//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Pony 
// by RainbowsAreMagic 
//------------------------------//

I suppose I should explain myself. I'm a pony, in a land known as Equestria. I wasn't always, though. Once, I was a human, probably a lot like you. I worked as a programmer for a software company, designing computer programs. All that changed when I got a wish.

They say that if you get the chance, if you are offered a wish, that you should never take it. And if you do, ask for something simple. Something that won't go wrong. Maybe a nice sandwich or something. I don't really remember who said that, but it's true. Believe me, it's true. I would know.

You see, I was offered a wish, and I took it. Like many bronies, one of my fantasies was to actually go to Equestria, and so that's what I chose. It sounds like a pretty great deal, right? I even got to choose what kind of pony to be. I wanted to be a pegasus so I could fly. I thought that would be perfect for me.

I should have listened to those wise, forgotten words. I should have turned down the offer without a thought. If I knew then what I know now, I think I would have. 

But I was young and foolish. I made my wish, and it was granted to me. I found myself in Equestria, in the form of a tan pegasus. 

But that's not what you want to hear, is it? You want my story. You want to know why, if I had a second chance to decide, I wouldn't have made the decision that I did. You want to know why it didn't work. 

Sure. I'll tell you, I guess. I have nothing better to do, and if hearing my tale saves another from the fate I found, it's the least I can do. 

*   *   *

A portal opened as the space before me was pushed out of the way. It gave me a headache just looking at the thing. It was kinda cliché, too. I didn't really care, though. Cliché or not, it was a portal to Equestria.

I walked through, and the world fell apart. Not the one back on Earth, but my personal world. It was like looking at a broken mirror, when I was in that place between worlds. A thousand worlds, or perhaps a hundred thousand. I don't rightly remember most of the things I saw, and from what I do remember, I'm quite okay with that.

I felt my body changing, bones grinding against each other as they changed shape. The pain was unbelievable. I heard a voice screaming in mortal agony. It took a little while for me to realize it was my own voice, changed by the transformation. Eventually, the pain overcame my weakening grasp on consciousness, and everything went black. 

Have you ever woken up from a nightmare, only to find it wasn't really a dream? That's how I felt when I regained consciousness. Everything hurt. Things I didn't even used to have hurt, and so did things that I'd once had but didn't anymore. When I opened my eyes, everything was painfully bright, like I'd been sitting in the dark for hours. The first time I tried to move, a spark of pain shot up my arm—no, my leg. Finally, I stood up. 

Then I tried walking. Walking is simple, right? Just put one foot in front of the other. Well, it wasn't that simple. I fell after a single step. It took hours to make it a dozen feet, or at least it felt like it did. I had no way of keeping track then. It's easy to forget our Earthbound blessings. Clocks, radios, and other things. 

I stopped at one point to look around me. Not another living thing in sight, save a few uncaring plants in the dusty soil. The ground itself was a reddish color, hard and unyielding, and the plants similarly dull. There was a road in the distance, but no other signs of civilization.

Then I remembered my wings. Maybe walking wasn't the solution anyway. I flapped them a few times, experimentally. They provided just enough lift, all unbalanced, to send me sprawling into the dust.

At least nopony saw my embarrassing attempts to reorient myself after arriving in Equestria, however long it had taken. 

Eventually, I made my way to the road I had seen earlier. It was a simple affair, and looked like it hadn't been used in years, though ruts still remained.

With no other real options, I followed the road, slowly becoming more confident as I walked, falling less and less. After what felt like a long time, I found a crossroads. The road I was on ended, but I could head in either of two other directions, opposite each other. One sign, the older of the two, read "Alvus Formarum". The other indicated a road to a place called Dodge Junction. I didn't have a clue what that first sign meant; it was probably some other language. Judging by the age of the sign, the place might not even exist anymore. other hand, "Dodge Junction" looked like a much more recent addition. I didn't recognize the name, but it was civilization, and that sounded like a good plan. Anything to get out of that wasteland.

Dodge Junction was everything I expected it to be: not much. It seemed to be a railway stop for the Equestrian train system. I was so happy when I saw that. I could take a train, and get somewhere with this whole adventure of mine.

Suffice to say, that didn't happen. Tickets are needed to ride the train, and bits needed to get those. I had nothing to my name. And so there I was at the train station, realizing just how little nothing really is. 

