Chapter 5
Rebirth: Autumn
Aaron Weston yawned as he lifted the covers off himself. He got up from his bed, and began doing his morning routine. He got dressed, and was ready to catch the early morning train for class. A smile adorned his face as he prepared for the day.
Oh man, this day is gonna be great, not to mention it’s my birthday and all! Aaron said to himself. Today was May 1, 2020, a day that Aaron shared a birthday with his siblings, the weather reporter, William, the college student, Charlie, and the artist, Jennifer Weston. He would be going to a birthday party later with friends, and hoped his family would be present.
As he was walking out his apartment, a thought rushed through his mind. He started remembering a place made of clouds. He saw many different Pegasi with helmets on their heads wearing lab coats and safety gear. The colorful, winged equines appeared to be at some factory, developing white, fair weather clouds.
“Wait a minute… pegasi, with lab coats? working on,”- He raised his brow- “making clouds?”
Aaron was there in a daze as he kept watching the image play in his head, but then came to himself. He looked up and down the block hoping no one was watching him. -- Why on earth was I thinking that, he thought. -- He took a nice and easy stroll to the station. When he got to the station, he swiped his fare pass like he had always been doing.
He went up the stairs to the platform. There he stood waiting patiently for the train, which usually ran pretty slow on mornings. As he was there waiting, he sat down on a bench and started to zone off, random pictures filling his mind again.
His thoughts went back to the factory he saw before. He let his thoughts play out, and tried not to go too crazy. Well, until he saw the pegasi flying over a giant pot of a rainbow-colored liquid. The liquid was then seen being poured into various trenches for the purposes of creating the rainbows that were seen at Winsome Falls, a location in the magical land of Equestria, near the city of Cloudsdale..
Wait, Pegasi making rainbows? Aaron asked himself, stunned that such creatures had jobs where mixing colors to create visible light spectrums were as commonplace as making clouds and cloud formations.
His vision then shifted to another area of the factory. He watched as another set of pegasi worked on the week’s scheduled weather forecast, debating whether or not it would be sunny, partly cloudy, or rainy that afternoon. The Pegasi in this section appeared to be the weather managers, who supervised the other Pegasi at the factories, designated by their blue safety helmets and vests. The workers wore white safety helmets with matching vests.
All of these images in Aaron’s mind made his head spin. He then snapped to reality as heard the train race right past him. The force of the wind made his black jacket ripple slightly. He got up from the bench, confused and a little exhausted as he made his way in the train and took his seat.
“Why am I constantly thinking about all these random images, and since when?”
He tried not to stray off in thought of colorful flying equines working on weather, as he had more pressing matters at hand; traveling to the college for his classes and preparing for his birthday party. As the day dragged on, he received various witty comments about his birthday from his classmates and some teachers. He got a break between his schedule, and decided to spend it with his four friends at the cafeteria. His friends were Toby, Sharlin, Drake, and Jason.
They gathered together and started talking while eating in the cafeteria. That day it wasn’t filled with people. In fact, it was just the five of them sitting and happily enjoying themselves.
“Yeah man, happy birthday, dude.” Jason and the others tapped him on his back.
“Heh, thanks, my friends. Really appreciate it.”
They conversed for awhile on a number of silly topics. By then, Aaron’s legs started feeling itchy. He was slightly confused by this.
Man, I could’ve sworn I lotioned my legs this morning? He thought as he was lightly itching the side of his left leg. He laughed it off, while listening to his friends. They continued making jokes, until the itching got a little more intense.
“Hey, let me head off to the bathroom real quick, I’ll be right back.” Aaron got up and took a brisk walk to the bathroom. He then immediately rushed to the nearest bathroom door, went inside, and pulled his jeans down, and started scratching like his life counted on it.
“Man, I don’t know why I’m scratching so much, but it’s become really annoying. I can't even go a good minute or two without my legs needing a scratch.”
Aaron felt a slight rise on the outside of both his legs. He looked down slightly, first checking his left leg, and was shocked upon seeing the yellow leaf on his leg. He quickly looked at his right leg and watched another yellow leaf appear.
