//------------------------------// // II. Brain.exe has stopped // Story: In Lumine Lunae // by ParaNomaly //------------------------------// “-et on the fucking point!” John yelled into his mic in frustration. His pleas went unanswered, as over time quickly ran out and resulted in a loss for his team. “Fuck this game!” He threw his mouse forward and slammed a fist into his desk, shaking it in the process. “It's only one game, stop being a crybaby.” He heard Bill calmly say through his headset, which only served to increase his frustration. “I’m more ticked off at the fact that it was an easy fuckin’ win! But no! Let's all just wander away from the point like brainless twats!” John cursed as he leaned back and ran a hand down his face. He really hated and loved competitive games at the same time. Ninety percent of the time it only provided him with stress, frustration, and anger issues. But he kept coming back to them. “Right. Because that totally doesn't include you, you-” Bill was abruptly cut off as his monitor and lights suddenly all went off, the idle hum of his PC following suit a split second later. John was left to blankly stare at his monitor for the next five seconds, before sighing and reaching over to his phone. “A power outage? That's just fantastic. Haven't had one of those in a while…” He murmured as he grasped his phone and looked at the hour. “Six-ten already?” He asked himself in surprise. Time sure did fly by quickly went you're entertained. Shaking the surprise off, he navigated to the Discord app and looked for Bill. Once he had found him, he began to swiftly type what caused him to abruptly disconnect. It didn't take him long to finish the message and hit send. Hopefully, the bastard hadn't continued to play and actually won a game without him. They were always a bit competitive over who had the higher rank. Just a bit. His thoughts came to a halt as he heard the doorbell ring. Normally, he wouldn't have heard it all the way from his room, but with the lack of noise, it was clear as day for him. With a groan, he set the phone down on the desk as stood up and kicked his swivel chair away from under himself. “Better not be another guy trying to sell me some random crap.” If it was, it would have been the third time this week someone tried to sell him something. It was annoying, to say the least. “Coming!” he shouted as he opened his bedroom door and quickly made his way down the stairs, finishing it off with a quick slide along the railing for added finesse. He reached out for the doorknob and twisted it once he was within range, slowly pulling it open before stopping himself. “Hold on…” He muttered and got closer, peeking through the small little viewport most doors possessed. Everything seemed normal enough. The guy behind the door was well dressed and carried a briefcase with him. A cheery expression adorned his face. He didn't seem like a robber. Although it was a bit suspicious that a salesman would come along this early, now that he thought about it. Cautiously, he slowly pulled the door open and peeked his head out to look at the man. “Good morning?” John asked. Unfortunately for him, it seemed fate had other plans in store, because as soon as he said those words, his entire vision began to distort and black out. He barely had time to let go of the door handle as he fell backward and faded into unconsciousness. Pain. As soon as he regained consciousness, that's all he felt. An excruciating pain shooting through his entire body. If he had to guess, it reached levels of being burnt alive. He tried to scream, but couldn't find his voice no matter how hard he tried. After a few failed attempts, he resorted to flailing around in hopes that the pain would go away. As if heard by the gods themselves, the pain began to subside rapidly until it completely left his body, leaving him breathing heavily with beads of sweat running down his forehead. “Ugh… Bloo-” He stopped himself upon finally regaining and hearing his voice. There was something off about it. It sounded too… High and feminine to belong to him. He pondered it for a few seconds before shaking it off as him imagining things. He must have hit his head too hard on the floor, is all. “Fuck me… What the hell was that?” Attempting to ignore his new, concussion-induced voice, he brought a hand to his face and attempted to rub his forehead to ease the coming headache. That was what he had in mind if what touched his forehead was actually his hand. Instead, he felt something hard touch the intended target. “What the…?” He lowered his 'hand’ down to his face to inspect it, unaware as to why it had suddenly turned into a solid block. Somewhere deep within his mind, fire spread throughout a heavily staffed compound. Miniature versions of John ran around in all directions. Some were screaming, others carrying papers, and a few actually tried to put out the many fires that lit up desks and file cabinets alike. “What the hell are we looking at?!” a John wearing a military uniform yelled as he slammed his fists on the table in front of him. “W-well, we