//------------------------------// // Unnatural colors // Story: Brush and Face the Mane // by Kaas //------------------------------// 2. Unnatural colors There was an awkward silence in the room. I stared at the cutie mark on her thigh and she probably stared at me waiting impatiently for me to answer. Finally I came to my senses. “Lightning Dust, she’s a pegasus from MLP”, I said. It was a short answer, but this wasn’t the time to give a lecture about MLP characters. “Since when do you have that mark?” I was amazed that proper sentences came out. There was so much chaos in my brain that Discord would have been proud of me. A numberless amount of thoughts went through my mind as how this was possible. No, Lucy was probably acting to push the prank a little further. It had to be! She pulled her pants up again but kept looking at me with a very serious expression, “I saw it last night, but you know best when this appeared on my legs. Come on Nate, I told you this isn’t funny anymore.” “Why the hell do you think I did this? To my knowledge, you’re the prankster here.” It was obvious that she was getting annoyed, but so was I. She told me this wasn’t funny anymore, but it was her who kept this whole act up. “Like you can’t pull a prank. You’re the ONLY person that can have set this up. The fact that you know the character proves it.” “Gee, because I’m a fan of the show doesn’t mean that I know how to tattoo a cutie mark. This requires a lot of preparation, something you would be willing to do.” “Yeah, right. This has your name written all over it, ponyboy. How should I know the mark of that horse that is now stuck upon my legs? You’re the only friend of mine that is into this pony stuff,” she said with a raised voice. This was getting more frustrating, I hated when she used that teasing nickname. Why wouldn’t she admit it? Was she being stubborn or was she actually being honest? I started to doubt if she really had done this. But still, there was no other explanation. I knew she was not acting, she wouldn’t go this far for a prank, but my brain couldn’t accept it. “Well, if you’re thinking that I’m the one behind this then explain why I got this on my leg!” I followed her example and pulled the side of my pants and boxer down with a jerk so that the hourglass on my left thigh was visible. Unsurprisingly it was still there; the colors were even brighter than last time I checked. Now it was her turn to say nothing. I finally got her. I knew she was behind this. Lucy was the only one that could have planned this. But wait… why would she be surprised if she had planned all of this? There was a change in atmosphere. The tension that had built up so quickly had collapsed in a heartbeat. The gap it had left was filled up with a depressing feeling and regret. We both realized we were wrong and that we had accused each other without reasonable thinking. I felt really stupid. “How could I have blamed her so bluntly?” went through my mind. In the sixteen years that I knew her we never had such quarrel, minor squabbles aside. This had gotten heated up like we were worst enemies instead of best friends.   Lucy sat down in a chair with her head down without saying anything. I didn’t know if she was sobbing, thinking or just didn’t know what to do. Probably the last, the situation wasn’t appropriate to talk. I stood there, still with the hourglass visible, looking at her while trying to avoid eye-contact. It was very uncomfortable setting as I had the feeling that I had to do something, but I didn’t know what. I felt an urge to apologize but I had lost all my words needed to do so. The situation lasted for five or ten minutes; I didn’t really keep a record of time. “Ugh, I acted so stupid that I could hit myself!” I thought. “Sorry Nate,” she mumbled finally. She still had her serious tone in her voice but it sounded completely different from a few minutes ago. She looked rather dejected. “I was fed up because I was convinced that you were behind it. I was getting angry because you denied it, but I shouldn’t have expressed that anger. I just don’t know what happened. I really wanted that you were behind this, because it scared the crap out of me that a tattoo suddenly appeared without any reason.” This wasn’t the Lucy I knew. In these sixteen years I never had seen her in this state. Nothing seemed left of the energetic and confident girl. When I was feeling down, she usually could cheer me up, but that wasn’t the case this time. That lively personality almost seemed to be a façade now. “I… I think that also goes up for me. ”I responded with much difficulty. It wasn’t easy to come up with something to say, but that was likely also the case for Lucy. It was quiet again for a moment. We both searched for words, although one question was obvious to ask. “So… you also haven’t any idea how this happened?” I asked, almost inaudible as I was afraid to offend her again. “No, my only explanation was that you tried to take revenge for the times I had teased you about your interest in ponies. So unless you count magic, I haven’t got a clue how this has happened.” “Yeah, me neither.” I said with more confidence than a few seconds ago. I felt relieved knowing that she didn’t have a grudge after this argument. We