“What in the world is going on? Am I morphing or something? How can I go through the rest of this day with my legs itching like this? Someone will find out for sure. Oh man, this is bad.”
Aaron started searching through his pockets, but then looked up at the bathroom ceiling, realizing that he forgot his cell phone back in the cafeteria with his friends.
“Dammit, dammit, dammit! Out of all times, why did I have to leave it with them today? On my birthday. Just had to be on my birthday, right?”
He pulled up his jeans, exited the bathroom, and headed back to the cafeteria, bearing with the intense itching on both his legs.
Just before he reached the cafeteria, he made sure he was in order so that it didn’t look like anything strange had happened.
“Hey Aaron! Where have you been, dude?” Jason and the others started waving for him to come on down quickly. Aaron watched at the table carefully and spotted a cake.
“You dudes bought a cake for me?” Aaron said smiling.
“Yeah, man!” Toby responded laughing.
“You’re like, the best dude a friend could ask for!” Sharlin said, lighting the candles.
The rest of the party guests agreed with Sharlin as Aaron prepared to blow out the candles. Aaron sat down right over the cake next to Drake and Jason. He started to feel uncomfortable as the intense itching sensation started back up.
They started and sang the usual birthday song just to make him smile. But Aaron laughed as hard as he could to forget the itching, but still the sensation didn’t leave.
When he blew out the candles, they helped him cut the cake. While friends were talking and having good laughs, he took his slice wrapped it around in paper. He got up from the table, and the itching sensation grew worse. He couldn’t help but scrunch up his face a little.
His friends started looking at him kinda weird. They knew he had to go to class, but had never seen him as an early bird when it came to classes, much less anything.
“Hey dude, like, are you alright man?” Sharlin asked as he took a bite of his slice of cake.
“Oh yeah man, I’m fine, just need to get to the class early to do a test. I’ll catch you guys later. And thanks for everything.”
Aaron started brisk walking from the cafeteria. By then it was 4:30 pm in the evening, and as he struggled to walk into the classroom the itching sensation stopped immediately.
“Come on in quickly, Aaron, the test is about to start! Never thought I would be telling college students to hurry to a class!” Professor Grumpy said angrily as he was handing out the papers to the rest of the class.
Aaron ignored the teacher, walking to the back of the class and happily took his seat. The professor walked over to him and drop the papers on his desk.
“You all may start the test!” The english professor said turning around, walking down the middle aisle and back to his desk.
He started flipping the pages, scanning what was easy and difficult. He only had an hour, and he realized there were only twenty-five questions, but would also need every minute for these questions. The test was long and difficult, it used up most of the brain power he had left. After he finished the last question, his held fell straight on the desk and started sleeping. Eventually, the English professor woke the sleeping student up.
The time was up, and his eyes shot right open as he looked at the professor.
“I hope you finished that test, or it’s down the hole for you.” The english professor grabbed up his paper and started walking down the aisle. Aaron popped his head up, looking around he saw no one.
“You may leave now!” The professor yelled.
“Oh okay, see you tomorrow, Professor.” Aaron replied, feeling exhausted after taking that grueling exam.
“Well, I hope I don’t!” The professor responded.
Aaron left the college, and walked down to the train station. He swiped his fare card, walked down a flight of stairs, and waited for a train. Bored, he passed his hand back on his head, and felt strange.
“Did my hair grow that fast? I could’ve sworn I cut it last night before I went to bed. It couldn’t have grown that fast.”
The train came, and he walked inside, and was again lucky enough to have a seat. So he sat down as the train started to depart. All on the way, he was feeling his hair grow, and started becoming more anxious.
***
Aaron ran out of the train station and started down the street to his apartment as fast as he could. He didn’t want anyone else to find out about his hair growing so fast. All that was on his mind was getting inside asap.
He ran up the stairs. When he reached the door, he searched his pockets and bag for his keys, but couldn’t find them. So, he lifted up his doormat and took up the extra key to open the door. He opened the door, threw the keys under the mat, dashed inside and crouched to catch his breath.
