//------------------------------//
// Now Is The Place 
// Story: TCB: The Jig Of Life 
// by Madrigal Baroque 
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When Eun-sook arrived at the Bureau, she had resolved to make no acquaintances, to form no bonds, to keep herself to herself and reject all overtures of friendship. 

It was her desperate intent not to form any more attachments. She'd lost too many.

And it was, of course, laughably futile. Her budding friendship with Tib inevitably led to frequent encounters with Tib's first friend at the Bureau, a lavender pony who called herself Lilac and was a recent convert. Lilac was not merely bubbly, she was effervescent, and she elevated everyone around her with lifted spirits and a positive outlook.

Eun-sook wasn't immune, and on her third day of her residence at the Bureau she found herself sitting at a breakfast table with Tib, Lilac and a sour-faced black girl in a wheelchaircwho was Lilac's roommate. They were served an undeniably delicious breakfast by a handsome young man of East Asian descent, possibly Indian or Pakistani, who was a marvel in the kitchen.

During her first week, both kitchen wizard Trev and wheelchair-bound Ana went behind the steel-bound door and walked back out on hooves. Trev became a sunshine-yellow Earth pony who promptly christened himself Chocolate Chip Muffin. (Lilac, famed shortener of names, immediately dubbed him "Chip", and it stuck.) Ana was now a slim pegasus the color of pink champagne with a pearlescent mane and tail. She was breathtakingly lovely and graceful beyond comprehension, with none of the habitual awkwardness of a freshly-minted newfoal. She was called Featherfall Dancer, a name which echoed her delicate steps.

On Friday the new pegasus trainees were taken to the roof to be put through their paces. Lilac dragged the others up there to witness Featherfall's first flight. 
 
Featherfall was as graceful in the air as on the ground, flitting among the winged ponies struggling to navigate the errant breezes with delicate finesse. She presented herself before her friends and did a perfect midair pirouette, followed by a graceful bow. Tib clapped, Chip stomped and whooped, and Lilac pranced with delight.

Eun-sook smiled and nodded approval. She didn't clap her hands; her left arm had been bothering her all day. She must have slept on it wrong. Also, she was terribly winded from the climb up the stairs. Her chest ached miserably. 

After practice, the girls and Chip chattered and praised Featherfall's first flight all the way downstairs. It was only when they reached their landing that Tib noticed how much Eun-sook was struggling to breathe. Instead of pointing it out, Tib pleaded a headache brought about by the smog, and  suggested bringing trays for herself and Eun-sook back from the caff and making an early night of it. She promised they'd all meet at breakfast to discuss the day's activities.

Tib was as good as her word, but Eun-sook had no real appetite. In truth, the smell of the portobello stew was making her feel nauseated. She managed a couple of spoonfuls, then pleaded exhaustion and retired to her bed. Considerately, Tib doused the light and turned in as well.

It took a long time for Eun-sook to fall asleep.

She didn't realize she wouldn't be waking up.

Not as a human, anyway.

***

Eun-sook became aware again in an endless ocean of blackness. She was awake, but she couldn't see anything. She couldn't hear, couldn't feel. She was afloat, weightless, in a vast sensory deprivation chamber.

She tried to draw breath to scream, but she had no breath. She wasn't breathing. She had no lungs, no throat, no mouth, no eyes, no ears, no limbs. She was nothing but bare naked consciousness, adrift in a seamless void.

The nothingness around her promised peace, an end to fear and pain and loneliness. All she had to do was surrender to it, become part of it, and she would peacefully, painlessly cease to exist.

No!  Fiercely Eun-sook raged against the encroaching darkness, resisting the lure of oblivion with all her fighting spirit. She felt herself solidifying, regaining physical form, and then she fell on her back to a cold hard surface,  hard enough to knock her newly reclaimed breath out of her.

"I will not go!" she shouted at the dark canopy above her. "I refuse to fade into the dark. No matter the pain or hardship, whatever changes may befall me,  I want to live!"

"Well said."