both regretted that we had jumped to conclusions but it seemed that we had forgiven each other. It was best to forget it and move on. We were friends and such quarrels shouldn’t change that. “I don’t know anyone that could have done this, except Ben. But why would he drag you along with this? He barely knows you, aside from the times you see him when you are here. However, the last time you were here was a week ago and Ben isn’t the type to travel to Muscatine just to pull a prank on you. It’s an one-hour drive, which would be a waste of his time.” “Maybe nobody is behind this. I’m not talking about something super natural, but maybe some kind of disease or mutation? By the way, how long are you going to show off your butt?” she chuckled softly. The Lucy that I knew was on her way back: the girl that grabbed every chance to joke. I blushed and quickly pulled my pants back on. My private parts hadn’t been visible, but it must have been a strange sight for someone if he would have entered the room. “Well, there was a brony-virus when the community was active, but when you got infected it meant that you enjoyed the episodes not that you would get a cutie mark out of nowhere,” I laughed. For the first time since the appearance of the tattoo I could loosen up about the situation. It was nice to know that I was not the only target. Lucy probably had preferred – like me – to stay out of this, but it was a good feeling that we went through this together. “Furthermore, I’m not a biologist student, but I think that eating radioactive waste doesn’t even result in this kind of DNA-mutations. I have never heard of a mutation that gives you a cutie mark and change your eye-color. Otherwise there would have been a lot of bronies that already would have done that.” “Hey, I’m only calling options. If nobody can be behind it then it could be possible that something has happened. Besides, why hasn’t your eye-color changed? Your original color is blue, right?” “Hm, good question. I think Doctor Whooves has blue eyes, but I’m not sure about it. I have to check it on the internet.” “I have no idea who you’re talking about, but I assume it is the pony that has that hourglass cutie mark. Not fair, I have to walk with these weird yellow eyes that make me look like I suffer from jaundice.” I wanted to comment that your sclera and not your iris turns yellow when you suffer from jaundice, but it didn’t really matter. I walked to my computer to look up a picture of Doctor Whooves. If I was correct then it would make sense that my eyes didn’t have changed color. My pc was in stand-by so after I had hit a key to wake it up from its nap, I walked to the bathroom to check my eyes. It always took a minute to get my pc out of stand-by. I stood in front of the mirror. Nothing seemed off in my eyes, but on closer inspection I noticed that the iris had become slightly darker. At least my color was still natural instead of that yellow tint of Lucy. I hope it wasn’t permanent for her; she would get some strange looks with it. There was one thing that caught all of my attention when I looked more closely in the mirror. My hair had grown extraordinary long, but more importantly it was changing color! A couple of blue and white strands were mixed in my blonde hair. If I was alone at this moment I probably would have panicked because of this discovery. It still freaked me out to see my hair-color change, but it was less bad now Lucy was here. She probably had the same thing as I remembered that I noticed that her hair was more orange earlier this evening. I had thought that the color in her hair was off because of the light. My room was only illuminated by two weak lamps, so it was pretty dark. It still was creepy to see you hair change from one shade to a total different one, but it was still explainable, right? Someone just used us as victims for the ‘best’ prank ever. It could even be some kind of practical joke for a television show. Something like: ‘Let’s see how people react to body transformations’ or anything in that direction. “It would become really weird when we would grow a tail.” I laughed at that thought. That definitely was not going to happen. I walked back to my room. I saw that Lucy was already in front of my computer, searching for a picture of Lightning Dust. I let out a sigh of relief that I had put safesearch on this morning. Sometimes I set it off to watch a broader spectrum of pictures. That was me and my twisted mind, but I wasn’t a clopper or something. I just enjoyed sometimes a little sauce with my daily dose of ponies. “It doesn’t seem that our eye-color is the only thing that had decided to switch color,” I said as I turned on more lights and picked a chair and sat down next to Lucy. She turned to me. I could see a little shock of surprise when she noticed my hair. “I assume you didn’t dye your hair in that short time that you were away. But wait, does that mean my hair has also changed?” She stood up and ran to my bathroom. My mirror had never seen so many visitors in a day. It was not like I stood hours in front of the mirror to perfect my appearance. “Great, what’s next? Does my skin turn green or something?” I heard her saying cynically. She came out of the bathroom. I had to admit that that goldenrod shade in her scarlet hair actually did look great. It was no big dramatic change so I didn’t have to get used to it. It matched very well with her new eyes. Quickly I tried to think of other thing as I remembered a very seductive picture of Lightning Dust I saw last week. My brain tried to play tricks with me again. “Well, whoever, or whatever caused this, he did his homework. Lightning Dust suits you really well.