are led to believe that it's a… hoof. It commonly belongs to equin-” a more nerdy John with a scientist outfit began, but was cut off by Military John. “I don’t fuckin’ care who or what it belongs to! I want to know how we get rid of it!” Military John snarled as he slammed his fist on the table once more. Before anyone else could respond, another John wearing a worker’s uniform slammed the door open. “We’re having a meltdown! All Johns for themselves!” He ran out screaming right after, and many more followed suit. As his brain imploded, John could do nothing but stare at the dark blue appendage that stood before him. A quick glance downwards revealed that his entire body resembled the cartoonish look of his not-hand. It took him a full thirty seconds as his brain tried to process this information. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he moved his 'hand’ away from his face and stared forward at the front door, which had been mysteriously closed after had fallen unconscious. He lifted his new appendage back up again and stared at it for a few more seconds. “Okay, this is… I think I hit my head way too hard. Yeah, that's it. I just need to call for help before I die or something…” He tried to reassure himself as he tried to stand up on two legs. He did manage it, but due to his new anatomy, the result wasn't pretty. Almost immediately, he stumbled to the side and into the living room, failing to maintain his balance and falling over the couch and onto the table on the other side, slamming his face directly into it. To his eternal gratitude, it didn't seem to hurt very much. He fully expected to break his nose, but that thankfully didn't happen. It did hurt though. “Son of a fucking cunt!” he cursed loudly as he tried to pick himself up and lifted his face away from the impact zone. As he did so, he noticed another new thing about his body. The presence of two large, equally blue wings sprawled out on both his sides. On any other occasion, he'd comment on how pretty they looked. But it currently served to fuel the panic and confusion brewing inside of him. “I… What the fuck?” His voice trembled slightly as he began to realize the scope of his current situation. It all felt and looked so real. The pain, movements, and his environment. He knew what lucid dreams and common dreams, in general, felt like, and this definitely wasn't it. Panic began to overtake him as he attempted to distance himself from the new limbs, only to have them follow him. It only worsened his state as he began to hyperventilate. “What the fuck… Fuck! What's going on?!” His breathing became erratic the more he heard his new voice. Normally, it would actually be kind of soothing, but in his current situation, it was anything but. His scramble to try and get away from 'his’ wings led him directly to the TV, which he turned to face once his head bumped into it. He stared at the reflection for what felt like an hour, taking in every little detail of its cartoonish look. It was like a horse… no, a pony was staring back at him. His new teal eyes bore a hole into his soul as he looked into them, fear and panic evident in them. The drastic change in species wasn't the only thing that looked unreal. The long, ethereal-like deep blue mane that seemed to wave in a non-existent wind and the near foot long horn resting above his forehead only served to distance his new body from his human one even more, if such a thing was even possible at that point. Upon closer look, little stars twinkled in and out of existence within it, giving it a space-like look. With a shake of his head, John managed to snap out of his shock at seeing his reflection and backpedaled away from it, his back hitting the table, eliciting a pathetic whimper from him. What in the actual living hell of fucking shit is happening?! This is definitely not normal! He barely got out of bed an hour ago and already his entire weekend was not only possibly ruined, but he most likely suffered major head trauma. And even that was one of the more favorable outcomes. He shuddered to think if what was seeing was actually real life, and not some weird hallucination. “Okay! Okay, I just need to… calm down.” He took numerous deep breaths and exhales as he tried to recompose himself. It was harder said than done. With a shaky… er, hoof, he slowly tried to stand up again, now on all fours instead of upright. His previous misfortune served as a lesson not to try that again. After managing to stand up, he glanced around and tried taking a step forward towards the TV. Walking proved to be a lot harder than he imagined it would be. He had originally guessed it would be similar to getting on your knees as a human and doing it that way, but that was completely thrown out the window as he miscalculated his first step, ending up almost falling again if it wasn’t for his wings subconsciously shooting out and balancing him, helping him regain his balance. He blinked and looked back at them. That was odd. Were they supposed to do that? Shaking his head, he focused back on trying to walk. It