With one, final cut, Zack removed the last of the bread crust from his sister's, Brianna's, sandwich and ate it so it wouldn't go to waste. Then, after cutting the sandwich down the middle, he placed the knife in the sink, picked up the plate that the sandwich was on, and left the kitchen with his sister's lunch.
While walking through the dining room, which separated the kitchen from the living room, he could hear his sister's favorite show still playing on the television. He heard the distinct voice of Pinkie Pie, but he didn't care enough to discern what she was saying. When he heard his sister speak next, however, he had to wonder why. She wasn't allowed to use any phone on her own, since she was only six years old, and he would have noticed if she had gone to her room to get something to play with.
He found out what was going on when he entered the living room, where he saw the impossible taking place: Pinkie Pie, a fictional, cartoon character, sticking out of the television screen. From an extended hoof dangled a pendant on a necklace, which hung above his sister's cupped hands. He couldn't help stopping his forward motion as his mind became a whirlwind of thoughts and his eyes tried to help him decide if what he was seeing was real or not.
Pinkie Pie noticed him right away, who waved her free foreleg exuberantly and merrily greeted, "Hiya!"
When the plate in Zack's hand slipped from nerveless fingers, Pinkie Pie zipped over in a cartoon-like fashion to catch it, leaving the pendant to drop into Brianna's hands. Her outstretched body ended up balancing on the back of the sofa to accomplish the feat, and her sudden action made Zack jump away out of reflex.
"Phew!" Pinkie Pie breathed out, who proceeded to wipe her brow. "That was close!"
"Nice save, Pinkie!" Brianna praised, who hurried around the sofa so she could get her lunch. Once she had secured it, she looked up at her brother questioningly and asked, "What's up with you?"
"What's up with me?" Zack managed to respond through his shock, without thinking, as he regarded his sister with an incredulous expression.
Brianna rolled her eyes before standing with one arm akimbo and giving him a "I thought better of you" look. "Don't be rude. Say 'hi' back to Pinkie."
Zack was still too overwhelmed by the situation, and flabbergasted by how blase his sister was behaving, to succeed in doing more than open and close his mouth silently.
Pinkie Pie hopped down from the back of the sofa, placed a reassuring hoof upon Brianna's shoulder, and confidently said, "This is a common reaction, so let me handle this."
She stepped up to Zack, inhaled in a very long and comical fashion, then began to bombard him with information without pause. "I've been aware of humans watching us for a really, really long time, but I didn't have the time or opportunity to do anything meaningful about it until recently. So, now I'm creating a network with your televisions, through which you can communicate and travel, for the sake of arranging and attending parties. Why? Because parties are fun and it looked like many of you needed some. I've been doing a bunch of other things, too, because I'd feel bad if I left some of you out, but that's been my main priority."
While Pinkie Pie panted and caught her breath, Zack looked at her with disbelief and asked, "Did you just info dump me?"
Grinning cheekily, Pinkie Pie countered, "Yup! Now you're not confused and afraid of the unknown, right? That's like eating three cupcakes with one bite!"
"Three...?" Came Zack's baffled reply, in lieu of futilely trying to save face by arguing against his visceral reaction to seeing a fictional, cartoon character coming to life.
"Three," Pinkie Pie unhelpfully confirmed, before sneaking a wink at the reader.
With a huff of impatience, Brianna marched up to her brother, after placing her lunch on an end table, and shoved the pendant necklace into one of his hands. "Here. Wear this."
"Why?" He asked suspiciously, before raising the pendant into view and inspecting it. He didn't know what the clear, teardrop pendant was made of, but he had sat through enough episodes of Friendship is Magic, while babysitting his sister, to recognize that the blue balloon inside of it was probably connected to the pink pony standing nearby.
"That'll turn you into a pony," Brianna casually replied.
Zack's brow furrowed with confusion as he stared down at his sister. "Why don't you wear it, then? You're the one who likes this stuff."
Brianna regarded him as if he were an idiot. "Why would I want to be a pony 'cause I like the show they're in?"
"What makes you think I want to be a pony, then?" Zack countered.
Brianna tucked her clasped hands underneath her chin and looked up at her brother with puppy dog eyes. "Because you love me?"
While Zack expressed that he was unamused by her attempt to coerce him, Pinkie Pie decided to interject and helpfully supply, "It's totally reversible, so don't worry!"
Zack turned to her and said, "That's not—"
"Pleeeeeeease?" Brianna interrupted, with a hopeful expression on her face.
Zack switched his gaze between her and Pinkie Pie's smiling visage a few times before becoming exasperated and throwing his arms into the air. "Okay, fine; I'll do it." He pointedly looked at his sister as he added, "And you better appreciate it."
Assuming that he had to wear the necklace for it to do its thing, he hesitated before pulling it over his head and settling it around his neck. When nothing happened, he remained tense as he said, "So, uh... How does this work?"
"Just will it to happen!" Pinkie Pie happily informed him. "That's how you turn back, too — and you don't even need the necklace for that!" Perking up upon remembering something, she added, "Oh, yeah! The pendant only carries one charge. If you want to use it again, simply recharge it with laughter. A yellow balloon means it isn't charged... And a blue one means it is!"