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” she grimaced. “Well, I have seen some pictures of her. Rainbow Dash is still the coolest pony, but I guess she’s okay. At least she seems to be an athletic pony. It could be many times worse as I had for example the looks of that purple bookworm pony. What’s her name again? Ugh, I despise her.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Lucy was the exact opposite of Twilight. She hated books and study, except when it was sport-related. I still wonder how she ever managed to stay four years at the university. I guess physics had enough practical application. It was ironic that her best friend was a history student: a study where practical work is ruled out. I think Lucy would be much more interested in my study if we replayed some historic battles, like what they do in a LARP. “By the way, I also saw a picture of that Doctor Whooves, but he has a brown mane. Does he dye his mane or something? You are getting a blue and bluish white mane and you hair seems much longer.” “Yeah, I noticed that too when I saw it in the mirror. I forgot that there are also other ponies with an hourglass cutie mark. I think the prankster used Colgate instead of the doctor. That would make a lot more sense as Colgate is a dentist pony, at least in fanon.” I saw that Lucy gave me a puzzled look. “Uhm, let me show you a picture of her.” I walked back to the computer and searched for a picture. It was annoying that I first got pictures of toothpaste tubes instead of the pony. You would think that Google knows that I’m a brony and not a toothpaste fanatic after all those years. “Say, why don’t we watch an episode or two. Then you can see who Lightning Dust really is.” “Fine by me. Now that I know where this mark comes from, I’m curious about that pony. I mean, if I have her cutie mark I have at least the right to know how she is. As long as you don’t fangasm constantly.” “Can’t promise that,” I said with my tongue stuck out. “You’re incorrigible,” she chuckled. “Before we’re going to watch an episode, do you mind if we first eat something? I’m getting hungry.” My stomach growled. It wasn’t a surprise as it was already half past eight and we hadn’t eaten anything. Time sure flies when you’re busy with pony stuff. “Yeah, that’s a better idea. Now I know that I had promised to cook, but do you mind if we are doing something else? Ben is still in his room and I’m afraid that he will see me. He knows that I’m a brony but he is going to think that I’m too obsessed with it if he sees me with this hair, saying that this is some kind of unhealthy fetish. I’m not in the mood to explain why I have bangs of blue and white hair.” “Awh, but your spaghetti is legendary, even though it’s vegetarian,” she said as she tried to put a disappointed look, but she failed horrible because she couldn't keep a straight face. “But what do you propose? I can’t say that I look normal.” “Let me introduce you to the wonderful combination of pizza and pony episodes.” *** We agreed to order pizza. It was easy, quick and the chance that I had to see Ben was minimal. I decided that we first had to watch ‘The best night ever’ and ‘Hurricane Fluttershy’ because they would give a peek of Spitfire's character. If we would immediately have watched ‘Wonderbolts academy’ she probably thought that I was crazy about some stupid cliché drill sergeant stereotype. The pizzas arrived halfway the second episode. The pizza guy gave me some strange looks but he shrugged it off when he received his tip. He probably had seen more strange things in his career as delivery boy. I quickly ran back to my room afraid that Ben would come out by chance. I resumed the episode and while we were eating we were fully engrossed in the episodes. ‘Wonderbolts academy’ was over before I knew it, but I had already placed two new episodes in the playlist. The first one was one from season four where Dash becomes a Wonderbolt. A pretty cool episode as it contains a lot of character development, but the best episode was the other one. It was an episode in the fifth season. Rainbow Dash was now promoted to be one of the captains. It was one of my favorite episodes because of many reasons, but the most important one was that Dash shows why she became a captain as she did something very noble. She flies to Lightning Dust’s house to give her another chance. She encourages Lightning to reapply for the Wonderbolt program. Lightning still holds a grudge against Dash and she shouts that it was all her fault. If Dash hadn’t shown up at the Wonderbolt academy then it would be her who was a Wonderbolt. She was the better flier, she pushed herself harder and she was the lead-pony! Yet this foolish rainbow pony became a Wonderbolt! She was the reason why she was kicked out of the program. It’s a