There was silence. We all sat there, stunned. My mind tried to reboot. It wasn’t until the green fire had completely turned my manual to ash that my brain was able to form a coherent thought.
“So... green fire.” I said. It wasn’t much of a thought.
“Well, this has gone from mild prank right on down to serious business,” said David.
“Did we really see what I think we just saw?” asked Shane.
“The ash proves as much.” I replied.
“So, what do we do now?” asked David.
I was very thankful for the question. With something to focus on, my brain clunked back into action. “That depends on what happens next,” I said. “If this is the extent of what happens, then we ignore it, try and have the marks removed and pretend this never happened. If it’s not...” I trailed off, not knowing what to say. What can you say to such a possibility?
“What do you mean by that?” asked Shane. “What else do you think is going to happen?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “All I know is that now I can do this-” I breathed a jet of flame. “I have no idea what happened to let me do that. And call me paranoid, but I think that whatever can make that happen isn’t going to stop with just two cutie marks and a party trick.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead, trying to iron the tiredness out of my brain, “Look, it’s pointless to speculate about this with so little information. We may be getting worked up over nothing. We should get some sleep and await further developments in the morning.” I went to my room.
As soon as I got inside, I flopped down on my bed. My mind was in turmoil. A very big part of me, most of me, just wanted whatever happened to be a dream, some kind of hallucination. But a small part, deep down, was very intrigued by what was going on. This was more than just some semester final. Life was finally getting interesting. I would get to the bottom of whatever this was. If it doesn’t kill you first, said the big part of me. True, there was always that. With these thoughts chasing themselves around my brain, I fell asleep.
When I awoke the next morning, the clock told me that it was 9 in the morning. “Well, nothing like a Saturday for sleeping in,” I said to myself. The events of the previous night came back to my mind. Had it all been a dream? Nervously, I grabbed the trash can from the corner of my room, took a piece of paper from my desk and held it above the trash can. Bracing myself for the answer, I took a deep breath and let it out over the paper. The paper was buried in green flames. Sighing, I dropped it into the metal can and watched it burn out. So much for that hope. I got up and left my room.
Shane and David were already in the kitchen fixing themselves breakfast. The room was silent. I could tell from the nervous stances and shifting eyes that things were just as real for them as they had been for me. As I entered the room, they glanced at me, but said nothing. I walked over to the counter, trying to decide what to eat. I heard David clear his throat behind me.
“So... do you have any ideas?” he asked tentatively.
“About what?” I said, feigning ignorance.
“About last night,” said David annoyed. “And what to do about it."
“I thought we were going to wait for further developments before deciding anything,” I said, turning to face him.
David and Shane shared a glance.
“What?” I asked.
“Um... you haven’t noticed?” Shane asked.
“Noticed what?”
“Take a look at your eyes,” David said.
Curious, I walked into our bathroom and looked into the mirror. My normally blue eyes were now a vivid bright green. The pupils, once round, were now slitted, like a reptile’s. A very certain reptile in particular.
I came out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen, now making sure to glance at the eyes of my roommates. Both pairs of eyes were blue. They had always been brown before. I sat down on a stool near the counter. “Is that the- Are those the colors of-?”
Shane nodded, cutting me off. “We looked it up. Blue is the eye color of both Doctor Whooves and Shining Armor.” I sat there for a few seconds, stunned.
David looked at me, anxiety clear on his face. “What do we do about this?” he asked, the panic in his voice rising. “I mean, how far is this going to go?”
I looked at him, noticing his scared, almost frantic expression. “I don’t know,” I said, grabbing a fork out of a nearby drawer. “But at least one good thing came out of this.”
“What?” asked Shane.
I grabbed a piece of nearby bread and speared it on the fork. Holding the fork in front of my mouth, I let loose a stream of fire in front of the bread, making sure to toast it evenly on both sides. “We never need to buy another toaster again,” I said, dropping the toast onto a plate.
