“You actually managed to dreamwalk last night!” Emily practically yelled at me, loud enough I reflexively went to check that I’d actually shut the door to my room. Recounting my adventure last night certainly had been a challenge as she kept interrupting me at every opportunity. It wasn’t like I could hold it against her. It was pretty damn exciting, although I had yet to get to the two biggest bombshells of my tale.
“If you’d let me speak, I’d tell you what happened when I did it.” Across from me, Emily’s smile grew ever more prominent. Her giddiness was almost infectious as I smiled in response. With a shaky hand, she gestured for me to get on with it, and so I launched into my tale. I had never considered myself much of a storyteller. However, as I recounted my meeting with the pink mare, I was reminded of when we were younger. Practising my reading skills by reading bedtime stories to my baby sister.
Emily practically hung on my every word as I spoke, doing my best to do the dreamscape justice. Its otherworldly appearance was almost impossible to convey despite my best efforts. Even with my best bardic skill, I knew I couldn’t fully capture the practically manic energy possessed by the pink mare. Regardless, my sister was thoroughly enraptured by the story, only for her eyebrows to furrow in thought as I reached the events in the opposite house. “So, Limelight is a mare, but when she is a human, she’s a man?”
“From what she said and what I saw in her memory, yeah. At least it isn’t just me having to deal with that, I suppose.” my words trailed off in a half-hearted chuckle. Deep down, the idea of repeatedly turning myself into a mare was...unsettling. I didn’t really want to spend much time addressing the thought in my head if I could avoid it. The questions of what that made me, why I didn’t feel comfortable in my human body anymore or just why it felt right to have wings pressed against my sides. The more I thought about it, the more questions were raised, and if I could avoid having to confront those, I would. A snort of laughter pulled me from my thoughts, revealing a shit-eating grin plastered across my little sister’s face.
“Well, it isn’t just you then, Big Sis!” The building storm in my head dissipated as, despite my wishes, I found myself chuckling. Em was good like that. “So, you said it wasn’t just the dreamwalk?”
“Yeah, well, I suppose I noticed the other thing this morning when I got up.” This was probably the most awkward part. It definitely wasn’t there when I woke up, and it was pretty damn hard to miss. “Now, this is gonna look a little weird. Just try not to freak out, okay?”
“Alright, my brother who turns into a magic-wielding, dream walking, alicorn princess. I’ll try not to freak out that much. Just a little freak-out, maybe a four out of ten, if that’s an acceptable level of freak out, Your Highness?” Emily deadpanned across from me. In response, I offered a shrug and stood, reaching for the waistband of my jeans. She’d said she wouldn’t freak out so.
The brief noise of protest from her died as soon as my waistband slid down to reveal the sizeable black splodge on my hip. Sliding my jeans down as far as I dared, only to expose the tip of a large pure white crescent moon, perfectly highlighted against the black splodge on my Caucasian skin.
“Not where I expected this to go...is that?” Her voice trailed off as I felt a finger gently prod the darkened skin. “Jesus, there’s no texture difference.”
“That’s Luna’s...or I suppose it’s also my cutiemark, yes,” I answered before pulling my jeans back up and sitting down once more. Emily’s face looked like she was sucking on a particularly sour lemon as she digested the fact I had a full-on cutiemark, only for her lips to creep upwards as if a lightbulb had appeared above her head. “Do not make that reference. I know what you’re thinking.”
“All I’m going to say is if you start turning into her now. Without taking Pon-E, we at least have a few dozen books we can reference and at least three good ones.” Emily said with a shrug. Before I could respond, there was a yell from downstairs, drawing our attention. After a wholly dignified and orderly scramble for the door, we were greeted by our mother waiting on the upstairs landing.
“If you two would actually listen, we’ve got to take the car in for service. The suspension is apparently shot to shit somehow, and your father suggested we take care of this week’s shopping whilst we’re out. Should we bring something home for dinner? We thought maybe Chinese, but there’s a new Korean place that’s opened up recently.” She said, an eyebrow raised at the fact we’d both just emerged from my room.
