Chapter 1
Feeling Black and White is Just Not Right
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Morning
That cursed time that people always say is the best part of the day. I don’t know who had come up with such a convincing can of worms, but I suppose it must have worked. Everyone does it.
I groaned as I felt the first rays of sunlight pierce the darkness of my bedroom, assaulting my closed eyes with unwelcomed light. The same warm welcome the morning always brings, and like every morning before… I rolled over to try to ignore it.
The idea of waking up early was completely lost to a night owl like me. There wasn't much sense in waking up in the morning and losing valuable sleep that could have been better used to stay up later at night. Especially since the night was much more relaxing than any morning I’d ever seen since I graduated.
I shifted underneath the covers again, letting them cover my head to force away the prying light. Heh, the covers this morning felt a little heavier than they normally did, but a lot warmer as well. I didn't think much more about it as I began to feel the slow comforting sensation of unconsciousness retake me.
I was just delaying my inevitable wake up call and I knew it. Still I suppose I couldn't be blamed for trying.
This was my regular schedule for how days went lately. Since I had started college, every day began to feel more like a few scripted events rather than a normal day, like it had been back in highschool. Wake up call was always at 8 A.M with the alarm clock going off, shortly followed by me hitting said infernal device every five minutes as it reset to make it out of bed at 9 A.M.
9 A.M to 10 A.M consisted of taking a shower and hurriedly grabbing books, paper and anything else I needed for another day in the stimulating life of an information technologies major. 11 A.M to 2 P.M was allotted for desperately trying to cram all the information on the inner working of a motherboard and hard drive into a single binder for the eventual midterm.
3 PM to 8 P.M was snatched up by my part time job working in the back of the college bookstore. It was mostly heavy lifting and labeling to make sure everything was going where it needed to be. If I wasn’t doing that there was always a freshman that needed a new chemistry manual, or a senior coming in to return his entire college career’s worth of books. A bookstore part timer had a lot more work than most people would initially think.
8:30 P.M to 9:30 P.M was possibly the worst part of the day, my night class. To be more specific, Chem lab was the worst time of my day. Chemistry was certainly lost to me. I wasn't even sure why I needed to know all the isotopes of carbon, or the chemical bonds they could create. Nothing like that would help in moving any further in a field of music and sound development.
It wasn't that I hated the teacher himself. It was just mind numbingly brutal to watch the hours slip by till I could finally go home. It didn't help that the professor seemed to enjoy making the periodic table and chemical equations sound even more dull and drab than they already were.
10 P.M to 3 A.M was the part of the day I always worked for. It was the precious “me” time before starting the entire day over again at 8 AM. This was almost entirely spent on the computer wasting my time, particularly in Logic Pro trying to make some form of dubstep or symphonic music.
That was the routine I lived out life by with very few exceptions. Of course there were those rare exceptions, and weekends where I would live dangerously and head down to the movie theater to watch the hottest thing with a couple friends, or head to the beach with its famous white sands during the warmer months, but those events happened few and far between. Sometimes I forgot to check for new events with everyone altogether.
I was a bit of a social recluse, spending a lot of my time on my computer, Ipad, or some other piece of handheld technology. I probably had more online friends than actual friends, but in this day and age that was rather common. Though if anyone had taken the time to get to know me, or more simply, search through my computer’s web history what they’d find would most likely surprise some people.
Ponies.
Ok, ok, I’ll say it, I was a brony, not that I would openly admit it to many people. For most of the public, the idea of twenty plus year old men watching a cartoon show targeted for three year old little girls wasn't an easy concept to come to terms with. There were plenty of satires on TV now of the fandom in general, more poking fun at the idea than openly malicious.
For myself, I had a few of my own unique problems about what was socially acceptable in the local community. The small town of Pensacola Florida was more of a traditional stylized southern town, and like most towns in the Deep South, anything that didn't line up with the traditional value system wasn't widely appreciated. Things star wars nerds, trekkies, and the occasional brony were almost an endangered species in the area.
That however was all before the thing that had happened nine days ago. Every person on the planet had probably done their own personal spit take when the two rulers of Equestria, Princess Celestia and her little sister Luna, randomly threw a press conference on television to announce they needed the elements of harmony immediately.
No, no, this wasn't any sort of Hub network television special. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and possibly any other news agency with a name was broadcasting it live and in real life in New York.