was helping take his mind out of the absurdity of it all. There he was, in his living room as a weird pegasus-unicorn hybrid learning how to walk. If that wasn’t one of the most ridiculous things that have happened to him, he had completely forgotten the others. With shaky breaths, he managed to take his first few steps, albeit with the constant support of surrounding objects, but hey, progress was progress. “God, what kind fucking drug am I on…” he muttered as he stared at his reflection in the TV once more, taking in 'his’ features for the second time. It did nothing to soothe his mind, which continued to debate with itself whether the situation he was in was even real or not. “It sure fucking feels like it.” He shook his head and brought a hoof up to his face, making sure to move his other one closer to the center, stopping him from losing his balance again. Bringing it closer to his face, he squinted his eyes and examined it. It certainly didn't look like any hoof he'd seen before, and he had worked with horses back when he was still living on a farm. It looked more… Sleek and cartoonish, with the fur seemingly covering it completely, and even the underside was colored the same shade of blue. It definitely looked a lot more appealing than normal horse hooves, but still somewhat unnatural looking. Setting down his new appendage, he began to repeat the process of breathing in and out. It served to calm him down marginally, but he was still having a hard time wrapping his head around it. “Okay, first things first…” He rubbed his throat and cleared it, not used to hearing that voice come out of his mouth. “Assuming this is real, and I'm not currently suffering from massive head trauma… What the hell do I do now?” He had zero clue on what to do next. Relearning how to walk would be a good option or… Before he could come up with something else, a sharp pain penetrated his skull, where his new horn was. It faded almost as quickly as it came, but the pain caused was enough to leave him slightly dizzy. “Fuck! My fuckin’ head…” He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. Now would have been a good time for some aspirin, if he hadn't given his last ones to Bill a few days ago. “Wait a second… Bill! Maybe he can help me!” It was unlikely, but he was willing to take any help no matter how small at that point. But… How the hell was he going to get up the stairs? “I can barely walk as it is, but to hell with it, maybe if I fall again I'll hit my head hard enough to turn back into a human again.” He grumbled and looked down at his hooves. This was not gonna be easy. Shakily, he began to take awkward steps out of his living room and to the stairs next to it. It took a lot of patience to pull off, and he almost fell more times than he could count, but after four painstakingly slow minutes, he had finally reached the base of the stairs. Looking up at the top, he silently cursed and began his trek up what might as well have been Mount Everest. He gave up midway and used the railing to get to the top faster and avoid falling down like an idiot and hitting his head again. God knows what that would produce. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he let out a sigh of relief, bringing his 'hoof’ up to his eyes and rubbing them. That turned out to be a not-so-great idea even with his eyes closed, as they seemed to be a lot bigger than his previous ones, eliciting a flinch from him. “Fuckin’ hell…” He shook his head and blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the discomfort. Grunting in irritation, he turned his attention to his bedroom door at the end of the hall. His eyes narrowed at his target before glancing down at his hooves. ”Okay, I can do this.” He mentally reassured himself as he began to take careful steps towards his goal. With every step he took, he began to feel more comfortable as he built up a rhythm. Granted, it could have been easily broken, but that problem didn't surface within the small space he had to cross. ”Thank god I didn't close the door, that would have been a nightmare and a half,” he thought as he pushed the door open and slowly stepped into his room. The sun’s rays shined through the window and illuminated the interior of the room enough so he could safely navigate it without fear of tripping over something. He really should have gotten around to picking up all the clothes on the floor earlier. He spotted his phone on the desk, right where he had left it. A quick glance to the side confirmed the presence of his chair as well. Adding two and two together, he quickly figured that he was going to have to use both of his 'hooves’ to try using the phone. With that in mind, he carefully, and a bit awkwardly took a seat and pushed himself towards the desk until his chest met the edge. He didn't want to fall on his ass like an idiot, after all. “Okay. Now, how the fuck…” He trailed off as he tried picking up the phone. It was definitely a good idea to not try it while standing up, as even with both of his new appendages, he couldn't pick the damn thing up. After five