There was silence for a good three seconds. Then we all burst into laughter. The relief in tension was almost palpable. We kept laughing, unable to stop for a good minute. “Oh wow,” said David. “I don’t know how, but that made me feel loads better.”
“It’s because you’re taking this too seriously,” I said. “You have to accept it with a certain amount of resignation. We have no idea how this is happening, but we do know that we didn’t do it to ourselves, so until we find out what did do this, there’s nothing we can do to change it. Why continue to freak out and worry? That’s not going to do anything. We just need to roll with the punches.”
“So that begs the question,” Shane said. “What do we do next?”
“Well, I say we prepare for the worst possible eventuality.” I replied. “Let’s assume that we’re going to go all the way and turn into Shining Armor, Doctor Whooves and Spike. If it does happen, we’ll be prepared. If it doesn’t, we’ll be pleasantly surprised. Agreed?” They both nodded. “Good. Now, let’s get down to the discussion every brony has contemplated, but never fully considered; What would I do if I were to turn into a pony?”
We sat at the table for a few hours, talking about the things we’d need to get and what we’d need to do. As we talked, I toasted some breakfast for everyone. We decided that we needed supplies. We left the question of our base of operations until later. We knew that we had to go somewhere. Our apartment was near the university campus, which was near the center of the city. It was far too localized and there were way too many people around. But every time we tried to think of where to go, we were stopped by the question of what to do. There was no point in going somewhere if we had no direction to go. Eventually we settled for getting supplies and waiting out the day, monitoring ourselves and charting out the progression of the change.
“Well, I’d better get going if I’m going to get all the stuff we need,” Shane said, turning away from the table. My eyes followed him.
“Yeah, uh, double time it,” I said, looking at his hair. “You’re getting more noticeable by the minute,”
Shane caught my look and pulled at a strand of his now-abnormally-long brown hair. The ends were lightly colored several different shades of blue. “Let me guess,” he said. “Shining Armor’s mane color?” I nodded. “Great,” he huffed, and without another word, he headed for the door. I turned to see David inspecting his own hair. I could see differences as well. His hair was now several shades darker than its usual color, already making the transition from red to brown.
I tried looking at mine. It seemed that mine hadn’t lengthened like the others had. I went to the mirror and saw that my normally black hair now had tips of solid green. The ends had also fused together in some places, creating clumps that could not be completely separated. I walked back out to find David still staring at his hair, looking distant. I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry,” I said, looking him in the eye. “We’ll figure this out.”
He nodded, but then stopped. “Uh, you’re looking me in the eye,” said David.
“Yeah, so?”
“Um, aren’t you about a half a foot taller than me?” he asked.
I froze. “Yeah, I am.” I said comparing our two heights. We were now more or less even at 5 foot 6. "How is it that I’m shrinking and you’re not?” I asked.
David shrugged. “Eventually I’m going to end up on all fours. That should put me at about pony height. Spike stands on two legs though.”
I looked at him. “For someone who was freaking out this morning, you seem to be taking these new developments in stride.”
David laughed. “The way I see it, even if I didn’t ask for this, this is still a crazy opportunity. Think about how many scientists would kill to be in my position. This whole situation has never happened before. At least, I don’t think so. That means I’m one of the first. It’s almost as prestigious as walking on the moon. Almost. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.”
“What work?” I asked.
“I’m making a record of this process,” he said, turning to sit down at his computer desk next to the TV. “I’ll put it on my blog.”
I snorted. “Do you really think anyone else will take it seriously?”
David shrugged. “At worst, I’m ignored or ridiculed. At best, I become the world’s most renowned Photoshopper, and who knows, maybe someone else who needs will be able to find it and use it.”
The notion caught me completely by surprise. Up until now, I hadn’t considered that there might be others out there experiencing the same things. “What makes you think there are others?” I asked him.
