“That’s right, Josh, when you move one of your forelegs, you move one of your hind legs at the same time,” Twilight explained, slowly leading the new stallion back through the Everfree Forest, “Remember, all four of your limbs are connected, so you must move in sync to keep yourself balanced and upright.”
“Gee, thanks, Twilight Sparkle,” Josh said sarcastically, moving incredibly slowly as he tried to just imagine himself as a dog while ignoring everything Twilight said, “Now, how about you hold still while I attempt to make a fist with these stupid hooves and show you exactly what I can DO with said fist.”
“Joshy boy, as a pony, ya’ll need to learn the proper way of kickin’ somepony’s flank,” Applejack chuckled, “Use yer hind legs fer that, not yer forelegs.”
“Very well then…get behind me so I can test my kicking power,” Josh smirked, glancing over at the cowpony. Once again, despite his obvious threats and insults, the six ponies surrounding him didn’t seem to be taking him that seriously anymore. They were all still too fascinated by the transformation of the former human and how they would get a chance to show them exactly why they valued friendship and love so much.
After finally saying goodbye to Zecora, the group of six (plus Josh) decided to head back to Ponyville to reacquaint Josh with his temporary home and to maybe make him feel better about himself in his new form. None of the ponies noticed the look that Zecora gave the agitated Josh as he ambled past her; the hint of red on her muzzle and the way her eyes narrowed were rather unusual, even for the zebra. When her seven guests left her hut, Zecora shut the door and stared down at the floor. She muttered something under her breath, then went to go clean up the mess that Josh left behind.
Back on the Everfree Forest path, Josh was still getting used to walking as a pony and not as a human. Sure, during his entire life, he HAD walked on all fours a lot of times for various reasons, but this was far from that. It took him quite a while to get into a rhythm of walking with his four new legs and hooves, but he eventually began to get better at it. However, that was just the start of his uneasiness and the former human’s problems.
“Good, you’re starting to get the hang of walking like a pony,” Twilight smiled, having paid close attention to Josh’s trotting style, “Don’t forget, you also have wings and a horn, too. The only other two ponies in all of Equestria that I know of that has both of those are the princesses. This must be some kind of sign! Can you feel the magic inside of you flowing into your horn?”
“The only magic I feel is the magic of imagination,” Josh growled, “And my imagination is giving me many interesting thoughts on how to torture each of you six annoying horses so that you will forever be sorry for ticking me off. So far, bondage and spanking paddles are coming to mind. Do any of you know where I can find some rope and some small oars?”
“Oh, Joshy, you’re such a kidder!” Pinkie giggled, playfully leaping onto Josh’s back and ruffling his mane, “How about later on I teach you how to make cupcakes?”
“Forget it, Pinkie; I’m taking him for a fly around Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash grinned, “It’ll be so fun to watch him eat my dust, but perhaps the joyous feeling of flying itself will make him stop being so crabby and moody.”
“Oh, but Rainbow Dash, I simply MUST tend to his mane first!” Rarity cried, “He cannot be seen looking like a pony off the streets! Oh, it just simply will not do!”
“Not to mention I feel rather naked without my clothes…” Josh muttered.
“Uh, Joshy boy, we don’t wear clothes normally,” Applejack pointed out.
“Maybe not, but when you’ve worn them your entire life, like I have, you don’t know how weird it feels to not be wearing anything a moment after you discover you’ve been turned into a stupid horse!” Josh snapped, “I really feel like a fish outta water…not really a good feeling.”
“Um…would you maybe like a hug?” Fluttershy asked, glancing at Josh and giving him a warm smile.
“Touch me and you risk serious injury,” Josh snarled, glaring at Fluttershy. However, once again Josh found out that his angry threat wasn’t working as it should’ve been. Instead of Fluttershy getting scared and trying to hide, she just sighed and shook her head.
“Oh, Josh, I’m so sorry…you remind me of this little beaver I met a while back outside my home,” Fluttershy said, “The poor little thing had just been dumped by his girlfriend and was devastated. He was a very mean little boy and tried to take his rage out on everything else around him, but…a little hug and some encouragement was all it took to make him feel better about himself.”
“Not to mention one of your textbook ‘stares’, right, Fluttershy?” Twilight chuckled, giving her fellow pony a gentle pat on the backside. Fluttershy blushed and shyly looked away upon hearing this, but her silence said enough. Josh, however, looked ready to puke again.
