“It’s a bitter pill,” Gloomy sighed, as she tried to lie comfortably, knowing she wouldn’t be the same pony when she woke up. “And it’s hard to swallow…”
She sighed and counted, awaiting sleep to take her.
The house was quiet despite the number of ponies and other creatures within it. At least until one of them awoke with much to say.
Gloomy awakened in a cold sweat. “My beret is too big! I can’t see!”
"Hm?" Steps were coming closer. "You alright?" asked the muffled voice through the door, a male voice giving away who it likely was.
“You can come in.” Gloomy regained her composure, pushing the offending headgear away from her eyes. “I’m still gray”, and that’s good, because after that dream I was afraid I might turn pink. I’m not sure why…”
He turned the knob and opened the door. "Pink?" Ah, right. He remembered who was in charge of her. "That actually makes more sense than it should…" It was only entering that he actually saw what had resulted.
Alot of it seemed nonsensical, with underground cities and bug ponies…” The little grey filly explained, clutching her suddenly oversized beret. “But then, this stallion just appeared while I was floating down a river and proclaimed that he was no pony. And I did not know him. Then he said that it was just a dream but all the rest of it really happened… and then I woke up like this… huh… it actually worked?”
The mare he had known was little more than a foal. Hugging her hat like it was a lifeline. This was clearly the same pony. Even though her hoof taps seemed random.Then, as she randomly flailed her hooves in what was doubtless meant to be a mindbending jinx, David noticed she had no cutie mark.
It was then that he realized something. He had no idea how ponies got cutie marks anymore… Still, her freaking out didn't seem to be directed at that, so he let that slide quietly. "You're still in one piece. How do you actually feel?" He crouched down on his new pony legs, closer to her. "Anything off, besides being smaller?"
“I’m… okay.” Gloomy nodded with a sigh. “The dream helped a little. I didn’t get smaller, the world just got bigger. I wish I never saw the text. I knew from the moment I found him, that ragdoll, it was jinxed.” Gloomy laughed mirthlessly.
"It's complicated." And a thing he usually spent time not really thinking about, but there was living proof of it and that wouldn't be enough. "Come here." He sank down to sit, right on his new tail. "Ow." It pinched a little and he brought it out of the way. "I'll tell you how it works, if you want."
“I don’t honestly know how much control I have.” Gloomy admitted with a sincere smile. “Anything you can explain… my only source of information is… well… you know….”
"I'm offering a second source of info." He patted his folded leg, even if the sound was off with his bare skin striking a fur pelt instead of mostly bare skin. "If you want it."
“He means well. But I don’t think he actually remembers the things he thinks he remembers…” The Gloomy Filly shuffled her hooves with no particular rhythm. “Is it wrong to think I had my own story?”
"I got comfortable with not having my own story, though I suppose I do now… Either way, I got very used to not thinking about it. Being told for sure is, in its own way, a curse. The most powerful jinx you're likely to run into." He gave up trying to attract Gloomy any closer. "Still, option's there. That box is already open."
That box remained unchecked.
With a heavy sigh, the newly minted filly looked to the older human and nodded. “Anything you can tell me that might help me understand what I’m dealing with. I’m starting to realize that I’ve been playing with fire like a foal for a while now. I need to at least have a better idea of what exactly I’m dealing with.”
"That gets into philosophy." He considered with a faint hum. "Look, there are two ways to… It doesn't matter. This is your life. The outside of that? Outside your control. Worrying about it is a good way to just lose sleep and be miserable. Focus on the inside of it and live on your own scale. Trying to play with things outside that risks a lot, but… I didn't bring you here to tell you that." He hadn't 'brought' her anywhere, but that was another point entirely.
“Alright,” Gloomy responded with a grim nod, “I’m already in this up to my flank. What can you tell me about what I’m dealing with?”
What he knew could perhaps break her more, or not? He wasn't sure exactly what she had been told. "This is a story, you mentioned something about that. I don't like focusing on that, and forget it as quickly as possible. I suggest the same for you. So, this is a story. The Text is the avatar of the one writing the story. Different Text, different author. Every author has their own personality, being a different creature. One Text may be quite nice to their creation, one might be a complete jerk, and none of them can really interfere with the other other than yelling at them a lot, because nobody can tell you what to write, in the end."
“I follow you, so far…” Gloomy cocked her head the side. “Actually I think I’m starting to understand what happened a little. Charlie had said that another text was involved. So what we did caused what you just said to happen. The two authors were yelling at each other?”