touching scene, Lightning even cries. Something you would not expect from her considering ‘Wonderbolt academy’. Dash however shows her real capabilities as new captain. She says she never meant to crush her dreams; she only wanted to show that she needed to work on her recklessness. Not because she wanted to show Spitfire that she was the better pegasus, but it created dangerous situations. She could harm ponies if she wasn’t more careful. She had to admit, she was angry with Lightning back then because her friends had almost died while Lightning just shrugged it off as nothing, but after the accident with Gilda, she didn’t want to lose another friend. Dash even says – although she hated to admit it – that Lightning can surpass her if she just keeps in mind that it’s not always about pushing yourself. Lightning Dust stands dazed after that speech. The episode ends with Dash who offers her a hoofbump. Lightning hesitates but gives one back with a small but genuine smile. I still had my head fixed on the screen after the credits had rolled over. I was drawn back to reality however: “Darn, Nate. Can you warn me next time when you show me such tear jerker,” I heard from next to me. I wanted to ask what she meant, but when I turned to her I froze in shock. It was expected but it still was a big difference. Her hair, or should I say mane, had changed rapidly after we had noticed the chance. Almost nothing was left of her original scarlet hair. You could only faintly see that her original color was red, but the dark goldenrod color was dominant now and she even had the saffron bands. Her hair looked more like a wig for a Lightning Dust costume than her own original hair. Before I could comment on her new mane, bangs of pure blue and periwinkle hair came in front of my vision. There were no traces left of my own original blonde hair. It startled me and I let out an almost girly squeak. It was already odd to see hair in front of your eyes that you weren’t used to, but the unnatural color enhanced that odd feeling. The hair didn’t care about that; it just hanged there, blocking half of my vision. “Did it startle you? Did you expect something else?” she said with a smirk. She undoubtedly was entertained by my little squeak. “Yeah whatever. What did you mean by tear jerker? It’s a touching moment, but it wasn’t that sad. Normally you make fun of such moments in movies,” I said while I tucked the bangs behind my ears. “I know but this was a truly sad scene. I could understand the pain of Lightning like I have been through something likewise. I’m really glad that Dash and she decided to be friends again in the end.” “Wow, Lucy, calm down! You talk like you’re Lightning Dust. You may look like a human version of her, but it’s just a cartoon. You don’t see me expressing some kind of fetish about toothbrushes.” “It’s kinda lame now that I think about it. Still Lightning has got my sympathy, maybe even competing for best pony with Dash.” “You’re sounding like a brony,” I chuckled. “Well, there is one episode left where Lightning Dust appears. Want to see that episode too? I promise it isn’t a drama episode.” “How about the series finale? I think I have seen it and now that I think about it, Lightning Dust made an appearance there. If I remember correctly, it was at the very end of the episode.” She was right. The series finale ended with Discord attacking Lightning Dust and Colgate. The person who did this to us must have seen the finale too. It couldn’t be coincidence that we both had the looks of two background ponies with whom MLP strangely ended. But what did he or she wanted to reach with this? Did he want to see a brony freak out about these changes? But Lucy wasn’t a brony. The only theory that explained everything was that Hasbro wanted to make a huge publicity stunt to announce that MLP would continue. Giving two persons the appearance of ponies would certainly attract the attention. Although this theory would explain everything, it didn’t make sense. Hasbro wouldn’t choose just random people to turn in to human versions of ponies. I couldn’t wait when this would be over and I finally would know how and why all of this had happened. “Okay, we will first watch the other episode with Lightning and then we will watch the finale. A great ending for this mini-marathon.” I searched both the episodes in my pony episode folder. At the same time my hair moved again in my vision. “Ugh, how can people live with such long hair?” I was tired to tuck my hair behind my ears each time it got in front of my face. With every little movement I made, the blue and periwinkle hairs danced in front of my eyes. “Here, take this.” Lucy grabbed a hair tie out of her pocket. ‘This should help.” “You don’t expect me to wear a ponytail, right?” I already looked ridiculous with these unnatural colors and a ponytail would just accentuate the weirdness of this haircut. A guy with long blue and white hair tied in a ponytail, it wouldn’t get more androgynous. “Suit yourself, but it’s a simple solution for your hair problem.” “Fine… but can you do it? If I do it, it will look even more stupid.” As the episode started she pulled my hair back. “Awh, it looks cute on you.” I didn’t know if she was serious or that she was