door, reared up, and tap danced on the wood. "!" "I'm okay, really!" Though Mike protested, she wasn't trying to get up. The world seemed to be moving just a little strangely, so Mike decided to give it a good hug. " 'S really okay…" Mike wasn't aware when her mum had left the house and approached, but Joyce was suddenly there, leaning over her. ". I'm okay!" "She changed all the way?" Joyce's voice held enough shock for everyone present. "." Pinkie Pie waved a hoof in the direction of the Equestrian house. "!" "Pinkie was awesome. fine." Though she protested, Mike knew something really odd had happened, and not just to her. "There's some kind , like a veil." "." Joyce, her hands still hands, reached under Mike and started to lift her daughter. Blinking in surprise at being hefted into the air so easily, Mike felt her pants slip down hips that no longer were built to hold them in place. "My !" She waved all four legs under her, watching her clothing get further away. "Is Mike going to be okay?" Pinkie Pie spoke as if she hadn't noticed she had slipped back into Equish. Without realizing it, Joyce slipped into Equish too. "I am sure it is just having such a sudden change. I wonder at what point internal organs start to change?" When Pinkie Pie rushed forward and opened the back door for her, Joyce smiled. "Thank you, Pinkie." "What's ?" Mike tried to struggle, but her mother had a good grip around her midsection. "All that happened was I used some !" She reached for that golden light, and nothing came except for a few fizzing sparks. "…" "?" Joyce set Mike down on the couch, and quickly departed. Mike barely got a hoof under herself when her mother returned with a bucket. "." "…" Rolling to her side, Mike looked up and waved her aquamarine hooves like she was trying to ride a bike. "I'm not drunk, Mum." "." Joyce brushed Mike's cheek, and trailed her hand up to rub her daughter's ear. She watched as the joyful bliss of an ear-rub almost put Mike to sleep. A loud knocking at the front door stirred Joyce from her focus, and drew Mike's attention too. "Who knocks like that?" Lifting her head, Mike decided Equish was the easier of the two languages she knew. "Go and answer it, Mum, before Pinkie Pie does." "What's wrong with me answering it?" Pinkie glared at Mike, but missed her chance to actually answer the door, when Joyce stood up. "." Joyce headed out of the living room and made her way to the door. "How do you feel?" Making her way slowly across the floor towards Mike, Pinkie Pie was gazing down at the floor, while her mane and tail obviously drooped. "I feel okay." Mike wiggled her hooves at Pinkie until her friend got close enough to pull into a hug on the couch. "And I don't think this was your doing, so you are off the hook this time." The simple act of hugging had come to mean so much to Mike. Friendship was found in a hug, as was the unloading of a whole welter of emotions. Finally, Pinkie started to squeeze back, and Mike could see her mane—at point-blank range—sproing back up. Mike heard her mum urging someone to come inside, and she looked over to the door, only for Joyce to swing it shut. "." Joyce's voice could be heard explaining Mike's situation. "Who are they?" Pinkie Pie drew back from the hug, and followed Mike's gaze at the closed door. Perking her ears forward like Mike, she picked up vague bits of a really technical conversation in English. Mike slid off the couch and walked towards the door. Pony ears, she had discovered much earlier in her transformation, were amazing for locking onto the origin of a sound, but weren't much better than human ears for actually listening to it. She reached the door and leaned her head against it, not realizing it hadn't fully closed. The door clicked as Mike's pressure pushed it closed. Mike started to step back, and as she did the door opened inwards. "!" She backed up further. "." A woman crouched down to get on a closer eye-level with Mike. She was wearing a pair of sturdy looking slacks, a white shirt, and had a silver pendant hanging at her throat. Mike stared for a few moments before she realized that she was probably being seen as a young child. "Uh, hi!" As soon as she said it, Mike realized she had spoken Equish. "!" "Pinkie, what are you doing?" Leaning over, Mike pressed her snout closer to Pinkie, and lifted a hoof to cover her words, as if Dr. Clark would have a hope of speaking Equish. Leaning