He rolled his eyes. “Come on, do you really think it’s a coincidence that we all just happened to turn into ponies exactly on our birthdays? There’s like a .000000000000000000000000862% chance of that happening. This was no freak of nature event. Something’s causing this. And if it’s theme seems to be MLP, why should it settle for just creating a few background ponies? Why not make the Mane Six as well?”
I tried to wrap my head around the conversation. “You’re talking as though there’s some higher power behind this.”
David shook his head. “Not a higher power, just a sentient force,” He looked away, his face thoughtful. “Probably not the government. Even if they could transmogrify people, they wouldn’t turn them into kids’ show talking ponies. Besides, transforming on our birthdays is just a bit too poetic for the government. It was probably something from Equestria.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Something from Equestria? As in the actual, straight-from-TV, Hasbro Equestria?”
David shrugged. “Sure, why not? If we are turning into the ponies from Equestria, doesn’t that kind of prove the existence of Equestria in the first place? And if it does, what does that say about how this change started? Or more importantly, who started it.” he said, looking at me pointedly.
I held up my hand to stop him. “Don’t get carried away,” I said. “I can see your point about this all starting in Equestria, but I think it’s a little too early to start speculating on who or what caused it. Now you’re just letting the series finale get to you.” David reluctantly nodded and then turned back to his computer. Who wouldn’t let the finale get to them though? It had been the most bizarre, messed up ending to a children’s show he’d ever seen. Discord had teamed up with Celestia, in order to defeat a monster, but when the opportunity came, he’d disposed of the goddess and gone on to take out Twilight, thus disabling the Elements of Harmony. Twilight...
I broke out of my thoughts, very much surprised to feel a tear running down my face. No. I refused to believe that Discord had done anything. First of all, it was ridiculous to assume that just because Equestria might be real, all the events of the show were as true as history. Secondly, if it was true, if Discord was behind this... How did one fight against a god? I shook my head to clear it. I wouldn’t let myself get carried away. It was one thing to form a theory. It was another to imagine primeval spirits were working against you.
While David busied himself with his blog, I worked on making the house more pony friendly. I went around and removed the door knobs off of the doors. They didn’t close fully, but now they could be opened without one having to eat metal. I also went around attaching ropes to things with small handles, so that they could be opened more easily. I knew it was busy work, we weren’t planning on making this our base of operations, but it was something to keep my mind off of the changes I could feel happening. David interrupted me several times in order to take pictures of the changes and monitor how they were progressing. So far, the only new thing was the continued solidification and coloration of my hair. By the time I was done around the apartment, it was about 2 o'clock. David was still working on his blog, so I decided to go and take a nap.
As I got to my room and shut my door, I suddenly collapsed under an intense pain. It felt like someone on the inside of my head had a hammer and nails, and was trying to pound their way out. The pain continued, throbbing unbearably for a few seconds, and then subsided. Standing weakly, I grabbed a mirror from off of my desk and examined myself. Nothing had changed. Tentatively, I examined my mind. I could sense something different, a crack in my mind. I wasn’t sure what it was, or how I could even sense it, seeing as my consciousness had no physical presence or sense whatsoever, but I could feel it. Something in my brain was uneven, displaced. There was a crack.
I shook my head, trying to clear it. Demonic pursuers, a crack in my mind. It was all nonsense. I just needed some rest to clear my head and get things back to normal. Well, as normal as they had become over the last few days. With this in mind, I went to my bed and fell asleep.
I awoke to a stinging pain. The phone on my table told me it was 4 o'clock. I got up and tried the shake the fog from my mind. The pain had stopped. Too tired to ponder these events, I got up and made my way out of my room, closing the door behind me with my tail. I passed through the living room and on into the bathroom. I went to the toilet and tried to drop my pants. Severe resistance. I tried again, harder this time. They wouldn’t budge. Clearing the last of the sleep from my brain, I turned to look behind me.