“Why did this have to happen to me?” he moaned, staring down at the ground as he walked along, “What did I do to deserve this? Oh, I see, I’m being punished for all my bad deeds. Gee, I’m sorry…I’ve never killed anyone. I’ve never done drugs. I’ve never touched a sip of alcohol. I’ve never raped anyone. I’ve never done ANYTHING to merit such abuse and punishment! WHY is this happening to me?”
“Everything happens for a reason, Josh,” Twilight pointed out, giving the frustrated stallion a gentle nuzzle of affection, “Try to cheer up, okay? Things must get worse before they can get better, you see.”
“And it just so happens that you all start to be nicer to me right after I turn into a pony, right?” Josh frowned, “Don’t you find that just a LITTLE suspicious? If I was still a human, I’d be willing to bet anything that you all would still hate me and want to kick my groin in a few times, too.”
“You’re probably right,” Rainbow Dash snickered, before yelping when Applejack gave her a slap upside the head to make her shut up.
“Joshy, that ain’t true, ya see?” Applejack sighed, “Look, when ya’ll were a human, it was just new to us, that’s all. But, the way ya’ll were actin’ made it harder to try and understand you. We would’ve kept tryin’, really we would…but, now that yer a pony like us, ah think it’s fer the best. This way, you can better understand US…and we can better understand you.”
“Humph…it’s not like it matters anyway,” Josh grumbled, “I didn’t really like my human body…it had so many problems…most of which I will not go into since they’re embarrassing and private. But, all the same, I would’ve sooner jumped off a cliff and stuck my head into a beehive than want to be a stupid, girly pony with sissy wings and a sexual pointy thing that is apparently a horn on top of my head.”
“Well, darling, it happened and you have to live with it,” Rarity sniffed, being firm with Josh, “Whining and complaining about it isn’t gonna help anything or help yourself, so you may as well make the best of what you’ve got.”
“Actually, it CAN help me,” Josh said matter-of-factly, “Allowing me to rage and vent due to my ugly new appearance will let my stored emotions be freed from my body and thus I will not be tempted to keep them locked inside me, since that would lead to me growing more and more pissed by the minute and then I would probably beat your little pony brains out when you’re not looking and that would be a real big mess that I don’t think would be a pretty sight. So, you still think me whining and complaining isn’t going to help? By all means, keep telling me that; it just gets me angrier and makes you six look like even more wonderful punching bags.”
The six surrounding ponies all paused to give Josh looks of fright, annoyance, or amusement, but none of them still seemed to be taking Josh that seriously. After all, if he wanted to hurt them so bad, he would’ve done so long ago. By this point, they were almost entirely sure that his angry words and threats were mainly just bluffs; Rarity even mentioned at one point that she believed that Josh wasn’t the type to hurt a lady. At least not physically, anyway. Until Josh backed up his big talk, the ponies were now trying to just get Josh to relax while pushing his enragement aside.
“…regardless of your anger, Josh, the fact is that you’re a pony and you must learn to live like one while you’re here on Equestria,” Twilight went on, quickly leaping over the same patch of poison joke that Josh had foolishly touched before, “You might want to leap over this stuff this time around, Josh…”
“NO…REALLY, Einstein?” Josh snapped, his voice dripping with obvious sarcasm, “Gee, thank you SO much for telling me that…yeah, I was totally just about to go diving into these wretched blue flowers and start rolling around like a cat on catnip because I am just SO stupid and I have so obviously forgotten what they do. Thank you SO much for sharing your wisdom with me, Twilight Sparkle; what WOULD I do without you?”
“...a little excessive, don’t ya think, Joshy?” Applejack sighed, leaping over the poison joke as she gave Josh an incredulous expression.
“Just as excessive as a bunch of multicolored ponies trying to make me act like a jackass by using these sissy wings and sexual horn,” Josh retorted, awkwardly leaping over the flowers and grunting as he landed on his face, “OW! Stupid body! It won’t listen to a thing I say!”
“Oh yeah, it’s all your body’s fault, right,” Rainbow Dash smirked, mockingly flying in front of Josh and wiggling her butt in his face, “It’s totally not because your anger affected your jumping and it obvious was not because you weren’t paying attention on Twilight’s lecture on how to trot and jump like a proper pony.” As Rainbow Dash had hoped, Josh immediately snarled and tried to swat at the Pegasus, who easily flew out of reach a second later.
“GRRRRR! GET DOWN HERE, YOU WINGED IMP!” Josh roared, desperately bouncing up and down and attempting to swat Rainbow Dash out of the air, “I’M GONNA STRANGLE YOU TO DEATH!” Rainbow Dash, however, made sure to stay just out of Josh’s reach, all the while continuing to mockingly wiggle her rump down at him.