I missed the actual live airing, but websites like Ponychan, Equestria Daily, even Fimfiction were keeping up with almost every little detail of what had happened since then. Apparently ten days ago, Lauren Faust, the creator of the current generation of My Little Pony had woken up as none other than Princess Celestia. Shortly thereafter Tara Strong, the voice actor of the main character had become Princess Luna.
To say that the media had a field day on the coverage since then was an understatement. Each day it seemed there were more cases of what was being called “Ponification” which in turn had caused more and more news reports about the “pony problem” or “The Equestrian Invasion” as some news groups had started called it, depending on which source you chose.
For me, it seemed more like a movie or some strange twist of a story than actual reality. It just seemed like an interesting distraction. Nothing in my life had really changed at all, other than the calendar days going bonkers whatever reason. Now every week was its own year, which had thrown my overall weekly schedule to hell and back.
Some said that it was the effect of this “magic” messing with our world. Others thought it was just another huge prank caused by some elaborate virus a master hacker from who knows where had made it. The more out there theories of course, linked it directly with the pony issue in New York City, because everything was always tied to everything else. Coincidences were never allowed to happen apparently.
In the end though, nothing was new for me. So long as I kept focused on classes and my job I doubted life would change much.
Just as those thoughts had entered my head I finally felt sweet unconsciousness take me again...
‘BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…’
DAY 10 8:00 AM
Or not…
“Ugh…” I mumbled, trying to cover my ears from my nemesis. I managed to crack an eye open to stare at the illuminated alarm clock from across the room. After a couple… incidents with the snooze button, I kept my alarm clock as far away from my bed as possible to keep from sleeping right through it. The only flaw in the strategy was that I had to actually make an effort to get out of bed to hit the snooze button.
I closed my eyes again and rolled over, trying to ignore the racket for as long as I could. Just five more minutes and the clock would automatically go to snooze on its own, if I could make it through that long.
“Ugh… Make that infernal sound cease,” I muttered into my pillow, “so that I may sleep in peace.” I stopped trying to bury my head into the covers momentarily as soon as the sound I had heard was finally processed.
‘Wait…. What?’
Something seemed wrong with my voice. It was far too deep for how I normally spoke. Great, I must have caught some sort of bug the other day. No wonder I felt so out of it last night.
“To wake up sick in bed,” I groaned, “only means a long day ahead” I paused for a moment as I took the sounds in. My ears twitched strangely with each word. The feeling itself was strange and unsettling. My ears had never twitched before, and it felt like they had… moved?
“W-what happened to my ears? Something’s wrong I fe-.” I stopped myself in mid sentence.
I was certain now that something was wrong with my voice. It was far too deep, and alarmingly feminine to be my own, but what worried me more was how the words had been spoken. It was one thing to have an illness effects on your voice, but no sickness caused a person to suddenly develop a completely different accent.
Groggily I pulled my head out of my pillow to look around. Nothing about my room had really changed. As far as I could see, the floor was still littered clothes and empty bags of junk food, remnants of long nights of gaming and building music in Logic Pro. I still needed to invest in a trash can beside my computer.
At that thought I shifted my attention to the work desk where my computer sat, still in idle with said sound program running just as I had left it the night before. I glanced to the dresser and alarm clock which was silent again. Five minutes had already passed?
All in all everything looked just as it had the night before. However as I gazed down to my own bed, I was in for a bit of a rude shock from the bed sheets.
My mind began to start running into full gear, but was still unable to process exactly what I was seeing underneath my bed sheets. I was six foot, so normally I wouldn't have been surprised to have my feet hit the back plank of the bed, but as I stared at the small lump under the covers that was my body, I was stunned to see it only reach about half that distance.
“W-Wha….?” I mouthed to myself, my voice still sounding foreign to me. I guess it must have been the drowsiness but I still couldn't come to a conclusion to what I was looking at.
It was like waking up to see that someone had come during the night, taken your legs, and made off with them. A twinge of fear went through me as I made that thought. Slowly, I stretched a leg as far as I could, which thankfully complied as it moved the sheets underneath, easing my mind slightly.
There was something very wrong with the limb though. First off, my leg felt differently, and it was quickly obvious from how the sheets moved that it was not the same shape as before. The more alarming issue was a different sensation that came from just above my rear as I felt something I’d never felt in my life before move as well. An extra limb, what?