"Basically." He reached in an attempt to poke her with one finger on her small little snoot, cute as it was. "And you have a different text than me. Mine can't do anything to or about you, other than suggest it, at best, to yours. The reverse is the same. Not that either couldn't try, but the other could just write it out of ever happening, so that's a losing game. Before you ask, yes, in theory, I could be hitting up mine to fix all my problems and set me on easy street, but that would be boring, and also an awful story. That second part being what it cares about, so it isn't likely to be a thing. But could they? Sure."
“The texts seemed to be arguing about rules.” Gloomy hummed thoughtfully. “Charlie always said there were rules dealing with the Text. But he never went into specifics. I doubt he knows all the rules himself, and as you’ve probably noticed, he can have a hard time telling things he remembers from things he imagined, from the time he was insensate. What are the rules as far you understand them, Mr.
David?” The filly’s eye’s became adorable little sad saucers pleading for answers.
He brushed from that nose point to along her cheek. "That's maybe the worst part? They're writing it. They can write what they want. There are guidelines, but that's it. If my text wanted me to explode in a shower of pixels, there'd be literally zero I could do about it. So I don't worry about it. It's pointless. The sun could explode, but what would I do about it? Nothing, so why even think about it? They could make me into a pony, pop, either with or without a reason. Maybe the pill I took isn't finished? Maybe no excuse given. They don't need one, but usually like one, for that better story I mentioned." He brought in his other hand, cupping Gloomy's face gently. "This is the curse I was talking about. You've seen outside the safe little box, and we can't undo that. Just learn to deal with it."
Gloomy Sonet burst into fits of giggles. “I get it now. This bedtime story Charlie used to tell me about how two Stars in the sky decided it might be amusing to make all their favorite ponies deal with their emotional problems through competitive beat poetry. But then as they called their ponies together, they discovered that none of them actually had the musical talent, nor the actual desire to even take part in these confrontations. So finally one Star looks at the other Star and says, ‘Okay, I admit it, this wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be…”
By this point the little gray filling was rolling on the floor laughing in sobs, “I never got why ponies laughed before. I get it now, you laugh because it hurts…”
"Well, yes. But now we're back in philosophy." Perhaps that was just where it needed to be. "You can be mad at the world, sad, glad, or laugh. I generally go for that last one." He drew his hand back, no longer in contact with the filly as she flopped about. "To turn your situation to a positive, you've been given years you wouldn't otherwise have, age wise."
“I never wanted to be this young again.” Gloomy stomped her cute little hoofsie in an expression of pure rage. “I’m not going back to my parents and they wouldn’t take me back if I did. I found Charlie at the foot of the mountain we climbed to get to Zephyr height. That was the furthest that I’d ever run away. I heard a pony screaming in terror. And I ran to help. And he was just laying there. Staring at nothing and screaming. But then I saw him, and he stopped. And he was staring at me like I was the most important thing in the entire universe. My parents never even cared that I was gone. ‘She always comes back when she gets hungry’. And each time I ran away I got better at staying away longer. So nopony asked too many questions. And here’s this doll that only I can hear, and that can only see through my eyes… I appreciate you putting up with me, Mr. David.”
He shrugged powerfully. "There are zero suggestions for you to go back to your parents. You're an adult, child sized or not. You know how to be an adult pony, and are mentally equipped for that kind of thing, so making you pretend to be a foal would be not only rude but just downright cruel. So you're a small adult, and that isn't the end of the world, especially since you will grow out of it."
“I’m a small adult and I can do this. This is where I wanted to go… That was an odd question, but it was the first thing he asked me, ‘Where do you want to go?’” The filly stammered. “I said I wanted to live on that mountain. I was just a filly looking up at the mountain that had thrown the most magical thing I’d ever seen away in pile of garbage.”
"This time, let's be honest. You don't have to go anywhere." He tapped the ground in front of himself. "You have a house, and a job, and a life, and none of that was taken away. You can play the drums and beat rhymes even if you are smaller now. The hardest part will be reaching things high up, but, surprise, unicorn. Even that isn't so much of a big deal. This is exactly as dramatic a point as you want it to be."
“I’ve also wanted to leave to the point I made a deal with an obviously cursed magical artifact.” Gloomy actually smiled, from her face to her eyes. "I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned over three times that I don’t really like Bridlewood a lot… I do dislike it a lot."
“Back then, as a foal, I used to move closer and closer to ‘pegasi territory before I’d put up little stick forts.” Gloomy smiled at the memory. “I’ll come back to do shows if Alphabittle asks… but that still is still where I intend to go.”
"Then go. Actually, that's where we're headed. I need to go to Pegasoft, and pow, same direction." He clapped his hands together as he stood up without them helping. "Sounds like we have a plan!"