He caught his breath again and went up yet another flight of stairs and headed straight to his bathroom. He turn on the light, got in front of the mirror. He took his hair cutter and shaved his head bald. He looked closely at his head, and he was shocked and amazed as he watched the little hair on his head grow so rapidly.
“This is not good. At all.”
He then sat on the bathroom floor thinking of how to get rid of it when a there was a sudden knock at the door.
“Now who could that be?”
He got up from the floor, and walked down the stairs to open the door. At that point, he didn’t really want anyone to know he existed. He really just wanted to go to sleep and forget this had ever happened, but somehow he couldn’t stop himself from opening the door to see who it was.
So he opened the door, and surprisingly no one was at the door. He looked around, left to right. He looked down and saw a box. Puzzled, he picked it up and looked at the tag
to see who it was for.
“Me, but I don’t even remember ordering anything.”
He walked back inside and up the stairs. He afterwards went straight to the kitchen, sat down and opened up the box with his small knife that laid on the table. As he was about to open the box, a normal itching sensation came on the same part of his leg.
“Alright that’s it, I’m going to take a shower then open it.”
He goes to the bathroom, and takes his shower. While he was taking his shower, his head was more difficult to soap up because of its length. He grew frustrated because he couldn’t get rid of his growing hair.
“You know what, I don’t care anymore, I’ll let it grow! And when I go back to class tomorrow, I’ll just tell them that I tried some new hair product, and… and, urrrgh. How could I go to class with hair like this!”
He looked in the mirror again and wiped the condensation that was on it. He was in complete shock, and let out a loud scream.
“How could this be! How could the color of my hair be orange, when it was always hazel brown? What in the world is going on? I definitely can’t go now that I know it’s this color!”
He wrapped his towel around himself and exited the bathroom. He walked towards his room but stopped and thought for a second.
“Oh darn, can’t call William if I didn’t even see his present to thank for him for it.”
So Aaron walked down the hallway to his kitchen, and opened the present. He was confused and at a loss for words.
“But, this looks like…” He picks up the necklace and examines it.
“This looks exactly like the marks I have on my legs.”
Aaron hurried to his room where he had left his phone and flipped it open. He thought about it for a moment and then made his decision. He started texting his sister, Jennifer. “Jenn, I’m coming over to visit; see you soon.” Aaron looked at his watch, if he hurried he could catch the next train over to her apartment. Grabbing a hoodie and the necklace on the way out Aaron thought carefully about what he would say to his sister, “Sorry for the short notice; I just wanted to see how you were doing and…” No, there had to be a better way to approach this subject. Before he knew it, Aaron was walking up the steps of his sister’s apartment.
“Aaron, what are you doing here?” a voice spoke up from behind him. Aaron turned around to find a young woman in jeans and a white T-shirt. Her hair was the color of the pink rose and her eyes were a light purple.
“Charlie? Is that you?” Aaron asked shocked.
The young woman rolled her eyes, “The one and only.”
“Well, it’s good to see you. I like the hair. It looks very nice. Any whom, how have you been?” Aaron replied avoiding the question entirely.
“I’ve been better, but we should probably get inside. I expect Jennifer will want to see us before anything else happens,” Charlie said pushing past Aaron and up to the door. It opened before she even had the chance to knock.
Jennifer opened the door to reveal her new blue hair and eyes to her siblings. “Charlie is not the only one who is going through these changes. I ended up getting one of those marks on my thighs that Charlie called ‘Cutie Marks.’ Jennifer invited her siblings to enter her home for their evening discussions.
While the siblings discussed their changes, William, or rather, a young woman that claimed to be their 'sister' Summer joined the meeting to show that her hair had become teal, and her eyes, turquoise. "You aren't the only one in this family this has been happening to." The young woman said, looking up at her new hairstyle, which by then had taken on the appearance of a mane. "The Cutie Marks, hair and eye color changes, and those necklaces have something in common. It was like we were meant to have the necklaces." The young woman wore the necklace that bore the Cutie Mark of the Pegasus known as 'Summer Breeze.'