I gave an audible gulp as I moved an arm to toss the covers off myself. Upon seeing it however, the confusion I had before quickly turned to chilling fear as it came into my view.
My “arm” was now just a long stump covered with striped black and white fur. In the place of my hand was now a simple black hoof. I examined the new appendage further in awe as I moved it experimentally. It looked exactly like an animal’s foreleg. Upon studying it though, I noticed that was where the similarities ended. Experimentally, I raised it above my head, out to my side, and everywhere in-between. It acted like an arm… sort of, but it was still a leg, a foreleg?
“This is just too much to take, surely I can't be awake.” I said in wonder. I quickly put a ha-hoof to my mouth when the realization of what may have been happening dawned on me.
‘A strange accent, twitching ears at the top of my head, striped hooves?’
Ponification.
It was happening world wide, even if there was probably a one in five hundred thousand chance of someone contracting it. My luck wasn’t that bad, but here I was with hooves and a voice that was beginning to sound more familiar each time I heard it….
‘No, nope, nope nope nope! It can't be, it isn’t, its just some crazy dream.’ I assured myself
My attention quickly returned to what laid beneath the covers. If it was true there was one sure way to find out. With another very audible gulp I threw the covers off myself and stared down in a mixture of disbelief and, frankly, mild panic at this point.
“This just can’t be as it seems!” the voice, now almost obvious to me, shouted. “I must still be in my dreams!”
What I saw when I took off my covers was a small equine body, much smaller than a regular horse's. Pale white, with only a couple dull black stripes covered it’s…my… body and legs. There was also a tail with long flowing striped hairs that twitched reflexively as it came into contact with the still warm bed sheets.
What had immediately caught my attention was distinct spiral sun marking adorning my flanks that I knew only too well. I quickly turned away before I could check downstairs for changes in plumbing I was almost sure had occurred. There was no need to think of what was obviously a gender swap.
“Is this… me?” I mumbled under my breath. “It just can’t be.” I gasped again as my hoof quickly found itself to my mou- er- muzzle for a second time. Another jolt of surprise and horror hit me when I realized I had ended the sentence with rhyme. Had I rhymed every sentence this entire morning?
I briefly went over everything I had said since I woke up, only to confirm that it was right. I had indeed spoken in rhyme without even thinking of it. I began to feel myself physically tremble as I thought of what that meant. The only pony I knew that rhymed was…. no, nope, not happening. This had to be a dream.
I must have sat there staring in disbelief for what felt like hours before I was brought back to reality. Immediately the alarm clock began blaring again to remind me that my five minutes of peace and quiet were over.
‘Oh… right, one thing at a time I guess…’ I thought to myself. I almost refused to speak those words out loud in case they ended up twisted into another rhyme of some sort.
I simply looked at the direction of the angry little clock before I reminded myself I had to physically move to turn it off. Shakily I picked myself up onto all four… legs. Just like so many other feelings this morning, standing on four legs was an immediate strange sensation. It was nothing like having two legs to balance on, but it didn't seem uncomfortable. I quickly had to refocus as a hoof suddenly sank slightly into the springs of the mattress.
Before long I inched my way towards the edge of mattress, almost losing my balance for a moment before peering over the edge down to the floor. My bed was about a good 2 feet from the floor, not much of a drop, but when you find yourself half your original size it felt like jumping off the roof of a building. I fidgeted my hoof, unsure of what to do before I finally had enough nerve to make the step. Steadily I brought my right foreleg down to the floor, followed quickly by the rest of my body face first with a loud thump.
“Ouch!” I yelped, more from surprise than actual pain. “Oh… my aching head,” I groaned unconsciously rubbing away the dull pain, “I should have stayed in be-” I quickly shut my mouth before I could finish the sentence.
‘Stop rhyming!’ I scolded myself in my mind.
I picked myself up again and stood shakily on the carpeted floor. Well, step one had been achieved, I had made it onto the ground, now for the alarm clock. All I had to do was make it across my self made obstacle course of laundry. ‘Perhaps there is some merit in keeping a clean room after all.’ I thought to myself sarcastically.
I brushed the thought aside as I steadily trotted towards the dresser.
“Oof.”
Or at least I would have if I had known how to control four legs. Without thinking my hind legs had moved forward along with the rest of my body causing me to fall flat on my face for the second time in a row. I got up again, this time more carefully before I tried moving.