in for a similar pose as Mike, Pinkie Pie gestured at the doctor. "You're a mare, silly. Anyone who sees you in this world, who doesn't expect you to be male, is probably going to be stuck viewing you as a girl, thanks to the defensive field magic projects ahead of itself." Mike blinked at the explanation. "So… Lyre-a? Lyra?" "That sounds much better!" Pinkie Pie clopped her hooves together. "?" The woman blinked in surprise at the sing-song nature of Equish. "." Mike thrust out a hoof to shake. "?" Elizabeth Clark shook Mike's hoof, not even registering that it wasn't a hand. "!" Grabbing hold of the still-extended hand, Pinkie shook it for all she was worth. "?" Pinkie's eyes got huge, and her smile was as wide as could be. "?" Straightening and stepping back, Dr. Clark stared at Pinkie Pie in shock. Mike could feel an odd tingling on the air, and for just a moment her brain made the leap of insight that it was the veil about to lift. "!" The tension in the air seemed to ease, and Mike gave a sigh of relief. She froze suddenly, realizing that she had actually felt magic, reacted to it, and felt it adjust to her changes. "This is so cool!" "What's that?" Pinkie Pie was easily distracted, and turned her full attention back to Mike. "I could feel when the barrier was flexing. The field that keeps her from seeing us. It was so cool, it felt tight, stretched, and then I reassured her and it relaxed again. Pinkie, I really can feel magic!" Mike bounced on her hooves, excitement stirring Pinkie to do the same. Mike didn't notice when Elizabeth left. The sheer excitement of learning more about magic overwhelmed even the tiredness that her change had caused. But as she slowed with her bouncing excitement, a weary weight seemed to settle over her. "I think I need to lay down again, Pinkie. Maybe even have a nap." "A nap? But it's still early!" Pinkie Pie looked around for something to keep Mike's interest, but nothing was readily to hoof. "Party pooper." "Hey, I just turned into a pony. Cut me some slack!" Mike reached out to Pinkie and pulled her friend into a hug. "You could practice more music?" Hugging back, Pinkie Pie let out a happy sigh. "Oh, your guitar! I'll get that and then go do some practice." She booped Mike on the nose and reached a hoof up to the door. "Wait. We should probably avoid letting them see us." Carefully opening the door, Mike peeked out left and right. "Okay, it's clear." Sneaking out the door, weariness was kept back only by the silliness of her actions. With clip-clopping hooves, she walked three steps before her brain realized what she was doing, and she looked down. The moment Mike thought about what her legs were doing, she fell forward and sprawled on the floor. "What the…" The fall hurt her pride more than anything. Working her legs, she focused on her limbs as she stood up. "Left front…" "Wait." Pinkie Pie reached out and grabbed Mike's raised hoof. "This isn't how you walk. Look up, work out where you want to be." "That's silly. How am I meant to walk without seeing what I am doing?" Turning to look at Pinkie, Mike reached up to boop her back, then fell down without any forelegs supporting her. She grumbled when Pinkie laughed at her. "What?" "You're a silly pony, Lyra." Pinkie Pie booped Mike on the nose again, and helped get her back on her hooves. "Now come on, follow me!" Back on her hooves, Mike lifted her head and tried to do what Pinkie said. She felt for what her hoof was doing, and got another boop on the nose from Pinkie Pie. "Hey! Stop distracting me." "Distracting you is the only way I am going to get you to walk." Pinkie Pie reared up, putting her forehooves on her hips. "Now march!" She led the way, heading for Mike's bedroom. Yawning, Mike took a step without thinking. Then she took another, and more. Watching his friend walk on two legs gave her an idea, but before she could try to walk on her back legs the last thinking part of her brain kicked off a neuron. Mike sighed and let Pinkie Pie lead the way. Mike seemed to blink, and was in front of her bed. "I need to sleep, Pinkie." All she managed to do, however, was slump her head down on the bed. A shove from behind woke Mike enough that she moved with Pinkie's help, not against it. "Into bed, Lyra. Something tells me you will have a big day ahead of you." It was, of course, Pinkie's whole body that was jittering around. Carefully, Pinkie Pie tucked Mike into bed.