“I’m good with whatever,” I answered, supported by a nod from Emily. I could guess she just wanted to be rid of our parents as fast as possible. Our mom just shrugged, turning and disappearing back downstairs as we retreated back to my room. Remaining silent until we heard the soft rumble of our parent’s Cadillac Escalade’s engine as it was roused to life. We waited in silence until I was sure our parents had left. I let out a shaky breath I hadn’t realised I was holding in before heading for the small black container hidden in my desk. As I slid a single one of the red and white capsules from the container, I heard Emily gasp from behind me.
“Is that the stuff? Wait! Does this mean I’m gonna be going pony?!” She practically squealed in excitement from behind me.
“Yup, we should hopefully be getting an invite to a party this weekend, ponies only. So you need to get a set of hooves and figure out how to walk.” I answered before tossing the pill across to my sister, sitting back in my desk chair to give her space. If the maths I’d read in one of the threads a few days ago, she would likely be about a third of my size when we were both transformed, which should allow me to carry her and fly at the same time.
“Will this hurt?” Emily asked as she held the pill between her and the light, examining the fluid inside. I couldn’t really blame her, I’d popped one by accident, and the substance inside was just plain bizarre. It smelt vaguely earthy, but I couldn’t tell what made it fizz or actually do what it did.
“It won’t hurt; you pass out after a few seconds. I’ve never actually seen someone transform, so I’m a bit curious what happens.” Emily looked at me before in one fluid motion. She tossed the pill in the air and swallowed it, only for me to chuckle at her shocked reaction to the drug. “Yeah, it fizzes, weird, right?”
My chuckles grew louder as Emily gave me a half nod, a sort of gurgle coming from her throat. I guessed she was trying to speak, but the Pon-E was already starting to kick in. Her eyes slowly glazed over, and in a moment of impressive reactions, if I do say so myself, I had to lunge forwards and catch her from falling off my bed.
As carefully as I could, I placed her back on the bed and moved back to a safe distance. At a glance, Emily seemed to be fast asleep. Still, the subtle twitches from her nose and eyes suggested that something else was going on.
One of the first things I noticed was her hair. Her meticulously straightened, sandy brown hair was already starting to curl at the tips and grow in volume. I watched it becoming thicker and denser as it travelled up to the root of her ponytail. I was in awe as the elastic of the cheap band stretched. I could already tell it wasn’t going to be able to restrain her growing mane.
My attention was pulled away from her hair by a sudden gasp as she arched her back. A series of cracks filled the room as she moved. I could see that Emily’s spine had just shortened. Her ribcage rounding out and stretching the faded T-Shirt she’d been wearing. I could easily hear the difference. Her breathing was deeper now, revealing just how short and shallow she’d been before. I could only guess that the real reason someone on Pon-E passed out was oxygen deprivation as their organs changed.
I slumped back in my chair, practically hypnotised by the steady rise and fall of my sister’s barrel. The transformation kept time with her breathing. With each intake of air, I watched her nose and mouth push out more, merging together into a muzzle with the faintest hints of a blue coat starting to sprout.
The blue coat began to spread like wildfire. First covering Em’s muzzle as it continued to grow before the coat started to cover her face. I looked at the colour and tried to compare it to what my coat usually looked like.
My thoughts were interrupted by another cacophony of cracks. Emily’s head had just changed. Its entire shape was more ponylike, the roots of her bushy mane starting to take on a bright blue colour. I watched her eyebrows scrunch up as her coat continued to spread down, disappearing underneath her shirt.
The light blue spread further and further up her mane. I thought that the curls were growing larger only to realise that her body was shrinking as it transformed. Before I could even digest that information, my eyes were drawn to her hands.
The middle finger of her left hand was growing. Widening as it absorbed the other fingers, creating a fleshy stump with a large nail at the bottom. A shudder passed through me as I watched the newly formed hoof soon grow its covering of soft blue fur. Her other arm followed suit. The creaking of fabric suggested her legs were changing as well. With a thrust of her hips, I watched as a bright blue tail burst free of Emily’s jeans. Barely five minutes had passed, and now Emily was seemingly fully transformed.
She was seemingly fast asleep. Her tiny blue barrel rising and falling gradually as I heard a soft murmur. The light blue curls of her mane shifted as she moved her head, revealing a spiralling horn proudly adorning her forehead. Without even realising it, I had a smile of pure pride on my face. I was going to be able to teach her magic! All I needed to do was wait for her to wake up. Hadn’t taken me more than ten minutes when I transformed, so how long could it take?