There, emerging from a ripped hole in my jeans, was a purple dragon’s tail, spiky end, spines, and everything. The purple continued a few inches up the rest of my back, before returning to my normal color. I stared at the tail for a full minute. I tried moving it. I twirled it in a full circle. It felt as though my back continued on past where it should have. The sensation was almost disturbing. I tried twisting it. I could twist the end almost a good 360 degrees around without even touching it. I could feel senses in every part of the tail, from the base to the tip. I had been sleeping on my back. Bending my tail must’ve been what had woken me up. Still getting over the sight of having a tail, I finished using the bathroom. As I stepped up to the sink to wash my hands, I looked into the mirror. I nearly leapt through the back wall in shock. It took me a couple minutes to come to grips with the fact that the image in the mirror was me.
My hair was gone. It had turned completely green, melded together and was now standing up right, unmistakably Spike’s trademark spines. I felt along my neck down towards my back. The spines got progressively smaller, until they were nothing more than bumps as they reached my back. “Okay, so still some growth left to happen there,” I said to myself. I reached up and tried to bend one of the spines. It bent, but with resistance, much like trying to bend one’s ears.
Speaking of ears, I took a look at mine. With my hair gone, they were very noticeable. And no longer there. In their places were two light green fin-looking appendages. Seeing as I could see no other ears anywhere, I assumed they were my new ears. I snapped my fingers. I could still hear just as good as before, if not better. How did these things work? Did they pick up vibrations like a regular ear? I shrugged. As long as I could still hear, it didn’t matter how they worked. All in all, my reflection looked crazy. I was looking at a bald guy with lizard eyes, green spines on his head and two fins sticking off the sides. The whole image looked way more natural on a dragon than it did on me.
I examined myself more closely. Was it my imagination, or were there subtler changes as well? My eyes looked bigger, and my head looked rounder. It might have been the result of losing my hair, but I wasn’t completely sure. I tapped my chin with my fingers, and was surprised to receive a sharp poke. I looked at my fingers to see that my nails had grown considerably past the tips and that the ends had turned purple and pointy. I checked my feet and found that the same thing had happened there as well.
I let out a deep breath. I knew that all these changes were coming, but seeing them all happen now kind of overwhelmed me. It felt like my body was betraying me, like I was losing the one part of me that most made up my identity. The only parts of my face that still resembled my original look were my nose and mouth. I felt irrationally sad. My entire life was being twisted around and I had less than zero say in the matter. Whatever was responsible for this had a lot to answer for. Dismissing these thoughts, I left the bathroom.
I left to find David in the living room playing video games on the TV. My eyes widened again. I really needed to stop doing that. It was going to make them sore. However, here, I couldn’t help it. David’s normally bright red ginger hair was now completely dark brown. A full-blown Doctor Whooves mane, complete with tan brown ears sticking out the top. As I watched, one of the ears twitched in my direction, picking up the noise of my footsteps. It was weird to see, almost as if the ear belonged to a complete stranger, not my roommate.
“Is Shane back yet?” I asked David.
“Nah,” he said turning to look at me. “He’ll be back in a couple of hou- Woah! Holy-” David jumped back, thrown off by my wild appearance. ”Man, you barely look human anymore!”
“Thanks,” I said darkly.
“Sorry,” David winced. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just thought that since you were going to be the most humanoid of all of us by the end of this thing, you would change pretty little overall.”
“Well, I guess not,” I said trying to change the subject. “What are you doing?”
“Just playing some video games, you know, while I still have some fingers to play them with.”
A genuine smile crossed my face. “That’s right, huh. I'm going to be the only one left with thumbs.”
David scowled. “Don’t rub it in,”
I started snapping my fingers. “What’s that? I can’t hear you over the sound of me snapping my awesome fingers.”
David smirked. “Well, I know at least one thing I have that you don’t.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Another six inches,” David said, standing up to prove it.
He was right. I’d shrunk another six inches in my sleep. “Argh!” I yelled. “At this rate, I’ll be a hobbit by breakfast tomorrow!”