minutes of failure, he cursed silently in frustration and decided to use the phone while it rested on the desk, instead of trying to hold it. Slowly, he turned it on and used the tip of his hoof to swipe upwards, hoping to unblock it. Following a few failed attempts, he let out a sigh of relief as he managed to get it to work. Thank Christ he didn't have a password, otherwise, he'd be up shit creek without a paddle. He looked down at the phone once more and tapped the screen numerous times until he was able to navigate to the contacts list. Bill appeared at the top of the list, thankfully. So he didn't have to try and scroll down to look for him. Sparing a few more taps, he was rewarded with the sound of his phone ringing. As it did so, he stopped to think. How the hell was he supposed to convince Bill he had turned into a bloody fucking horse out of nowhere? If he was in his position, he'd either figure that Bill was kidnapped, or he was playing a prank on him. Neither of those worked in his favor. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard Bill through the phone. “Hello? John? You finally got power back yet or what?” he said, his voice carrying trace amounts of annoyance. John bit his lip slightly as he thought of what to say. Seconds later, he finally answered, albeit hesitantly. “Er… Bill. Look, this is John speaking. This is going to sound fucking nuts, but... I'm not a human anymore.” Wow. He really knocked it out of the fuckin’ park with that one. Silence followed his sentence as Bill most likely tried to comprehend what he had just heard. Eventually, John heard him laugh. “Yeah, and I'm the Queen's concubine. Is this John's girlfriend or somethin’? Put him on, I want to talk to him.” Not a great start, but could have been worse. John's mind tried to come up with a way to convince him that he was the one talking. Not one was worth even attempting, but… “Fourth of April, twenty fourteen. We took a trip to America and went camping for a while. Me, you, Brian and Jack. It was almost night out as they set up the tent while we had gone off to get wood. You were so afraid to be alone out there, you ended up sh-” He was cut off by Bill once more, who shouted at him. “Okay, okay! Don't remind me! But only me and John know about… did he tell you? I swear I'm gonna…” It was John's turned to cut him off. “Listen you twat, I am fucking John! I'm not bullshitting you for God's sake! I'll yell out every fuck up you've done if I have to convince you!” Bill stayed silent for a brief time before responding. “Okay, right. I'll humor you. What do you want, 'John’.” He made sure to emphasize the sarcasm towards the end. Bastard. Sighing, John calmed himself down and lowered his voice. “Look, I don't know what happened. Once second I was answering the door after the power went out, the next I'm waking up on the floor in a completely different body. It sounds insane, but you have to believe me! I'm not lying!” “Uh huh… What do you want me to do, then?” Shit. What did John want him to do? “Can you swing by my place? Preferably within the next hour. I'm telling you, I'm not lying. Come and see for yourself!” He heard Bill sigh on the other end, the squeaking of his chair audible even through the call. “Alright, I'll come by. It's stopped raining anyway. But if this is some sort of joke…” he warned. “I swear on all that is holy that I'm not lying,” John reassured him. “I'll be there within half an hour.” With that, he hung up, leaving John alone once more in his room. John sighed as he leaned back in his chair and brought his hoof up to run it through his hair. It was an old habit that he commonly used in times of frustration or anger. He stopped as soon as he felt his new hair, however, now remembering what he had seen in the reflection. “Oh, right…” he murmured as took hold of the wavy mane and moved it in front of him to get a better look. It was definitely odd-looking. If he didn't know any better, he would have guessed it wasn't even real. The miniature stars within it gave off an enchanting glow that made it hard not to stare in awe at their beauty. It looked like he had a part of space as his hair. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something below him nearly identical to his mane. It had the same characteristics and everything. Reaching down, he gave it a quick tug and confirmed his suspicion. “A tail. Why not. Can I have magic while we're at it?” he muttered as he turned his attention upwards at the ceiling, staring at it with an empty expression. Everything seemed too surreal. He wasn't even sure why he wasn't freaking out still. Maybe it was the idea that he was still unconscious, and the entire thing was but a mere figment of his imagination. The reason his brain decided to turn him into a cartoon horse of all things was lost to him, but he could still hope. Time seemed to stop at his mind swirled with conflicting thoughts and emotions. What now? Obviously, he would wait until Bill got here, but he didn't really think much farther ahead. If he managed to convince him that he was indeed