"By the way, I have decided to go by the name, 'Summer Breeze.' The name came to me in a dream. You three are my sisters, or rather, Summer the pony has three sisters, aptly named Autumn, Winter, and Spring; all Pegasi."
The family meeting went on until the siblings grew tired. The meeting was adjourned until the next day when they could get together and compare any new changes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun rose early on the second of May to find Aaron already on his morning jog. His hood was pulled up to ward off the early morning chill. The exertion felt good, but Aaron frowned at the rising sun. The strange events of these last 24 hours were very strange. Aaron could only imagine what was happening to his siblings. Based on what Summer, formerly William Weston, Charlie, and Jennifer told him, they each had a Cutie Mark of the pony they were becoming. The necklaces bearing the likenesses of the Cutie Marks was just the beginning of the bizarre transformations.
Sighing deeply, Aaron continued on his morning jog. Even if the world turned upside down, a little exercise would help make it right. As Aaron approached the train station, he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. Checking the caller identification, Aaron groaned deeply. Toby was a great guy, but sometimes his timing was very poor. Aaron put a smile on his face and thought about what Toby would say if he answered the phone. Toby was a nice guy so he would probably ask how the test had gone and there was little danger in that.
“Yo man, how’s it hanging?” Toby inquired the moment Aaron had clicked that little green button.
“Well enough, I guess. But that’s not important, how have you been, man?” Aaron replied shifting from one foot to the other has he spoke.
Toby sighed and said, “Man, you really need to quit hidin’ you’ problems. We want to help, so why don’t ya’ share your worries with Brother Tobbert the Helpful?”
Aaron grinned, despite his unusual and strange personality Toby had always been a kind soul so why not share a little of his load, “Toby I think someone is trying to pull a very lame prank on my entire family by dying our hair and giving us growth hormones that only affect our hair.”
“Dude that is wacked out. Who the heck would do that to ya’?” Toby asked.
“I don’t know man, my siblings all seem to think that…” Aaron had a rather strange thought. The test yesterday had been on aviation but Aaron could only remember writing down the names of Wonderbolt founders from the EUP, not famous aviators from the past century. “Oh, sweet Celestia, Toby I gotta run! I really screwed up that test yesterday but there might still be time to fix it, so I gotta go. Bye!”
After hanging up, Aaron climbed onto the train heading for the college. Hopefully Professor Flurggal would have left the tests in his office. If he had, then Aaron could go in swipe his test and replace it with one that actually answered the questions before the professor actually read the tests. Come to think of what had he answered, besides writing down that General Firefly had founded aviation and that Commander Easy Glider had been the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Oh yes, he had written a paragraph about why those you flew with were like family; he had even used the example that without his sisters he would never have been ready for this test. Wait half a moment, that couldn’t have been true, since Aaron hadn’t seen his siblings for nearly two weeks before taking the test. But Aaron could easily see a picture in his mind of his three siblings gathered around him pointing out ways that he could remember all this information about the Wonderbolts, though there was something strange about this picture that he couldn’t quite place his finger on.
The Train pulled up right outside of the school. It looked dark and foreboding this morning. The only people within the building were the librarian, the secretary, and two police officers that used the school as a parking lot.
Aaron looked around carefully. Slowly, he moved towards the building. There were several windows that he could attempt to enter from, but one was easily the more preferred out of them. It was low to the ground inside a window well and any pony could easily see that it was open. Aaron approached and peered into the room. The aerodynamics lab was quiet; the mighty computers and simulators turned off.
Aaron slipped into the lab and crept over to the door. He opened the door and snuck stealthily down the hall. The professor’s office was on the 2nd floor. If Aaron was careful, than he could use the back stairway to get to the second floor without even having to deal with the first floor.
Aaron approached and peered into the room. The aerodynamics lab was quiet; the mighty computers and simulators turned off. Aaron slipped into the lab and crept over to the door. He opened the door and snuck stealthily down the hall. The professor’s office was on the 2nd floor. If Aaron was careful, than he could use the back stairway to get to the second floor without even having to really deal with the first floor. The only sound that could be heard was Aaron’s foot steps, though he tried to keep those as quiet as he could.