That was when I saw her. No, not the love of my life, but hopefully the solution to my problem. Cherries Jubilee, the owner of a local cherry orchard. Then I remembered where I knew Dodge Junction from: Applejack had once fled there in shame, trying to scrape up some bits. Maybe I could do the same.

I talked to her, and explained that I just needed a job and maybe a place to stay, and she set me up as a cherry sorter. 

It didn't pay much, though, and paying for meals and a room took up most of my wages. I got to keep around one in five bits that I earned. It wasn't much, and I knew I was being exploited. There wasn't a lot I could do about that, though. It was a job, and that was at least something. Besides, I wouldn't need it long. 

Days passed, and my life became a simple one. I would wake in the morning, eat breakfast, and work all day, with a break for lunch. Then I would get dinner, and go to sleep, exhausted. 

It took most of a week, but I was finally able to save up enough bits to buy a train ticket to Ponyville via Canterlot, along with enough food to last the trip. It was more of the same marginal fare I'd gotten from Cherries Jubilee, but it was food, and it was cheap. 

I rode the train to Canterlot without incident, then changed trains to the Ponyville line. I would have taken one direct, but there's no rail line from Dodge Junction to Ponyville. 

You might wonder why I went to Ponyville. I was intimidated by Canterlot, I admit. I was already in a strange body that didn't always do what I wanted it to, and the prospect of a big city wasn't something I felt ready to deal with. I was right, too. They say Canterlot is the most beautiful place in Equestria. They don't mention the crime, or the gangs, or the underground caves where the less-wealthy ponies are forced to live. I didn't know about any of this then, of course, but I also didn't want to take my chances, just in case.

Besides, what brony wouldn't head to Ponyville? The chance to meet Twilight, or Rainbow Dash, or Applejack... it wasn't something I could pass up. 

I don't know what I expected when I arrived in Ponyville, but it certainly wasn't what I got. I was greeted by Pinkie Pie, who asked where I had come from. Without really thinking about it, I told her, "I come from a place a little ways south of Dodge Junction." I didn't realize what it was that lay south of Dodge Junction, or I never would have said it. 

It was Twilight who reacted to my words, not Pinkie Pie. She had approached while I was distracted by the pink party mare. Her words ring in my memory even now.

"South of Dodge Junction? But there isn't anything south of Dodge Junction, except... it can't be... Alvus Formarum!" I saw fear rising in her eyes as she backed away from me. "Everypony, run!"

The two ponies bolted, and I was left alone to hear the sound of doors slamming all down the street. It was a depressing sound. I wondered, was this how Zecora had felt?

I wandered around the empty town for maybe an hour or two. I saw Carousel Boutique, and the library, and Sugarcube Corner. They were all shuttered tight, and nopony answered when I knocked on the door. Eventually, I found myself on the other side of town, wandering towards Sweet Apple Acres. Maybe Applejack hadn't heard the alarm. I hoped.

As it turned out, she hadn't. I didn't dare actually lie to the Spirit of Honesty—she'd catch me for sure—so I just said I'd rather not talk about where I came from. She didn't seem too concerned about it. She even invited me to join the Apple family for dinner. I think I genuinely smiled for the first time in days. 

By that evening, Applejack had offered me a job bucking apples, and had offered to let me stay in an empty barn for as long as she needed the help on the farm. For the first time since I had come to Equestria, I was truly.happy with the state of my life. 

The next morning, Applejack introduced me to her friends in Ponyville. There was a certain degree of tension in the air, especially when Twilight warned Applejack away from me. "Stay away from that pony, AJ," she said. "He's from Alvus Formarum! You know, them!" 

To my relief, Applejack was nonplussed. "Uh huh. This pegasus, who has shown nothing but decency, is a horrible monster. Sure, Twi."

I'd never known Applejack to be sarcastic like that, but I wasn't about to question it. She was standing up for me, and I didn't want to mess up any chance I had at recovering my reputation in Ponyville.

"Twi, you remember Zecora, don't you? The evil monster from the Everfree who didn't turn out to be so bad after all? You shamed us for judging based on appearances, and this pony doesn't even have that against him. The only thing you have is that he's from some Elvis Forum place."

"First, it's Alvus Formarum, AJ. Second, tell me. What is south of Dodge Junction?"

I spoke up. "There's a big desert..."