John, what could he do to help? Going to the authorities didn't seem like an appealing idea. He didn't want to be taken off to some lab and experimented on. He shuddered at the thought of what they might do to him if he turned himself in. Maybe nothing would happen, and he’d live the rest of his life as a celebrity or something. But then there's the possibility that he'd end up dissected for science. Maybe he should hold that thought off for later. “Wait, speaking of…” He trailed off as he refocused his vision and glanced down between his legs. The sudden realization came crashing down on him as the added two and two together. His new voice, body shape, hair… it didn't belong to a guy. Or whatever passed as a guy in whatever species he was a part of now. That would mean… His hoof slowly lingered down between his legs in search of the little guy. Maybe there was still a chance that the area wasn't as affected, maybe… He definitely reached his destination, but his hoof quickly retreated back up upon making contact. Unbeknownst to him, a small blush formed on his cheeks as he held his hoof to his chest and looked away. “Fucking hell, that confirms that…” Great, now he wasn't even a guy anymore. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't even smack the old joystick like old times. Well, he has always wondered how it would feel if he was a girl instead. There's that, at least. Before he could proceed to do anything else, he heard his doorbell ring. Was Bill here already? How much time had he been staring at the ceiling for? “Coming!” he yelled, hopefully loud enough to be heard as he stood up from his chair and began to slowly walk back to his door and into the hallway. Fuck, how was he supposed to get down the stairs? He hadn't even mastered how to walk properly, let alone get down a flight of stairs without serious injury. He didn't really have a choice though. He stared down the stairs for a few seconds, figuring out the best strategy for getting down without tripping and giving himself a concussion. “Ah, fuck it. Whatever doesn't kill me just makes me stronger.” True or not, he didn't see any other way to get down, unless… “Bill! The door’s open! You can come in!” he shouted. Hopefully, Bill could help him get down without having to get himself hurt like an idiot. He heard Bill try to jimmy the knob open a few times, but seemed to give up after a couple of tries. “It's locked.” He replied in a somewhat monotone voice. John blinked a that, Bill wasn't the type to show such little reaction most of the time. Maybe it was just his cold. Brushing it off, John cursed silently. It looked like he really didn't have any other choice. He took his first steps down without much difficulty surprisingly. The second set proved to be more challenging as he became more aware of his situation, causing unease to rise up in his chest. Tragedy struck, however, as he stopped and brought his hoof up to grip the railing. He had miscalculated where he needed to but his other hoof to maintain balance and ended up losing it, resulting in him being sent tumbling down the remainder of the stairs. “Fuck!” He cursed out loud numerous times as he fell down, trying to desperately grip onto something to stop his descent. He instead found himself at the bottom of the stairs, belly up with his wings sprawled to the sides. He gazed up at the ceiling with an empty look for a few seconds before making an attempt to get up. Surprisingly, he didn't look or feel hurt at all from the fall. He was sure he'd at least get a bruise, but a quick glance at his body told a different story. Standing up, he gave himself a final glance before turning his attention towards the door. Oddly, Bill hadn't commented on the sudden ruckus. Strange. ”He can tell me why later, now I just have to prove that I'm not lying." John thought as he shook his head and took a few careful steps towards the door, stopping when he was within arms reach. Remembering his previous mistake, he made sure to properly balance himself before reaching over to the doorknob and gently twisting it open. Surprisingly, it seemed a lot easier to do than he had previously thought. Friction, maybe? As soon as he could, he pulled the door open, expecting his friend to be on the other side. “Bill? Look-” His breath got caught in his throat as he laid eyes on what was on the other side of the door. Some sort of… chimera-type creature stood there with a wide smirk. It looked like it was wearing a strange looking aviator’s suit with a glowing blue device on its chest. It held in both paws a pair of vaguely familiar looking guns, that were currently pointing right at him. “Cheers, luv!” John barely had time to let out a manly scream before a cloud of smoke enveloped him. His consciousness started to leave him rapidly as he began to cough and backpedal away from the door. It served him little, as his face soon met the ground and his vision turned dark for the second time that day. Before he was completely under, he heard what he assumed was the weird creature say something. “The cavalry's here!”