The man walked down the street with a sense of purpose, as though he had important business to take care of. He was dressed out in a suit and tie, one that looked to be tailor made for him, one that gave off an air of importance. With an expensive looking watch on his wrist and shoes that seemed to have been shined that very day, he could have been an important politician, or the CEO of a rich company, or maybe the ambassador to a foreign country. Regardless, he stood out starkly against the slums he walked through.
He walked by dozens of people sitting on the sidewalk, on his way to somewhere else, stopping to give money every so often. At one fellow in particular, a young man of no older than twenty-five who was sprawled out on the sidewalk, he stopped and crouched down. The person he looked at was a mess, his clothes being torn and tattered, skin being covered in dirt and sores, staring up at the sky with a dazed look in his eye.
"Sir?" he asked with a slight accent, sounding concerned. "Do you need someone to help you?"
"Nope," the young man told him, and put a smile on for him. "I'm doing fantastic."
At that, the man in the suit realized what was happening to him, and felt a pang of sadness for the person before him. He hated the idea of seeing someone with so much to offer, someone with so much potential, willingly throw their life away. He used to know people, close friends of his, who were in the same position, and couldn't bear to watch it happen to this young man. Still, there wasn't much he could do, at least not without causing a scene in public.
He reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. "I wish you a brighter future," he said sincerely, sticking money into the hand of the person before him. He watched as the person clenched the money tightly into their fist, not even bothering to look at it, barely mumbling out a simple "thanks". He sighed at this, and stood up to continue on to where he was going.
Before he could walk much further, he stopped. He looked back at the person laying on the sidewalk, and felt like he was being called back to him. It felt as though the young man was calling to him, asking for help, begging for help. The man decided that he didn't care about a scene. People would likely think it was a magic trick anyway. Besides, he wanted to help him. He made his way back to the young man, and crouched back down to speak to him.
"Sir, what is your name?" he asked.
The person looked over suspiciously to the man crouched in front of him, and slurred out, "James Leonard Wilton."
“How old are you, sir?”
The young man scowled at him, and answered, “Twenty.”
"Do you have any nicknames, like Jim or Jimmy?"
"Leo," he answered. "And it's legal for me to lay here."
The man chuckled at that. "I am not a police officer. I would just like to know what led to your being here."
"Meaning…?"
"How have you ended up lying in the street? I assume you had a home before."
Leo thought about that for a second, then answered, "I can't really say. I'm just here."
"Do you enjoy being on the street?" the man asked curiously.
"Not really, but, like, I don't care, so…"
The man looked at Leo confused. "You do not care that you are homeless?"
Leo smiled at that. "I can't say I do," he told him.
"So then, if you could change your life, would you?"
"Nope."
The man raised his eyebrows at that. He wasn’t expecting such an answer. Most other people would immediately say yes.
He considered walking away once more, but opted to stay. He didn’t know why, but he wanted to help this person. He felt like the young man was desperately pleading for help, and he didn’t want to let him down.
He considered for a moment what to say, then asked, "What if I offered you a wish? Besides money or things that could hurt you, I mean. What would you wish for?"
Leo thought about that for a second, then answered with a slur, "I'd wish to be a pony in Equestria."
"But I thought you said you did not care?"
"I don't," he answered, "but being there would be way better than being here."
"You would rather be there than wish for a better life here?"
"Absolutely."
"And you would not be concerned about what became of this life, or the people in it?"
"Why would I be? I could just completely forget about it."
"What if the circumstances where you wish to go were not the way you expected?" the man asked. "What if your life there was just as difficult there as it is here?"
"Any life there would be infinitely better than being here," Leo told him as a matter of fact.
"That is an interesting sentiment," the man told him. He paused, then asked, "So you are certain that if I gave you one wish, you would wish for that?"
"Absolutely," Leo told him.
"And would you be fine with your wish being permanent? If I did this, you would not be able to take it back."
"I wouldn't want to take it back," Leo answered with a smile.
The man smiled, and said, "Well, then consider it granted. Just close your eyes for me."
Leo shrugged. "If you say so," he said, and obliged.
The man touched a finger to Leo's forehead, viewing his thoughts and memories, finding a life for him, and then, eventually, sending him on his way, letting him vanish into thin air.