He finally reached the back stairwell, but every sound he made seemed to be ten times as loud as it should be. Upon reaching the first floor landing of this back stairwell, Aaron looked out the glass doors and caught a glimpse of his own reflection. He had two bulges in his hoodie, atop his head. Slowly pushing off the hood, breath held in anxious curiosity, Aaron couldn’t help but whisper, “Dude,” after seeing what lay beneath the hood. He had a pair of cute pony ears sticking out from his exceedingly long jungle of a mane. The strangeness of this situation was beyond what he could describe. Well this craziness would need to wait till after he had successfully fixed his mistake.
Stuffing his hair back into his hood, he raced up the stairs until he finally reached the second floor. These steps were covered in carpet, unlike the previous flight which meant he could run without as much fear of detection. “Now to get into the office,” Aaron muttered as he approached the door. Reaching for the handle, he heard someone speaking from the other side. Slow careful footsteps approached his position. It only took Aaron a moment to realize that it must be the Professor. Aaron thought for just a moment, racing back for the stairs would take too long to get out of sight. All the other doors were locked, and this hall went straight pretty much both directions. Aaron looked around for any way to avoid being seen by the Professor, especially in his current condition.
The door opened and Mr. Kingsley stepped through the doorway. Mr. Kingsley was a short man with grey hair and an even dreary outlook on life. But something seemed off about him today. Today he didn’t have his glasses nor did he bear his usual scowl. Peering into his office Aaron easily spotted a reason for the smile; several letters and a box of open chocolates could be seen on the cluttered desk. Mr. Kingsley looked up at Aaron and asked, “How can I help you, Ma’am?”
Aaron took a moment to process this and replied, attempting to soften his tone, “Hello Mr. Kingsley I was hoping to talk to you about that test yesterday. I missed it and was hoping I could take it today.”
Mr. Kingsley raised an eyebrow and looked Aaron up and down for a moment before responding, “While normally I’d say no since I did not receive any messages from anyone about missing any of my tests, I suppose I can make this exception. You look like you’ve been having a rather bad day. Would you care for a chocolate?”
Aaron shook his head, “No thank you, Mr. Kingsley.” He said, politely refusing his teacher’s offer of the candy.
Mr. Kingsley returned to his desk, rummaging through it to find a blank copy of the test. Aaron carefully approached the desk and spotted his own test in the middle of the pile. Carefully reaching forward, Aaron pulled the little packet out of the pile while the professor put his head even closer to the desk, complaining about his poor eyesight. Mr. Kingsley stood up and held out the clean sheets of paper to Aaron. Aaron smiled as he took the papers from the professor while hiding the original behind the desk from the instructor’s view.
Two hours passed as Aaron filled out the test. He scanned through it a second time making sure that every answer was not a reference to the Wonderbolts or pony related. The last item was to place his name on the test before handing it to Mr. Kingsley for grading. Rising from the seat he had taken, Aaron looked down and realized he had mis-wrote his name. Aaron had never had very clean hand writing but this looked like he had written Autumn Breeze instead of Aaron Weston. Scribbling it out, he rewrote his name and turned it over to the Professor who smiled up at him.
“Thank you Madam, please have a wonderful day,” Kingsley said as Aaron walked out of the room. Perhaps the professor really did have a heart of gold underneath that icy exterior he had always shown in class.
Traveling back to the train, Aaron noticed a most annoying itch on his shoulder blades. Ignoring the itch, Aaron climbed aboard the train heading home. Now that Aaron wasn’t in the middle of sneaking through the school, he could think about his ears. The fact they had moved without him noticing was quite strange and disconcerting. If these changes kept happening, his life would be over.
As Aaron finally reached his home, he used his key and opened the door. As he entered the living room, he saw what appeared to be a female figure sitting on the couch with light blue green hair and grey pony ears waiting for him.
“Hello, Aaron….or should I say, Autumn. Are you okay?” The young girl on the couch asked with concern in her voice. “Oh, and I’m not the only one in our family returning back as a pony. If you are supposed to be Autumn, then I am your sister, Summer. The other two siblings are Winter and Spring.”