teasing me, probably the last one. The first episode was somewhat similar to ‘Wonderbolt Academy’. The episode focuses on Rainbow Dash trying to help Lightning Dust. She has difficulties with finding her shape. She is constantly afraid that she pushes herself in the wrong direction and thus she holds back. But Lightning is not the only one who has problems. Dash is the supervisor for the whole group and she can’t show any bias to anypony. She has to push the cadets as a drill sergeant but she thinks that Lightning needs a special treatment. Both struggle with their problems and they start to doubt their capabilities, but in the end Spitfire helps them. She says to Dash that they are friends and that her job shouldn’t be a reason to break up a friendship. Her job requires being harsh, but it is with good intentions. Lightning will understand that. Lightning gets the advice that she shouldn’t be afraid to show her talents. As long as you show that you’re willing to improve, other ponies will give you feedback instead of bashing you. It requires practice to be a great flier, but it also requires a lot of practice to know how to show that talent. The end of the episode shows that Lightning Dust passes the program and becomes a member of the Wonderbolts. The finale is only two episodes after this episode. I hoped this would end the dreams about the final that kept bugging me. I was again fully engrossed by the episode. Discords betrayal made me somehow angry as he was the responsible of this horrible ending. He and Celestia fight a hellspawn from Tartarus. Celestia takes a hit after a pretty awesome battle. When Discord teleported to her and when he pushed Celestia over the cliff I felt a certain rage building up. But that rage is transformed into some kind of fear when he talks to the camera and reveal his plans. I felt like Discord was threatening me. After this scene, Discord moves to Twilight’s place and surprises her with a magic attack: leaving nothing left of Twilight. After that the credits are shown. Wait, what? Where was the scene that Discord attacked Lightning and Colgate? It should be right after Discord vanished Twilight from Equestria. Two days should have passed and Discord first attacks Colgate. Before he can cast a spell on her, Lightning Dust attacks him, trying to protect the citizen but she is no match for him. Lightning disappears just like Twilight, leaving Colgate trembling in fear. A flash surrounds her en then the credits should have appeared. “What the hell! Where is the rest of the episode?” Lucy shouted. “Check the vid length, Nate. You probably have downloaded an edited version.” “No, it’s actually twenty-two minutes long.” I said while I quickly searched for a stream. I found multiple, but all of them ended with the Twilight scene. “Darn, Hasbro must have cut that scene. They probably thought that Twilight’s disappearance would have been a better ending.” “Well that sucks. How are we supposed to watch that last part now? “Don’t know. The original version should be somewhere on the internet, but it may take some time to find it.” “Meh, don’t bother. You can show me another time. I think it’s time to hit the road. It’s almost midnight and I have a one-hour drive ahead. I don’t want to waste my free day tomorrow. And you’re also busy with that report tomorrow.” She walked to my door grabbing her jacket and bag. Suddenly a fear crept in to my body. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. Was I afraid to be alone with these changes? I thought that I had my panic under control, but I couldn’t ignore this anxious feeling. But why did I only feel it when I knew that Lucy was about to leave? It wasn’t like these changes were affected by Lucy’s presence. I tried to comfort myself with the thoughts that I always could call her and that the hair was probably the last thing that would change, but it didn’t help: I still was afraid. “Uhm, Lucy. Could you stay here this night? I know this sounds weird but I’m…” I was in a pickle. I expected some lame joke from her if I continued but luckily she looked serious. “I am scared to be alone with these changes.“ “What’s the matter, Nate?” she said with a worried voice. “Are you feeling alright?” “I don’t know. All of a sudden I’m feeling really uneasy. My mind fears these changes will continue.” “Relax, Nate. What could possibly happen? Humans don’t have tails or something. Well, I would like to stay if that makes you feel better, but I don’t have any stuff with me and don’t you have to work on that report tomorrow?” “No problem. I worked hard today so I have a little extra time to waste. Furthermore, I have a sleeping pad, spare blanket and most important a spare unused toothbrush.” “You and your dental care obsession,” she grinned. “Well then it is decided: it’s a sleepover. But don’t expect me to make it late. They expect nice weather tomorrow and I want to take advantage of it by going cycling.” I felt really relieved now that I knew that she would stay here. The fear in my mind subdued. The only problem was that my whole planning was messed up. I said that I was ahead of my schedule, but that wasn’t true. I had planned to work the whole day on my project, but that had to wait. It was future Nate’s problem.