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As it turned out, it took almost twenty minutes. The first noise from Emily was a sleepy yawn from behind me. I spun the desk chair around to look at my younger sister with a flick of my leg. Two bright cyan eyes were lazily opening as she stretched. The whole movement was incredibly catlike, making me wonder if that’s what I looked like when I stretched? “Welcome back to the land of the living, sis.”
She hardly dignified my comment with a response, instead showing off her new pony neck as she looked over her body. Any vestiges of tiredness disappeared and were replaced by a giddy grin when she saw the curled blue tail draped over the bed.
It was hard not to laugh watching her. The blue filly struggled and wiggled to free herself of the now loose and baggy human clothes. Her mane flopped to the side as she finally wiggled free, allowing me to get a clear look at her horn. There had been a short little document in /Pon-E/ general talking about appraising a unicorn’s horn. I could see the spirals, which was a good sign. If they were too large, it would be challenging to contain magic when casting spells, but it was hard to channel magic if they were too small. From what I could see, her horn was perfectly formed, unlike some unfortunate folks in the thread.
Now free from her clothes, Emily was enthralled by her own body. Her head tracked side to side as she wagged her tail experimentally. I cleared my throat and watched as her ears perked up and swivelled to face me. The sudden motion prompted a squeak of surprise from the filly.
“What do you think then? Feels comfy, doesn’t it?” I asked, sitting down next to her as she continued to look herself up and down.
“I’m really blue.” was all she could say in response, and honestly, she wasn’t wrong. A slightly curled light blue mane and tail that had already given me a few ideas for how to style them. Complimented by an indigo coat, even in my room’s flat lighting, her coat had a lustrous sheen to it. I had to wonder if I looked that good as a pony, I’d never really sat down and examined my coat before. I felt a small hoof press against my leg as two bright cyan eyes looked up at me. “What now?”
Emily raised a good question, I realised. I needed to teach her how to walk and ideally how to use her magic, nothing fancy, just telekinesis. Those plans were knocked down the priorities when I heard her blowing at her mane to keep it out of her face. It really was long now that I looked at it, easily dangling around what I think were her shoulders. “Let’s get that mane sorted out, shall we? I’ve got an idea that could look cute.”
“Really? Do you expect me to let my brother style my new mane? You used to have frosted tips!” Emily protested, unable to really stop me from lifting her up. Admittedly she was right. My previous dress sense was pretty bad, Hawaiian shirts, anyone? However, I’d done a good bit of reading on the subject. Who’d have expected turning into a pony brings out your inner Rarity?
Despite the protest from the squirming filly under my arm, we navigated to the bathroom. Gently standing her up on the sink countertop gave me pause for thought. “How do you want to style it? You’ve got a lot of mane to work with. I don’t really have this problem, but I did get some extra strength hair bands.”
“More curls,” Emily said, making use of the mirror to glare at me. I simply nodded, reaching into the draws to fish out the curling iron. Despite her small size, I really didn’t want to piss her off. I’d seen the damage a filly bucking a metal sheet could do. Suffice to say, I wasn’t enthusiastic to see what hooves could do to my ribcage.
As I stood there, adding more curls to my sister’s mane, it gave me plenty of time to think. I was convinced her colour scheme was familiar, at least the eyes and mane, but I couldn’t quite place it. Emily was at least enjoying the attention; in between adding curls, she’d taken a few experimental steps once she was used to standing up. I was rather proud at how she’d taken to the whole idea of walking on four legs like a duck to water. Although the stairs would be her first real test.
Just as I was about to put the curling iron away. The reason why Emily’s appearance was familiar clicked in the back of my head. I knew exactly where I’d seen that shade of blue for a mane before, on the floor before my mane had turned into a starfield. Another look at Emily confirmed what I’d been thinking, sending me on a brief googling spree to try and find a picture of Princess Luna as a filly.
“What are you doing?” She asked only to have her question fall on deaf ears as I showed her my phone. The match wasn’t exact. For one, she lacked wings, and her coat was indigo instead of dark blue. However, aside from that, her eyes were the same as Luna’s...or mine, I supposed, and her mane was the same colour as Princess Luna’s from season one.
“Just confirming a little theory”, I replied before showing her the artwork. Her mouth opened to respond before slowly closing as she just glared at me.