"It might be painful, but I truly wish you well, my friend," the man whispered as people gathered around and clapped as though this were a show put on for them. The man turned slightly towards them, giving a wave and a small smile, then stood up to continue on to somewhere else.
I couldn't remember the last time I slept the night in a bed. It felt nice and had a soothing effect on my pony body, which was much needed after the end of an extremely stressful day. Just to spend the night in a bed made me feel like all of my anger and frustration was worth it
I was surprised to be woken up by Doctor Spark the next morning, and she explained that she would be there the entire day to watch over me.
“Don’t you have other ponies to help?” I asked her.
“Nope,” she told me with a smile. “And even if I did, I would still want to be here with you.”
“She probably tells all her patients that,” my human mind thought.
“Okay, what are we doing today?”
She laughed lightly at that. “You’ll find out,” she said. “For now, how about we eat some breakfast?” With that, she set a tray of fresh fruits and vegetables in front of me, foods I could eat by myself, which I was grateful for. She watched for a few minutes while I ate, then started to ask me more questions.
“So Leo, do you go to school?”
I frowned at that. “Not in a while,” I admitted, slightly embarrassed.
Doctor Spark frowned back at me. “Oh, that’s not good. Why don’t you go?”
I looked down at the ground, my pony body beginning to get uncomfortable. "Because I'm a stupid idiot who threw his life away," I thought.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You don’t have to answer that if you don't want to. What do you like to do for fun?”
“Use drugs,” my human mind thought. “And sometimes watch My Little Pony.”
I opted to answer with “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she asked me curiously. “Do you not have any fun?”
I shrugged “I guess not,” my pony body said quietly.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she told me sympathetically, as she ruffled my mane. The way she did that sent a wave of sadness through my pony body. I sniffed slightly, and she extended her arm around me, in an attempt to comfort me. “I’m sorry, Leo,” she whispered.
“Why am I getting upset?” I thought. “That was basically a lie!”
“I just… I don’t know,” the childish part of me thought.
Oh, yeah. That. I had nearly forgotten about my pony body’s effect on me. I assumed that I had been so stressed out the day before that I had been subconsciously pushing it away. However, now that I was less stressed, it was returning. “Well, this is just great,” I thought.
Still, I accepted her comfort. I didn’t want to get worked up and start crying again. I closed my eyes and let her rub my back with her hoof, not wanting to admit to myself that it felt nice to be comforted.
“Did you want to finish the rest of your food?” she asked after a while, pulling away from me. I shook my head, and she asked, “Did you need to go to the bathroom or anything?”
.”No,” my pony body whispered.
“Did you want to try and work on your magic again? Or-”
“When are they going to be here?” my colt body asked as I scratched my cheek, referring to Herbal Essence and Thundertail.
“Why do you care?” I asked my pony body. “There’s nothing different they would do that she would.”
“I know, but…” my pony body thought. “I want them here.”
“Why?” I asked it, getting frustrated. “You knew them for a day!”
“I don’t know….”
“Well then suck it up,” I told it. “You are absolutely pathetic.”
“I don’t know where Herbal Essence and Thundertail are, Leo,” Doctor Spark told me honestly. “They said they’d be here first thing in the morning.” I must have looked hurt by that answer, because she quickly added, “I bet they’ll be here soon, though. They do live in Baltimare, and they might be late because they’re working on a way to see you whenever you want.”
“Okay, so Herbal Essence and Thundertail fostering us definitely wasn’t completely predictable,” my human mind thought sarcastically. “Didn’t they just find us yesterday?”
“For now,” Doctor Spark started, “while we wait for them to get here, why don’t we-”
She was interrupted by a knock on the door, and both of us looked to see a bright orange stallion with a nearly black mane poke his head inside. “Hello?” he called out, looking to Doctor Spark. Then he looked at me.
Two things that I wasn’t prepared for happened in the next few seconds. The first was the stallion’s reaction to seeing me. He looked completely shocked to see me there, as if I wasn’t supposed to be there, and called out to me, “Son!”
