//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Alone // by Syringed //------------------------------// “BRING IT ON RAIN!! YOU CANNOT STOP ME!!!! MUAHAHA!!” What did I drink last night? Well, I remember something along the lines of nearly empty wine bottles at the back of some fancy restaurant in New York. Yeah, I’m digging through garbage cans in New York. How did my life come to this? I had such a bright future! I had straight As! I was rejected by about five girls for the Winter Formal Prom! I was just another scrub on the school band! What the hell am I talking about? How drunk am I?! I stumble through the wet paths of Central Park. My legs give way and I fall to the ground with a splash. I don’t bother to get up. Why should I get up? There is no point to keep living. Animal Control in five states are out for my blood, the government is tailing me, and worst of all, I’m alone. Alone in this shithole of a country. Is this not supposed to be the land of the brave, home of the free, or something…something…something like Liberia? Liberty, that’s the word. Or something. I mean look at me! I’m a grey horse! I’ve got dark grey hair, or mane! I’m wearing a freaking bow tie and I’ve got a tattoo of a treble clef on my butt! I push myself up with shaky legs and look at my reflection in the puddle I landed in. Man, I look so cute. NO! I cannot be attracted to myself! But I look so— SMACK Did I seriously just slap myself? Screw conscious thought. I’m too drunk. Who knew only about 20 near empty wine bottles could get me drunk. Good thing I didn’t let it go to waste. This is low. Digging through garbage for sustenance. So, let’s go back and see how the duck I got here. I wonder if I can rent a Delorean time machine from Hertz? I woke up to the sound of rain, pitter-pattering on the lone window in my room. The rain fell particularly hard, as if it was trying to make a point to us. Living in Nashville meant it rained. And I mean it rained. Sometimes, I felt like it was always raining. Sure, I like rain, it makes me feel like I’m alive, but it still disrupted my sleep. I rolled back over and stuffed my head under my pillow, trying to block out the annoying tapping of the rain. The rain won out though, the constant tapping finally driving what little sleep I had in me out. I looked to my right, my alarm clock saying that it was 8:37 in bright green numbers. I was late for school, by about one and a half hours. I never did sleep through my alarm, but there’s a first time for everything. Panicking, I flailed around, trying to drag myself out of the mess of blankets that I had wrapped myself in overnight. But instead of actually getting out of bed blanket-free, I roll off the side of the bed and end up on the floor in a heap of limbs and blankets. I’ll have to say, it was a pretty good start to the day, considering what was going to happen to me later. Anyways, I tried to get up off the floor, but I lost to the bastard we call gravity. I fell back onto the cold floor with a dull thud. Unfazed by the difficult task at hand, I pushed my dark grey hair out of my face and reattempt to get up. That wasn’t right. If I remember correctly, my hair was a brown color, and it didn’t go past my face. Something was definitely wrong. I groped around me, trying to find that blasted lamp in the darkness of the early morning. After about five minutes of mindless grabbing of air, I finally find the power switch on my lamp, and light filled the room. My eyes were still accustomed to the darkness of night, so the lamp blinded me. I was forced to shut my eyes to prevent temporary blindness by bedside lamp. Slowly, I was able to open them, letting light ease into my eyes. Finally, I was able to see without getting blinded by my own bedside lamp. I stretched, groaning as my limbs protested against the harsh movement. I looked around my room, spying my instrument case housing my clarinet for band, my desk completely swamped by papers that still need completing, and my Apple laptop sitting in its place on my bookshelf. I then decided looked over to my full-length mirror hanging from my bedroom door. And what I saw made me jump back and scream like a little girl. I was at a loss of words to describe what I saw. There was a…horse thing that stood at about 3 feet tall, and was light grey. Her hair was a dark grey, and she was wearing a bowtie. Weirdest thing was that there was a treble clef symbol right in the middle of that thing’s…flank? Coincidentally, I blinked, and she blinked. I opened my mouth, and she did the same. My face then formed a look of mortal terror. And she had the same look. I looked down, and saw two grey stumps. And I was out like a light before I hit the ground. I came around again a bit later. I found myself in a heap on the floor, lying on a pile of blankets. I rubbed my face and massaged my temples. “Oh god…what a nightma…” I stopped at the sound of my voice. Instead of the voice of a 16 year old male, I heard the voice of a female. I started giggling like I was insane, but then again, maybe I am. I thought that it was a dream, although that would be illogical since not 30 seconds ago I thought woke up from a “dream”. Now, a human is supposed to have hands right? I opened my eyes and instead of a pair of hands, I see a pair of hooves. Panic building up inside me again, I looked back at my mirror, and I jumped back in terror. The thing looked slightly familiar. I wracked my brain, trying to find out where I have seen that before. It was a cartoon character…from the show…My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. The character was…Octave? Octavias? Octiavio? Octavia! Yes, it was Octavia! Just another tidbit I received from the internet. I myself wasn’t a fan of the show. The animation was good, I’ll admit that, but it just was not my thing. I struggled to comprehend what I was seeing. I stood there, absolutely dumbfounded at the sight. Then my brain decided to flip the table, slap me across the face, and scream “Dude, you’re a fucking pony!” And it worked. Reality came crashing down on me as I realized the horrible truth. I was a pony. A character from a show for little girls. Crazy thoughts then swirled through my distraught brain; the following is a small sample. What’s the government gonna do to me?! What are they gonna do, gut me and perform sickly experiments on me?! Put me into a containment center as another one of those SCP things?! I could see the headlines now. NEW SETINENT HORSE-LIKE CREATURE FOUND! Excruciating experiments to be performed on creature to find out where it has come from! I was getting a bit ahead of myself, I’ll admit it, but I was panicking! I went from being a 6’1” human being to a 3’ horse! And I turned FEMALE! Life is unfair, unfortunately. It is extraordinarily unfair. To make matters even worse, I heard footsteps coming towards my room. “Life, you can take your crap and shove it.” I said, listening to my now classy and elegant sounding voice. One good thing I got outta this was getting a sophistcated voice. The doorknob on my bedroom door jiggled a bit. I panicked for the umpteenth time that day. What was I gonna do? Should I hide, or show myself? Was I gonna sprint for it when the door opens? The door creaked, and I made a questionable split second decision. I stood there, in plain freaking sight. It was arguably the worst decision I have made in my entire life, and I once decided to parkour through downtown Nashville. The door swung open and there was my older sister, who was texting away on her phone, standing at the doorway.