Twilight either didn't hear or didn't care. "The Badlands! Furthermore, Alvus Formarum is the only thing left down there, and we all know what that means. Don't we?" That last question was directed at me. As I didn't know, I just looked at her blankly.

"Uh, Twilight?" Applejack interjected. "What exactly is this Elvis Forum (Alvus Formarum!) place anyway? I've never heard of it."

"AJ, Alvus Formarum is, in their own language, the name for the changeling hive! Now do you understand! This pony is a changeling!"

I had to protest. First she called me a monster, and now a changeling. I wasn't sure about monster—my opinion of humanity wasn't exactly stellar—but I was certainly no changeling, and I didn't appreciate being called one.

"Now wait a minute. I'm no changeling. I may not be from around here, and you may not like me because of that. I can respect that. But calling someone a changeling is no small accusation. A changeling. You're telling me that I am a parasitic, soulless, evil creature who hurts others and feeds on their emotions in order to survive.

"You have no right to make an accusation like that without a lot more evidence than you have, Twilight.  This... this is not what I would have expected from somepony who is supposed to be a hero of Equestria."

I turned, and fled.

It wasn't the best thing I could have done, in retrospect, but I was hurt, and insulted. I'd come all this way, only to find disappointment. Twilight and her friends were friendly, I'd thought, but I found only fear and hatred.

I ran back to the barn, grabbed my bag (leaving the advance Applejack had given me behind, in my anger), and left town. I wanted to get away from Twilight's unfriendly attitude. I wanted to get away from all of them.

Disillusionment is a terrible thing to go through, especially when the thing you've lost faith in is one of only a few things you still had faith in at all. I was young, and rash, and probably overreacted. I judged everyone based on Twilight's reaction. Even Applejack, who had started to defend me, seemed to have let me down, in her silence. So I left town, and ended up in the Whitetail Woods. I found a cave there, and that became my new home.

I felt kinda bad about the whole thing, once it all ended. Sure, Twilight might as well have run me out of town, (after having had her call me a changeling in public, it was probably inevitable), but I had left Applejack hanging after agreeing to help her with the harvest. Then again, I probably wouldn't have been much use anyway. You see, I was a computer programmer in my old life. My body was not well-suited to physical labor, and apparently the transformation had not improved this. Applejack was a fair pony—she would doubtless pay me well for my work—but it wasn't really work I could do.

My life in the Whitetail Woods was not a happy one. I was alone, and both humans and ponies are social creatures: we aren't meant to live alone. I scraped by, one day at a time.

Living alone in a cave in the middle of a large, uninhabited area leaves you with a lot of time on your hands, and not a lot to do with it. I found that out firsthand. I had a lot of time to think about what had happened in Ponyville. About what went wrong. What I could have done better. If I hadn't said the things I did, would things have turned out better? I didn't know then, and I still don't.

There's only so long that you can feel sorry for yourself before you have to move on. For me, it was a day and a night before I was able to move past the disappointment, self-pity, and self-doubt I had been facing. Eventually, I had to look towards the future, because I didn't want to live in a cave for the rest of my life.

I woke up in the morning, and I was hungry. I had no food, and nopony around to buy any from, even if I did have the little pouch with the bits left over from working for Cherries Jubilee. Even still, that wouldn't last long. I needed to find a way of making some money. I briefly considered returning to the cherry farm in Dodge Junction, but that would have required bits, too. Perhaps I could make it as a tradespony? No, I had no skills in that area when I was human, and this pony body didn't do much to help my coordination. I wasn't used to it yet. When I had fled from Ponyville, it was instinct. I wasn't thinking about running, I was thinking about escaping, and my body's natural instincts took care of the rest.

I couldn't work as a weather pony without the ability to fly. I had the wings, but not the skills. My imagination filled with images of Rainbow Dash laughing at me as I tried to fly, failing miserably. I considered taking on a mail or newspaper route, but I'd have the same problem. The image then was of Derpy laughing at me. That one was even worse.

Maybe I could serve the ponies of the world. Prove that I could be somepony more. I could return to Ponyville as a firepony, or maybe a guard. They would respect that. 

I decided then what I would do. I would make my way to Canterlot and make something of myself, then I could go back to Ponyville and prove to Twilight and her friends that they had been wrong. I smiled. Things were going to be better, I was sure of it.