David sat down, going back to his game. “Well, if you find any demonic, powerful jewelry, you know what to do with it.” I picked up the second controller and sat down next to him
Shane returned at about 10 o'clock, coming in and putting his keys away. He had his hood up, and as he removed it, I could see why. His hair, like ours, had transformed fully into a colorful mane, and Shining Armor’s hair, with its alternating patterns of blue, wasn’t very good at hiding the pure white pony ears on the top of his head. “I see you’ve been having the same day we’ve had,” I said.
“Not even close,” Shane grumbled. "I can’t tell you how many close calls I’ve had. From being interrogated by a couple of teens on how I dyed my hair, to putting my hood up just before a cashier noticed my new white ears. Do you have any idea how weird it feels to have your ears dissolve and then materialize on the top of your head?!”
“Not really,” I said. “I slept through it.”
“I do,” said David, raising his hand. “It’s pretty crazy.”
Shane pulled a bag out of his pocket. It was a bag of fast food. He looked strangely intent. “Here,” he said, offering some chicken nuggets to David. “Have some.”
An unconscious look of revulsion passed over David’s face. “No thanks,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Shane asked, waving the bag in front of him.
“No, please, I’m good.” said David. He looked a little green.
Shane sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of,”
“What?” I asked.
“The changes are becoming mental too,” he said. “On the drive back home, I was eating a cheeseburger. I had to spit it out and I nearly threw up. We’re showing an aversion to meat.”
I took a chicken nugget and popped it into my mouth. “Tastes fine to me,”
“Says the omnivore,” replied Shane.
David was thoughtful. “I don’t know,” he said. “The changes could just be physiological. Real horses aren’t vegetarian because they want to be, but because that’s how their bodies work. Ponies are probably the same way, so it’s just our bodies telling us that we can’t eat that food any more.”
Shane looked slightly mollified. “Anyway, could you guys help me with the-ahhh!” Shane fell to his knees, clutching his head.
David and I ran over to him. There, sticking out of the direct center of his forehead, was a small, stubby, white unicorn horn. I patted him on the back. “Congratulations, buddy,” I said. “You are now one of the world’s first unicorns.”
“What?!” he cried, his hands flying up to feel his head. He sighed. “And so the change continues, I suppose. It’s funny. Every time something else changes, it shocks me. Yet, I tell myself ‘I knew this was coming, I should have expected it.’ But it surprises me every time.”
I awkwardly tried to console him. “Hey man, this is new for all of us. If there wasn’t any shock, I’d worry about that more.”
Shane shrugged and got up. “Anyway, can you guys help me get the stuff out of the car?”
I spoke up. “Actually, we should probably wait and leave the stuff in there until we know where we’re going. Why move stuff around if we don’t have to?”
“I was under the impression that we had no idea what we were doing,” Shane said. David quickly brought Shane up to speed on our Equestria-is-real theory including David’s blog and the possibility of others like us. “Alright, so what does that have to do with what we do next?” Shane said.
“Well, that all depends on how this happened.” David said.
“Not really,” I interrupted. “Whether or not it happened maliciously, or Twilight-misusing-magic, or some cataclysmic arcane event, our best option is to try and contact someone from Equestria.”
We all sat there, contemplating that sentence. “Does anyone else feel like we just proposed summoning an alien spaceship?” asked Shane.
“Kind of,” said David. “It’s weird to think that it might all be real. That they all might exist, the mane six, Celestia, Spike, Ponyville. It might all be real, and because of what’s happened to us, we might be closer to them than any person on Earth has ever been. It’s a little mind blowing.”
“So, how do we contact someone from Equestria?” Shane asked, getting back on topic. “It’s in an entirely different universe, most likely. Although, if there is the possibility of others out there like us, maybe the government’s found them already. We could reveal ourselves and see.”