After what Zack had experienced already, he wasn't about to question how laughter could act as a form of energy. Instead, since he saw his sister watching him expectantly, he gathered the nerve to activate the pendant. When he succeeded, both it and his body glowed white, until neither could be seen. When the pendant's light faded away, revealing a yellow balloon, the silhouette of his body began to shift into a different shape. His dwindling height was the first notable change to take place, as his body's length became more parallel with the floor. The next notable change came when two legs became four. Then, in the final seconds of the transformation, before the glow left his body and revealed his new form, the distinct shape of a horn poked out of his new mane.
Before he could see himself, let alone mentally prepare himself to do it, his sister squealed and collided against him in her excitement to hug him, which nearly sent them both toppling to the floor. "Oh my god, you're a girl pony! You're the best!"
Zack stiffened upon hearing that. "I'm a... Wha—!?"
While he was stunned by his new voice, Pinkie Pie reached out of everyone else's view, leaning to a degree that most ponies would question the reality of, and pulled a large cheval mirror in front of Zack despite the fact that they didn't have such a mirror in their house. "Here ya go!"
Zack's mind hadn't been given a chance to keep up with events and really expect what he would see in the mirror, yet it somehow hadn't been unexpected — shocking, but not unexpected. The unicorn mare in the mirror had a frost blue coat, vivid purple eyes, and wavy, dark teal hair with a glossy, white band running through it. Her physique was tall, svelte and slightly exotic, which — at least to him — put her in the "beautiful" category.
...He couldn't dislike what he saw. Strangely, the image inspired a feeling of relief, and that did a lot to help him suppress a rising desire to freak out. That, and the confusion caused by the aforementioned relief.
When he was finally able to formulate a response to what he was seeing, he asked, "Why... Why am I a girl?"
Brianna glared up at him and inquired, "What's wrong with being a girl?"
"Er..." Zack nervously temporized as he looked away from his sister, not knowing what to say.
Fortunately for him, by that time Pinkie Pie had finished thinking about her answer, after an uncommon display of serious consideration. "We-elllllllll... Twilight said the change is based on one's own expectations and preferences, so the form one takes is both familiar and satisfactory."
Zack returned his attention to his reflection. Now that he was aware of what dictated the change, he could see how he had ended up with his current form. Friendship is Magic was aimed at young girls, after all, and the main characters were all girls, so nothing remotely masculine came to mind when he thought about the show. While he had never really cared for the look of the ponies in general, he could admit that most of the princesses were marginally more attractive in his eyes. Beyond that, he also liked the colors, both alone and together — especially since it didn't look particularly girly.
"Come on," Brianna said as she gave Zack's body a shake, unable to hold back her enthusiasm. "I want to see you do magic!"
Stiffening at the realization that the horn on his head normally wasn't an inert part of a unicorn, his wide-eyed gaze shot to the feature in question, all thoughts about being female banished. In a small voice filled with hopeful disbelief, he uttered, "I can use magic...?"
"Well, duh," Pinkie Pie confirmed good-naturedly before pushing the mirror out of sight, which resulted in a cacophony of crashing sounds that included a loud, drawn-out yowling of a cat. "And on that note," she procured a scroll from out of her mane, pulled it open and held it unnecessarily close to her face, "I'm obligated to inform you that it's mandatory to take magic lessons if you decide to be a unicorn, so you can use it safely and responsibly." She proceeded to toss the scroll over her shoulder, where it somehow managed to land and bury itself within her tail. "As decreed by a certain pony who might have an unhealthy amount of fun being a teacher to humans, as crazy as 'unhealthy fun' sounds."
Zack was hardly paying attention by the time Pinkie Pie finished speaking, as his imagination ran rampant with all the possibilities that magic offered. He wasn't brought out of his reverie until his sister resorted to slapping him on the muzzle, which prompted him to give her a dirty look and ask, "What was that for?"
With her arms crossed, and a look of disgruntled impatience on her face, Brianna asked, "Well? Are you going to take the magic lessons or not?"
Ignoring the "you better not say no" expression on his sister's face, Zack independently decided that he could put up with being a female pony for his sister's sake, if that meant being able to use magic. Not without making it sound like he was being put upon by it, of course. "Alright, fine; I'll do it." Turning his attention to Pinkie Pie, he asked, "When and where do I take these magic lessons?"
Pinkie Pie, unaffected by his affectation, merrily pronked around the sofa and toward the television while saying, "Twilight gives her lessons at her castle." Pausing in front of the television, she looked over her shoulder and continued. "I can take you to her right now, if you'd like, so she can fit you into her schedule."
Since Zack knew that their parents wouldn't be home from their jobs for several more hours, and going to another world made him even more eager to set everything up, he decided to seize the opportunity right then and there. "Sure!"
"Hey!" Brianna shouted, before following her brother around the sofa, who didn't seem to have any trouble walking. "What about me? I want to come, too!"
"No problem-o!" Pinkie Pie reassured her. "Just pick up your lunch and follow me!"
Having forgotten about said lunch, Brianna quickly retrieved it before following Pinkie Pie through the television, who helped her through. Zack would have complained about her rushing ahead of him like that, if he weren't so interested in going himself. Poking his head through the television screen, he saw static noise as far as the eye could see. Directly ahead of him, not that far away, Pinkie Pie had drawn open a portal to a cartoon world, as if what separated the two spaces were fabric.
Giddy with excitement, he smiled and hurried after them.