“Well… damn,” I thought as my pony body looked at him, completely shocked. “Evidently, I didn’t just pop into existence here.” Which, of course, made sense. Ponies were born. They didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. Still, this was going to make things extremely complicated.
And then, the stallion took a step into the room, along with somepony else behind him, and the second thing I didn’t expect happened. My pony body flinched hard, gasping slightly as it did so. I felt it quickly become filled with fear and panic as the stallion made his way into the room, followed by a blue-coated unicorn, a mare.
“Oh, shit,” me and my human mind thought together at my pony body’s reaction as I felt it breathe faster and faster.
"Son!" the mare said with a smile that I immediately thought was forced. "We've missed you so much!".
"We're so glad you're safe!" the stallion told me.
With that, I felt my pony body start to shake, and was unable to take my eyes off of them, off the mare in particular. "I might be a drug addict, but I'm getting the feeling that you're not glad I'm safe," my human mind thought as I felt my pony body’s rising panic work its way to me.
The way my pony body was reacting gave me an awful feeling about them. So much so that I silently hoped Doctor Spark wouldn't let them come near me. I didn't know why, but the word that started to enter my mind was abuse. I knew I had no reason to think that, no reason to think anything of them. I'd never met them before and knew nothing about them, and tried to put the thought out of my head. Still, the thought bounced around, and it made me nervous.
She stepped in front of the bed just before my pony body started to hyperventilate. "I can't let you see him," she told the couple seriously.
The stallion frowned at that. "Why not?" he asked, immediately seeming defensive. "He's our son!"
"I understand," Doctor Spark told them a bit more kindly, "but there's a process we have to go through, and we can’t just let-”
“You’re telling us we can’t see our own son?” the mare asked angrily.
“No,” Doctor Spark explained, remaining calm. “I’m saying there are things you have to do before you can see him. We can’t just let anypony come into a patient's room, even if they claim to be their parents.”
"But he's our son!"
"I understand that, but-"
"So then why can't we see him?" she asked, almost yelling.
"You can" Doctor Spark told her, keeping an even tone, "but you need to follow the proper rules we have set up here."
“So what are we supposed to do?” the mare asked her angrily.
“Well," she told them, "you can check in and fill out the necessary documents needed to visit him, which you can find with the receptionist. It won’t take too long to get through, and she can help you out with them if you need it.”
The mare started tried to continue to argue, but the stallion put a hoof on her shoulder. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s just go fill out what we need to so we can take him home.” With that, the two turned to walk out in a huff.
“This is ridiculous,” the mare muttered.
“That was… unexpected,” my human mind thought. "They didn't even realize that she couldn't have known whether they checked in or not."
Doctor Spark was amazing on the spot. In a hospital she didn't work in, against an angry couple who wanted to see their son, with a terrified colt next to her, she quickly took control and deescalated the situation. It was impressive.
Several moments passed before I felt Doctor Spark put her arms around my shaking pony body. I felt her hoof run up and down my back in a comforting way, and I closed my eyes. “It’s okay,” she whispered soothingly. “You don’t have to see them or go back to them if you don’t want to. We’ll make sure of it."
I felt my pony body began to shiver out tears of what I assumed were sadness and pain and fear. It was clearly traumatized by something. By what, I didn’t want to guess. It made more sense now why it cried and got upset all the time. I, however, quickly became furious now that the moment was over. I assumed that this pony body just spawned into existence when I came here. I was operating under the assumption that I had no backstory and would have to explain to these ponies that I wasn’t an abuse victim. I didn’t expect this pony body to be an actual abuse victim. The knowledge of that made me want to explode.
I could not stand that genie, and I hated myself for even talking to him in the first place. All he’d given me was a never ending onslaught of every single circumstance that could possibly make me go back to the way I used to live. I just wanted to be a pony in Equestria. I assumed that meant that I would live in Ponyville and meet Twilight and her friends. Maybe he’d turn me into a mare and I’d be embarrassed. I didn’t think it meant being a five-year-old with as much baggage as I could possibly fucking stand!
I was furious about the situation, but didn't know how I was supposed to deal with it. I felt like everything would just keep getting worse, and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt like I was on a different road to the same ending. Because of that, I did something I knew I shouldn’t do. I bit my cheek.