“So, I don’t get to be an Alicorn, and I look like a mini Luna?” The filly raged, stomping her hooves against the counter. I assumed it was meant to be a little intimidating or at least evoke some emotion other than the urge I had to proclaim that it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. Thankfully, I could resist that urge.
Before I could reply, she tossed her mane to the side and hopped down from the counter. The soft clop of tiny hooves on the floor filled the room as she attempted to storm out. The result was far too adorable to describe, especially once I noticed how her curls bounced with each step.
“How about we start trying to teach you magic?” I called out, trying to regain her attention. As soon as I’d said magic, Emily stopped, snapping her head around to look at me with a giddy grin.
“Oh buck, I forgot I had a horn! Come on then!” She exclaimed and galloped off towards my room. I scratched my head and tried to comprehend the 180 she’d just done, from angry to excited. I knew ponies were more emotional; recalling my almost Rarity level exclamations the first time I went pony confirmed that idea for sure.
As I walked back into my room, I was greeted by the sight of Emily literally bouncing up and down in excitement. Her enthusiasm was admirable. Now all I had to do was explain how magic worked...how hard could it be?
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With a frustrated breath, Emily put her hooves together and exhaled. To be blunt, it was going poorly. As it turned out, I had a much more significant power advantage than I’d expected. Our rough estimate was hundreds of times more powerful. Within minutes of transforming, I was lifting clothing or my phone. Whilst Emily struggled to even lift a marble.
“Are we sure this isn’t because I’m a filly? Maybe I’m just not able to control my magic until I’m bigger?” I reached over as she spoke and started to gently scratch her ear.
“I know this is hard, run me through what you’re doing again, and we can try to tweak your technique.” I offered, continuing to gently scratch her head as Emily leaned into my hand. The relaxed sigh from her suggested that being pet felt about as good people..or I suppose ponies in the thread had said it did.
“I’m focusing my magic on my horn, then putting out a kind of beam of magic to surround the marble. Once it’s surrounded, I move the magic, and the marble should go with it.” She said, igniting her horn again before demonstrating what she meant. A light blue beam flowed from her horn to form an orb around the marble with a few tendrils of magic back to her horn.
I watched silently, observing as best I could. When my magic was in use, it seemed far more straightforward, just surrounding the item, and I’d lift it. Maybe there was more technique involved to control it properly?
Emily seemed to be thinking as well. Her muzzle had scrunched up as she squinted at the marble. The flickering tendrils of magic linking her horn and the orb slowly started to trail off, flowing into the sphere. Silence had fallen over us both, two pairs of eyes fixed on the marble as the only sound in the room was the soft hum of my sister’s magic.
As the tendrils flowed into the orb, the edges started to solidify. Where they’d been rough and blurred before, it was taking shape like you’d see in the show. An outer border formed around the swirling light blue magic as the marble wobbled. Beside me, Emily gasped as the marble lifted from the bed, floating in her magic without a single issue before she released her hold. “I...I did it! I’ve got magic!”
With a proud smile fixed on my lips, I spread my arms to offer a congratulatory hug. Emily responded by slamming into my chest hard enough to knock the air from my lungs, hugging her hooves around my neck. I couldn’t even make out what she was saying as I gasped for air, and she cheered in celebration.
“Could you run that by me a second time?” I panted, rubbing the slightly sore section of my side where Emily had squeezed me. How the hell were ponies that strong? If a unicorn could produce what felt like a nearly lethal hug, what was an earth pony capable of? It was a sobering thought to consider that earth ponies could probably buck a door clean off its hinges without breaking a sweat.
“I said that it must be hard fitting this much awesome in such a small package.” Emily reiterated with a cocky smirk that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a certain cyan pegasus. The smirk almost immediately disappeared as she dissolved into a fit of giggling. Soon enough, the two of us were laughing at her antics, it wasn’t particularly funny, but I couldn’t help but join in.
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“I-is this safe?” The blue filly whimpered as she stared down the stairs, I was already down them, ready to catch her if she fell, so in theory, it should be perfectly safe. If anything, I was in the most danger of having a small horned animal stab me as she fell down the stairs. Emily made a great show as she took a deep breath before making her move. Speaking from experience, putting one hoof in front of each other wasn’t tricky. The difficulty came when you were putting one hoof onto a step about six inches below you. This was made worse when you weren’t a six-foot-tall alicorn with rear-mounted padding, but instead, you were a roughly two-foot-tall unicorn filly.