“Nya-nya-nyaa-nynyaaa-nyaaaaa!” Rainbow mocked, sticking out her tongue and making goofy faces down at the stallion, “You can’t catch me, you can’t catch me!” She cast a wink at Twilight and the rest of her friends, who all smiled and returned the wink. Thankfully, Josh was too busy freaking out to really notice the ponies’ secret plan.
“GET YOUR BLUE ASS DOWN HERE SO I CAN KICK IT ACROSS THIS STUPID WORLD RIGHT NOW!” Josh bellowed, continuing to try and jump up and catch the Pegasus, but failing each time as Rainbow Dash simply flew a bit higher with her wings during each of his attempts. It was obvious that Josh was gonna have to use his wings if he wanted to try and catch the naughty tomboy Pegasus, and to do so, he was gonna have to ask POLITELY for help.
When he finally came to the realization that he was gonna have to try and fly, Josh glanced back at his wings and paused. He seriously had no idea what to do. A little over an hour ago, he had been a human. Now, in this alicorn body, he had no idea how to work his other “features”. He muttered something, then grunted and tried to, in the very least, unfold his wings. All he managed to do was make it look like he had a bad itch on his back. The rest of the ponies all giggled while watching the boy struggle.
“Josh, darling…are you sure you wouldn’t like some HELP on how to use those wings?” Rarity giggled, “I mean, it’s SO obvious you want to catch that naughty little Rainbow Dash, but you might need to ask on just what you’re trying to do.”
“Yup, that’s right!” Pinkie smiled, bouncing over and playfully nudging the sweaty stallion, “Ooh, and guess what? It just so happens that Fluttershy has some wings! Maybe you should…ask her for help?” She batted her eyes quickly in front of Josh’s face, giving him one of her famous wide-rimmed grins.
“I…am not…asking…that meek foal…for ANYTHING!” Josh gasped, shoving Pinkie away, “I CAN DO THIS MYSELF!” Despite being tired at straining himself to try and open his wings, he was stubborn enough to keep trying. Pinkie casually picked herself up off the ground and bounced back over to her friends, while Rainbow Dash mockingly sat on a branch in the nearest tree while blowing raspberries down at Josh.
A few more minutes passed, and while Josh DID manage to make his wings twitch and very slightly open up, he was now sweating up a storm and looked ready to faint just from the minimum effort. With each loud raspberry that Rainbow Dash blew down at him, he just got more and more irritated; he desired nothing more than to kick the little Pegasus’ butt. However, when he finally realized that he really had no other choice in the matter, he finally began to suck up his pride.
“…Fluttershy, right?” he growled, slowly turning to look in her direction, “Could you…show me…how the hell these stupid wings work?”
“Um…could you perhaps…say it in a polite way?” Fluttershy asked, giving Josh a warm smile, “I mean, if that’s okay…with you.”
“OH, COME ON!” Josh snarled, “WHY DON’T YOU ASK ME FOR MY BLOOD WHILE YOU’RE AT IT?” However, when he saw the Pegasus tremble and back away from his yelling, he sighed and tried to calm down. “Ugh…Fluttershy, could you PLEASE help me out? I…can’t do it myself…and I really want to teach that Rainbow Dash a valuable lesson on not making me mad. So…PLEASE help me work my wings.”
“Okay, Josh…since you asked so nicely and you have a good reason,” Fluttershy giggled, trotting over to the humiliated stallion and smiling sweetly at him, “Now, what you have to realize is that your wings are a beautiful and amazing part of your body. They are a gift that you should be proud to have. Being able to soar in the skies…to feel the wind rushing through your mane…to be able to sing with the birds…to drift along a snuggly cloud…it’s a magical feeling.”
“Gag me…but go on,” Josh muttered.
“When you feel the love and joy of having your wings, your heart will soar…and thus allow your body to open up your wings,” Fluttershy purred, “That is the first step to being a Pegasus. Now…if you could…try to open your wings…please.” She took a step back and gave Josh an encouraging smile. For a moment, Josh debated on whether to find the nearest cliff and jump off it, or to actually try doing what Fluttershy said. All it took was another glance up in the tree to see that Rainbow Dash was mooning him and slapping her tush with a hoof to get Josh to pick the right choice.
Closing his eyes, Josh grit his teeth and tried to relax his body. He tried as hard as he could to push all negative thoughts out of his mind and only focused on his wings. Deep down, he didn’t really like flying that much; he got motion sickness very easily. Therefore, it was somewhat difficult to really feel any love for flying at all. When a minute passed and nothing was happening, he felt Fluttershy step back towards him and take one of his hooves in her own.