I tried again, this time moving one hoof forward and putting some weight on it, only to quickly feel my balance slip from under me. Before I knew it I was on the floor again, thankfully this time I more of plopped down on my flank rather than my face. I didn't bother getting up this time. This wasn't working at all. I needed to figure out a new approach.
A grumble escaped my throat as I dragged my stomach across the floor slightly when it hit me. If I couldn't walk I could at least drag myself to the clock! After all it was what babies did before they learned to walk. A small voice in the back of my head protested the idea of acting like a baby, but still it was more progress than walking!
I turned to my right hoof and dragged it slowly across the floor, and to my surprise actually found myself move an inch closer to my goal. ‘Ha-ha!’ I thought to myself in triumph. ‘Take that gravity!’ Four legs aren't going to stop me after all.
Steadily I wiggled my way slowly towards the dresser till I found myself before my destination. I looked to the top where the object of my mission had suddenly begun chirping loudly again.
‘Ten minutes, it took ten minutes to get from bed, to the dresser. Ugh, worst, dream, ever.’ I groaned inwardly.
I looked back down to my legs, still sprawled out on the floor and then back to the top of the dresser. Guess it was finally time to try using what those things were made to do again.
As carefully as possible I made my way back onto my four hooves, managing a shaky standing position that probably looked more like a pony that had one too many drinks. I looked back up to the clock that was almost two heads still over me.
‘Alright, alright, I can do this’ I psyched myself up mentally as I thought up a plan for getting to the top. I put my right hoof on the top of the dresser, quickly followed by my left, and with a big push was at eye level with my nemesis. With a rewarding ‘thunk’ sound by my hoof, I smacked the off button and all was quiet in my room again.
“Phew,” I sighed in relief as I let myself off the cabinet. With the pain from the alarm clock gone I could finally think again. I looked back to my forelegs and hopped off the top of the dresser. With all this done it was now time to get back to bed and sleep through the rest of this dream. There was just one problem with that. I could feel my ears physically flatten against my skull in dissatisfaction as I realized I had to make it back through the room to get there.
It was still a weird feeling.
I turned my head away in frustration. “Well that’s enough gawk, I’ll just relearn to wal- *gasp*” My body froze completely as I noticed what I was starting straight into when I turned my head.
It was my mirror.
‘No, it can’t be her. I… it just can't.’ What stared back at me was no human at all. It wasn’t even a pony.
I stared straight into the zebra’s sky blue eyes, and saw silent panic on her face, the same panic that was on my face. Her mane was styled into a black and white Mohawk, which seemed to have suffered my morning bed head. Three black stripes flowed off from her eyes; with one large stripe one covering her nose and mouth. I knew exactly who it was, but still didn’t believe it. I was staring straight into the face of Zecora, the only zebra that had ever been MLP FIM.
My legs suddenly stopped working once again as I found myself crashing down onto my side. I heard a painful shout as I fell back. It was my tail!
My tail had taken the brunt of the fall and bent backwards at an awkward angle. Immediately I felt a hot spike of pain to go up my spine. I never knew having a tail could hurt so much!
I stopped rubbing my flank tenderly with a hoof as what I had just thought had made it through my head. I felt pain, lots of pain just now. You never feel pain in a dream.
‘No… no, nonononononononono.’
I closed my eyes, refusing to see the reflection in front of me. I didn’t want to believe that this was true, it couldn't be true, but it was. It was too much for me to even try to think of never mind accept. The dulling pain from my flank and tail was the only thing that made me aware I was lying prone on the floor.
“It’s not a dream… It’s not a dream….” At some point I noticed my voice muttering that phrase over and over like a broken record.
After a couple more minutes on the ground shaking I began to wonder. ‘What was going to happen to me now?’
I wouldn't be able to go to college like this, much less have any luck to operate equipment with me han… hooves. How was I going to explain this to everyone I knew, most of all, how would I explain this to my parents? That thought alone made me pull my hooves in as I began to shake at the results of a heart to heart with them.
When I had first heard about ponies coming to earth, I entertained myself with the idea of what sort of pony I would become. But now that it had actually happened, any excitement I had evaporated instantly. I didn’t actually want to be a pony, there were too many things in my life that made that a non option, but now I was her!
I was Zecora.
One thing was for sure though, this morning stopped being anything but ordinary. ‘On the bright side… I think this qualifies as an excused absence from class.