Eun-sook sat up, instantly alert. She was on a marble dias, in the center of a cultivated glade of willows. Their long slim branches dipped  into a pool which encircled the platform onto which she had fallen. There were clusters of gardenias and moonflowers and night-blooming jasmine growing among the trees, filling the air with their fragrance. Eun-sook cast about for the one who'd spoken. "Who's there?"

A form the color of midnight stepped from the shadows. A pony, yes, but so much more. Her mane and tail held all the night's colored and moved and flickered like an aurora, stars glimmering within the folds. Her eyes were a brilliant azure. A black-pearl horn rested on her brow, and feathered wings adorned her withers. Above her horn she wore an ebon-black crown adorned with a shining crescent moon. Her hooves were shod in ornate filigrees of silver. She stood tall, regal, with the bearing of a world ruler...as she was. 

Eun-sook took in the totality of the fabled Princess of the Night. A vision of impossible beauty, a fairy tale made flesh. Diarch of all Equestria, subordinate only to her elder sister. "Luna."

The princess nodded her head. "I bid thee welcome. As the day is my dear sister's domain, so is mine the darkness of deepest night." She settled down beside Eun-sook, at her ease. "It was my thought we should speak, thee and I."

***

When Eun-sook woke up, she found herself not in bed, but lying on a blanket. It was hard underneath; she must be on the floor. She wasn't in the room she shared with her adopted granddaughter, either. It felt…different. Smelled different.

Her eyes seemed stuck shut for a moment, but she managed to coax them open. The first thing she saw was Tib's face, bending over her. The child's eyes were red and swollen--she'd been crying--but she wore an eager smile. She was kneeling on the floor, and Eun-sook realized her head was in her granddaughter's lap.

"Hwnh…" Eun-sook's mouth felt strange. She tried to work out how to speak with it–had she had a stroke? That thought should have worried her, but somehow it didn't. She felt too good. She felt wonderful.

She tried moving her legs, then her arms. Everything seemed to be working, but it felt kind of strange. Good, strong, with no pain for the first time in years…but strange.

Again she tried to speak, and this time it worked better. "Where are we? What happened?"

"You're a pony now, Halmeonee." Tib looked happier than Eun-sook had ever seen her. Joy made her look almost pretty. "You've been Converted."

"I've been what?" Eun-sook moved her arms, only they weren't arms anymore, they were forelegs. She stared at her polished hooves in astonishment. "When did this happen?"

"Almost an hour ago." Tib was stroking her neck. It felt really nice. Comforting. "You're so beautiful."

Eun-sook squirmed, trying to get her new legs under her. "Why did nobody ask me first? I go to sleep in bed, and boom! I wake up as a pony?"

Tib bit her lip. "Don't you like it?"

"Of course I like it! I came all the way out here to be a pony!" She twisted and managed to push herself upright, resting on folded legs, trying to bring her face level with Tib's. "I just didn't expect it to be like this. Surprise, pony!"

"Umm…"Tib looked away, behind Eun-sook. "Little help here?"

Eun-sook turned her head. To her surprise, she found that she could look directly behind her without turning her body. That nice doctor, the one with red hair, was smiling at her.

"You had a bit of a medical emergency last night," the doctor explained. "I didn't have time to examine you, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was a heart attack. We had to ponify you right away."

There was something Pastern wasn't telling her…something that she could see in the hazel depths of Tib's eyes…but she felt oddly disinclined to pursue it.

For the moment, at least.

All exclaimed over her appearance–her blue-green coat, her flame-colored mane and tail, her golden hooves and horn…yes, she was a unicorn. She could still feel a soft tingling on her brow, from…

From what?

"I'm going to have to kick you two out, "Pastern said, interrupting Eun-sook's thoughts as she pushed open  the door. . "I have a little boy coming in about half an hour."

"I'll try," Eun-sook said, shifting her legs underneath her. "I'm not sure yet how to work these things."

"I'll help." Tib stood up, wrapped her long arms around Eun-sook's barrel, and lifted her to her hooves.

Somehow the feeling of her granddaughter's embrace warmed her heart greatly. She walked out of the room to be greeted by their friends, and although Eun-sook grumbled at the attention, she was happy to see them. As though she'd believed she'd never see them again…but that was a silly notion.

Wasn't it?

***