I held my hands up. “That seems like a last ditch option to me. Let’s explore our other possibilities first. We do have the Internet after all. That could be a big help. Besides, even if we don’t get found out by the government, others might, and that will probably be a big story.”
“If the government doesn’t cover it up,”’ said David.
Shane laughed. “Look at us, talking like a bunch of conspiracy theorists. I think it’s time we took a break for dinner. We have a pretty solid plan. Set up a base of operations, monitor the Internet, and try and find a way to contact someone from Equestria. Sound good?” We both nodded. “Good. Now let’s get dinner going.”
“What are we eating?” I asked.
Shane smiled “Spaghetti, a fork-essential food. If magic is going to take away our fingers, we’re going to spit in her eye while she does it.”
We got dinner ready and spent a good hour eating dinner, talking and laughing. Shane entertained us by managing to levitate a few small objects around the room. We spent a while speculating on the workings of magic. We concluded that it was probably based on thinking certain thoughts a certain way, since that seemed to trigger the magic and it would explain the need for magic textbook. We also concluded that we had been up for too long and were starting to feel it. We weren’t usually this tired, but we guessed that we were worn out from going through so many changes. Shane cleaned up the dishes using his magic, breaking quite a few plates in the process. Afterwards, we headed to bed. Maybe this whole thing wouldn’t be so bad, I thought, drifting into unconsciousness. It was certainly a change of pace. Plus, it pays to have good friends by your side.
I awoke at 8 o'clock the next morning, and began my new habit of checking myself for changes. The first thing I noticed was that I seemed to have lost nearly a foot in height. I measured myself at about 4 foot 2 now. Great. Spike was supposed to be about 3 feet high, seeing as he wasn’t quite as tall as the usual 4 foot pony. The next thing I noticed was that my toes had turned completely into claws. My feet were about halfway through the purplization as well. I examined my claws. Same thing there too. Well, at least I still kept my thumbs.
A thought struck me. If Shane had gotten his magic last night, then maybe... I grabbed a piece of paper off of my desk and tore a scrap from it. I grabbed a pen and tried to think of what to write. I shrugged and wrote Hey. I pictured Shane’s room firmly in my mind and then ignited the scrap. Instead of crumbling into ash on the floor, the scrap turned into a wisp of grey smoke and shot under the crack in my door, presumably on its way to Shane’s room. It worked! Smiling, I imagined the scrap appearing on top of sleeping Shane, maybe getting stuck in his nose or something. This was even more fun, and annoying, than texting a sleeping person. I ripped the paper into shreds and starting writing and sending them, one by one, in short intervals.
Hey
Hey
Shane
Hey
Listen
Listen
Shane
Hey
Listen
Shane
Shane
Hey
Hey
Listen
Hey
Hey
Shane
Before I could get any farther, though, I was interrupted by a large cramp that ran through my stomach. With an almost gag-like reflex, I belched and a wisp of smoke appeared, rematerializing into a scrap of paper. It was followed in quick succession by seventeen others, each with a word on the back.
Peter,
Stop
Sending
These
Or
I
Will
Make
You
Burp
Up
The
Dictionary
One
Page
At
A
Time
“Stupid unicorns, no sense of humor.” I grumbled, leaving my room. As I left, I heard some weird noises coming from the kitchen, thunking noises. I entered to see David, walking around and making breakfast. Walking around, on brown hooves. I stared at him. He saw me.
“Yeah, I know, pretty crazy,” he said. “The noise takes some getting used to. But at least I don’t have to buy shoes any more, right?” I agreed and sat down to breakfast
The day passed pretty easily. The three of us played games, for the most part, and kept updates going on David’s blog, which had about all of 5 views and no comments. We documented the progression, which came, slowly but surely. We also talked about where to set ourselves up. Shane and I suggested using a forest, since ponies could live off of the land much more easily than humans, but David vetoed that idea, saying that we’d need WiFi and electricity to monitor the internet. It wasn’t until about 7pm that I finally had a viable idea. I looked over at Shane. “Hey, why don’t we stay at Kate’s place?” I asked. Shane looked nervous.