Emily’s blue hoof stretched out into the abyss ahead of her as she tipped forward, trying to find her footing on the step below. Gradually she leaned forward, her foreleg reunited with the ground as she started to move her hind leg to go down. The entire process was painfully slow. Every movement she made was measured and deliberate as if a single careless action could send her plummeting down the stairs. Which, in all honesty, it probably could.
“You’re doing good, nearly there.” I tried to encourage her as she passed the halfway point of the stairs. Gradually as she descended another step, I edged onto the staircase myself, just so if she fell, I could catch her before she even hit the step below. Was I a tad paranoid? Maybe, but I wasn’t going to let my sister hurt herself if I could help it.
“Catch me!” I heard the yelp as a blue blob flung itself at me, nearly startling me enough that I missed her. Emily cushioned herself as she landed against my chest, her ears folded against her head as she looked back at the stairs. “Sorry, I missed the step and kind of jumped.”
Before I could even open my mouth to reply, our moment of relief was interrupted by the sensation of moving backwards. I felt Emily curl up tightly on herself from her position in my arms as we fell down the stairs. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have been standing straight with both feet on the same step. As we fell backwards, I shielded Emily as best I could with my arms before I screwed my eyes shut and hoped it wouldn’t hurt too badly when we hit the floor.
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The tape measure clicked in my hands as it retracted; after recovering from our fall, Emily asked me to measure her to figure out exactly how tall she was. So, I picked her up and carried her over to the kitchen counter before finding the tape measure that dad kept under the sink. I quickly noted down the final height onto a notepad before putting down the tape and pencil.
“2 foot tall exactly, just under 2 feet from muzzle to flanks,” I informed the blue filly as she glared at me, one hoof attempting to restore her curls that had been flattened by the tape measure. I have to admit I felt a little guilty about her mane, but now we knew for sure she was small enough to carry her on my back. Although I’d probably need to figure out some sort of harness to hold her safely on my back when we flew...perhaps Mom’s old baby carrier would work?
A blue hoof prodded me in the chest, snapping me out of my musings to see Emily peek over the edge of the kitchen counter. Her ears folded back against her skull as she shuffled back away from that precipice. I swore I could see her shaking slightly as she looked back at me. “C-could you help me down?”
As I lowered her to the floor, Emily sprung from my arms and landed on the wooden floor. To her credit, she only stumbled a little but recovered before she could fall over. The proud smile on her muzzle, and she turned around to grin at me. “What now?”
“Watch the show with some snacks? It is way more fun than it sounds. Being able to sing the songs with damn near perfect pitch is great.”
The raised eyebrow I got in response from Emily was a little hurtful before her confused expression gave way to a burst of giggling. “I forget you’re way more into the show than me, bro.”
I merely rolled my eyes as we both headed towards the lounge. A comfortable silence formed between us, only broken by the soft clip-clop of Emily’s hooves against the floor. I was still waiting for some kind of message from Limelight, which hopefully would arrive soon. For lack of a better term, the possibility of a pony party probably would have Emily bouncing off the walls in excitement. I sure as hell would be, although I guess I undersold the potential invite.
With Emily trotting along behind me, we quickly headed over to the couch as I queued up Season 2 on Netflix. Once that was done, I looked over to my side, confused for a second where Emily was until a decidedly frustrated sounding cough drew my attention to the floor.
“Give a filly a hand?” She asked, gesturing with a hoof at the sofa. The peak of her curls barely coming to the bottom of the couch cushion. I’ll admit, I probably should have realised that and lifted her up, and chuckling before dashing off to get a small step for her wasn’t exactly helpful, but still. A few moments later, Emily had made herself comfortable in my lap, curled up like a cat, ready to watch some pony show.
“Before we start, think it’s worth me picking a new name for myself?” Emily asked, sitting up to put us a little closer to seeing eye to eye. “Just feels a little...disappointing to call me Emily like this.”
“If you want to. Any ideas?” I asked, watching as a confident grin spread across my little sister’s muzzle.
“Call me, Starbright!”