Aaron's jaw literally dropped open. Staring across the room the look of pure shock spoke more than any series of words ever can. Aaron plopped down in front of the closed door while whispering, "How? How could this be?"
Summer stood up from her sitting position, uncrossing her legs. She slowly approached Aaron, "Are you alright, Autumn, or, uhm, Aaron?” She asked again with more concern in her voice.
Summer stood up from her sitting position, uncrossing her legs. She slowly approached Aaron, "Are you alright, Autumn, er, Aaron?” She asked again with more concern in her voice.
She knelt down in front of her brother, attempting to get through to him. “Look, Aaron, we all are in the same situation. Like you, I have a Cutie Mark, as well as my hair color changed. I now sport light grey pony ears and my eye color changed. My changes are a little faster than yours or Spring’s. And, my back has been itching for some time. I know what you are going through and we’ll get through it together.” She opened her arms to accept a hug, “Looks like you could use a hug; just watch the back, okay?”
“How can you be so calm about this? How can you just accept this?” Aaron stammered, shaking his head as he removed his hood revealing his long orange mane and pony ears. “The Professor mistook me for a girl!”
Summer sat next to her brother and sighed, “I had a talk with Jennifer and Charlie. Jennifer told me I should accept my changes as they come, as did Charlie. They are going through the same changes as we are, just a little slower than us.” She then turned to her brother, “Professor Kingsley mistook you for a girl? Well, your hair now resembles the mane style of Autumn Breeze, the eldest of the Breeze siblings. And, you have her ears, wings, and her Cutie Mark, so you are becoming Autumn. I’ll be there for you, so don’t panic.” She gave her brother a side hug, hoping to ease her brother’s nerves.
Aaron held his ‘sister’ close. Perhaps everything would be alright. This change meant that Aaron needed to make some preparations for when these changes finished.
Summer enjoyed the hug from her brother, feeling the warmth of comfort that she was able to get through to him. She released the hug and looked up at her brother, “Feeling better? I told you we’d be through this together; you, me, Winter, and Spring.” She then thought about the pony names of the Pegasi that they were transforming into. “Did you know the ponies we are becoming are named for the four seasons? They really match our Cutie Marks and color schemes.”
“I suppose so. But what do we need to do to be prepared for these coming changes?” Aaron asked.
Summer shrugged, “Well, we need to be more aware of the smaller changes, like mixing up pony names and old memories of our pony pasts in Equestria. Also, our tastes in food would change. We will also need to document the bigger changes, like hooves, tails, and some gender changes. It’s going to be a matter of time before you will end up as ‘Autumn’, my big sister. I have some memories of her winning a race in the fall where ponies gallop through a wooded area and the fall leaves come off the trees. I believe they called that event The Running of the Leaves. That was when she earned her Cutie Mark: Three fall leaves in red, orange, and red.”
Aaron rubbed his chin slowly, “So if we are becoming ponies because we are from another world, how do we get to our true home? And more importantly, what are we going to tell everyone else? I mean, we can’t just pack up and disappear like specters in the night!”
Summer continued to hug her brother, “It’s okay. I’ll be with you, every step of the way. You’re my BSBFF...Big Sister, Best Friend Forever, once the changes are complete.” Just then, Summer had an urge to sing a song.
When I was just a filly
I thought it rather silly
To say Hello to Everypony I could meet;
But there was one mare I could count on,
She was very Kind and Sweet!
She then pointed at Aaron, and continued to sing the chorus:
My Big Sister, Best Friend Forever!
We were two peas in a pod; we did everything together!
You taught me how to Fly;
Together we were able to reach the Sky!
Then she became sad, as she remembered the day Discord attacked Ponyville.
Until the day Discord banished us here on Earth;
But now, we are commencing our rebirth!
A new chorus began next;
My Sisters, Best Friends Forever!
At Last we all can be Together!
We can teach ourselves how to fly once more;
Together, we can take off and soar!
Big Sisters...Best friends...forever!