“I’d actually kind of avoided telling her about this for now.” He mumbled.
I stared at him. “You’re turning into a cartoon pony and you didn’t think your girlfriend deserved to know? What were you going to do, hide from her for however long it takes to work this out? Haven’t you seen the movies man? This sort of thing never works.” Shane shuffled a bit.
“Besides, we need a human on our side,” I said. “Especially one with such a good set up. Didn’t you say when we met her that she lived in a kind of rural area of town? With a few acres of woods adjoined to her backyard? It’s the perfect base of operations!”
“I guess you’re right,” Shane said, sighing.
David started packing up his laptop. “Well, now that that’s settled, let’s get going,” he said.
Shane turned to him. “Right now? Are you crazy?! What, are we just going to show up on her doorstep, ‘Hi, we’re turning into ponies, can you take us in for a week or maybe a month or two?’ I have to call and explain things first.”
I looked up at him, a hard task to manage, seeing as I was now 3 foot 8 to his 6 feet. “What, you’re going to call her and convince her that you are 1, turning into a magical talking pony and 2, not crazy? Good luck with that. Trust me, the easiest way is going to be to show her.”
I could tell that Shane was still very nervous. “Shouldn’t we wait until tomorrow?” he asked, grasping at straws.
“Dude, I’ve got dragon arms!” I said, waving my arms which were purple up to the shoulder. “You’ve got white back hooves up to your knees! Tomorrow, we may be full ponies, and I don’t see how two ponies and a three foot dragon are going to drive a car.”
Shane sighed, defeated. “Alright, let’s go,” he said. He stuffed his hooves into shoes, grabbed his keys and we trekked outside, David carrying his laptop under his arm. As we got to his car, I noticed the groceries in the back. “Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about those,” I said. “What stuff did you get?”
“A lot of things,” he said. “A lot of carrots, apples, celery, you know, pony/human neutral foods. Saddlebags, easy open water bottles, lots of water, juice mixes, books on horse first aid, hatchets, rope etc. Basic survival gear. I figure ponies could do pretty good in the wild.”
I nodded approvingly, and made to get into the passenger seat. “Oh no, Junior,” said David, smiling. “You’re too small to sit up front.” I rolled my eyes, but got in the back seat. It probably wasn’t the best idea for anyone to get a good look at me, the way I looked now.
The drive wasn’t too long, about fifteen minutes. On the way over though, I thought about what we were doing. I really hoped Kate would help us out. It was a big risk, letting anyone in on this. I wasn’t worried that Kate would rat us out, but what if this was all too much for her and she wouldn’t let us stay? What I’d said before was right: we didn’t have much time left to use the car. Once the change was complete, it’d be nearly impossible to use without severely drawing attention to ourselves. If Kate wouldn’t take us in, where else would we go?
We pulled up to her house to find that all the lights were dark. “Hmm... Is that normal?” I asked Shane.
He shook his head. “She did say that her parents were in town, the last time I saw her. I hope they’re not still here.” We got out of the car. Shane pulled his hood to hide his hair, ears and now rather prominent horn. “Hide by the garage,” he said. “If it’s her parents, I don’t want them seeing you two. David could hide his ears and hair with a hood, but dragon eyes are a hard thing to miss.”
I rolled my eyes. “I think the abnormally large blue eyes will be enough to suggest that something is off.” I said. Shane ignored me. We hid in front of the garage, peeking around the side so that we could see the door.
Shane walked up and knocked on the front door. There was a long silence. Shane spoke. “Maybe she’s not-” There was a sound of movement behind the door. “Never mind,” he said. We could hear the sound of someone fumbling with locks on the other side. Whoever, was opening the door, they were having a hard time with it. After a few more seconds, the door finally opened to reveal... Princess Cadance.