“We believe in you…just open your heart…you can do it,” she whispered, leaning in and giving Josh a little nuzzle on his neck, “You’re alive…and you have wings…you should want to express that joy…to express that love…to not only the world…but to yourself! Now…open your wings, Josh…open your wings and fly.” For a split-second, Josh felt like shaking off Fluttershy’s hoof. However, that was just a millisecond. Then, he finally listened to Fluttershy’s voice and took a deep breath. He felt his heart fill up with butterflies.
Squeezing onto Fluttershy’s hoof, Josh felt his body warm up immensely, his heart leaping into his throat. To his left, he heard soft gasps from Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack, while up in the tree Rainbow Dash was loudly cheering. Down near his stomach, he felt an odd tingling sensation that he hadn’t felt before, and when he finally braved a chance to open up his eyes and take a peek, he gasped at what he saw. His purple wings had finally opened up and were now standing at attention.
“I…I did it?” he blinked, completely dumbfounded as he looked at his outstretched wings, “Ha…I did it…I FREAKING DID IT! YEAH, BABY!” For possibly the first time upon arriving on Equestria, Josh let out some happy cheers as he pulled Fluttershy into a crushing hug and twirled her around. “HAHAHAHA! HOW ABOUT THAT, BABY? I GOT MY WINGS OPEN! I TOLD YOU I COULD DO IT!”
“Good…for…you…Josh!” Fluttershy squeaked, slightly turning blue in the face as she gave the excited stallion a very timid nuzzle on the top of his head, “Um…maybe…you…could…let…me…go…now?”
“Yes, I will! I have another Pegasus to punish!” Josh grinned, letting Fluttershy go sailing away and crashing into Twilight a moment later. The stallion eagerly looked up at the smirking Rainbow Dash and rubbed his hooves together. “You’re in for it now, Rainbow Crash! I’m gonna mop the floor with your face before I kick that wiggling butt of yours and then stuff it in your OWN face!”
“Ooh, I’m SO scared,” Dash snickered, stretching her wings and flying off her branch, “So…fly up here and get me then.”
“With pleasure!” Josh laughed, pawing at the ground and licking his lips, “Prepare for your doom, Rainbow Dash! JOSH WILL HAVE HIS VENGEANCE! HERE I…come?” He took a leap up into the air…and promptly splatted right back down on all fours, once again getting a painful face full of dirt and inciting a laughing session out of the flying cyan Pegasus.
“Um…Josh?” Fluttershy spoke up, not realizing she was sitting on Twilight’s back, “You, um, might want to try...you know…flapping your wings and getting airborne before you, um, go after Dash?”
“I see that now, thank you,” Josh moaned, pathetically lifting himself up off the ground and spitting out some dirt, “Gross…tastes like dirt…oh, wait, it IS dirt…dammit, you’ll pay for that, Rainbow Dash! Uh…hey, Fluttershy…how exactly do I fly?”
“Oh! Well, that’s easy!” Fluttershy smiled, still not noticing the annoyed Twilight tapping her hooves on the ground and glancing up at the one sitting on her, “Now that your wings are open, you should be able to feel their presence, right?”
“I can feel something, but I’m not so sure it’s the wings…” Josh snickered sarcastically.
“So, concentrate very hard and focus your energy on the middle of your body…on your wings,” Fluttershy continued, “Your body will do the rest…trust me.”
“Fluttershy…could you PLEASE get off me?” Twilight growled, “Princess Celestia did not raise me to be a cushion for my friends…well, she might’ve at one point, but please just get off!”
“Oh! Sorry, Twilight…” Fluttershy squeaked, quickly getting off her friend and pulling her to her hooves a moment later.
“C’mon, Joshy, I’m waiting!” Dash yawned, still flapping her wings and waiting for Josh, “My butt is SO looking forward that kicking, you see.”
Ignoring Dash for the moment, Josh once again did as Fluttershy said and focused his energy down on his midsections. He channeled his energy into his wings and tried to force them to flap. At first, he barely moved a feather. Then, as he actually began to BREATHE, he felt his wings beginning to finally flap. Then, as Josh grew more and more excited, they flapped even harder. Soon, they were lifting the stallion right off the ground.
“YES! I’M DOING IT! I’M FLYING!” Josh laughed, getting even more excited, “I’M FLYING! I’M FLYING! I’M…” At that moment, Josh turned around to try and face down Rainbow Dash, but ended up smashing his face right into the nearby tree. The six ponies all sighed and did a face-hoof; things were never easy.