I think it was about noon when the first flakes began to fall, at first it was just one of two, my eyes picking up on the odd white speck as it floated to the ground. I’d been expecting it of course. The overcast skies, the chill in the air…
The radio forecast calling for light flurries. I’m so in touch with nature…
“CRAWW!” turning my head I grimaced as Reginald vocalized his thoughts to me. His vocabulary had increased by a bit in the time he’d been following me. Not just flat caws; I was picking up on subtle shifts in pitch, and once a clack of its bill… Yes, I named it Reginald. If the blasted bird was following me to try and get a quick meal when I eventually keeled over I was going to give it a name. And the idea of a raven named after an English gentleman sounded rather amusing… I’m pretty sure he was a raven… Is it crows or ravens that are the smart black birds? Because lately I seemed to be imagining a small glimmer of intelligence in Reg’s beady eyes, and it’s starting to creep me out.
“Scram, damn you!” I yell out, even though I know the he won’t leave me… Aside from a slight ruffle of his feathers the crow just continues to stare at me with contempt.
“Stupid bloody bird,” that’s another thing that changed over the last couple hours. My voice no longer causes me to cringe. It’s still a bit weird, sounding like a woman, but when I compare it to the rest of my changes it’s the kinda minor. Humans and ponies talk. Human do not walk on 4 legs. They do not have a set of ears that move of their own accord and rest on top of their heads. They do no- You get the picture.
And so I walked, the dull grey and brown of the river valley slowly passing by. I had plenty of time to think of course… Mostly it was reviewing the survival training id gotten as an Air Cadet. Of course I was violating the first rule by moving away from the area I woke up in, but who after considering a couple facts I decided it was for the best.
First: My logic of heading upstream was sound. Id quickly looked a bit downstream and there was absolutely no way I could have crawled up to where I woke up without remembering or leaving some obvious signs. Then again I’m no hunter/tracker. What would I know?
Second: No one had a clue that I was out here. I mean, yes, my work might know. But it was the weekend, I was supposed to be spending it lazing about my apartment watching tv, eating, and generally keeping to myself. Add the fact that I have issues answering my phone… It probably wasn’t going to be until Monday that someone notices I’m gone, and only because I didn’t report in.
I pause walking for a moments as that thought crosses my mind. Was it a sad thing that I could go missing for an entire weekend and no one would notice? I try to rack my mind of news stories regarding missing people and come up blank. I know it certainly wasn’t a good thing but a small part of my mind was nagging me that I needed to rectify this when I returned to civilization.
Third: I was a pony. I’m sure you’re getting bored of me whining about this but after giving Reg a look I realized something… You hear all the time about how animals are more afraid of us than we are of them, us being humans. And really they are right to, we’re loud, confusing, and usually have weapons or can use our intelligence to outwit any potential threats. We are the top of the food chain and our dominance on earth is unchallenged. But a pony? A 2 foot tall brightly colored unicorn? Yeah, I’m probably very high on some coyotes ‘things I’m willing to mess with’ list. Never mind bears, wolves, and cougars. On the plus side maybe all the bears have already gone to sleep! Ha… Ha… If only I were so lucky.
In case that last bit didn’t get the message across I was scared. Every crack, rustle, and snap in the nearby woods would cause me to freeze and look around in fear. Honestly to an observer I probably reminded them of a deer.
….
Oh yeah, its hunting season isn’t it?
Fuuuuuuu-
“CRAW CRAW CRAW!” for once I was happy Reg broke my train of thought. The way it was going I was probably going to end up curled up on the ground in fear.
“Right, deep breaths John… Look at your ha- mane you dolt. Any hunter seeing that colorful mess won’t mistake you for a deer…” I muttered quietly and gave my head a shake. I looked like I was wearing a safety vest with these colors, hopefully the local wildlife would think I was just some surveyor or other human wearing bright clothes and decide to stay away… Then again what if it was one of those anti pon-
“Right now… I’m hating you so much brain. Common, focus, one foot in- hoof in front of the other, let’s get to the highway…”
It was at this point two things happened… The snow started really getting heavy… And my stomach started rumbling.
“Lovely…” I muttered and glanced around. Nearest source of food was… Reg. And ignoring the fact that I was a herbivore (Ponies can eat meat right? Protein is protein after all…) I knew there was no way in hell I was going to catch and kill that bird with my hooves. As if sensing my thoughts he took to the air and landed on the top of a tree.
“… Not only are you an English gentleman, apparently you can read minds!” I grumble and look around for other options. There weren’t many. And with my vision getting shorter by the minute (Stupid white stuff) I bolted for the treeline in the hopes that there might be some greenery I might be able to munch on.
Nothing … This late in the year the forest was pretty much in hibernation and I wasn’t about to eat rotting leaves off the ground. Looking up I had noticed some pinecones and edible seeds but they were far out of my reach… In the end I decided to continue on my journey. A human can go days without food… Hopefully a pony can to. Disappointed and still hungry I turned away and head back towards the river.
By this point the snow was pretty much a solid wall of white, and the ground was covered with a couple centimeters of the stuff. Looking around I contemplated my options. I could keep walking, and eventually freeze as my body heat melted the snow and then the cold weather refroze it later… At least it might, once again I look to normal horses. How many times had I seen small herds of them standing out in the elements? Without a care in the world? Of course they also had each other to huddle around for heat but as of yet the cold was not really getting to me. Oh sure I felt it, but in the same way that someone feels a chill inside a jacket. Despite their differences these ponies had inherited some hardiness from their earthborn cousins.
In the end I decided to head back into the woods, dragging large piece of drift wood I found I was able to eventually making myself a small lean-to that barely fit me, and clearing out the ground so that I could lay down without getting myself wet or too dirty. It wasn’t the best shelter id ever made, but it did the job, settling down I sighed and watched quietly as the snow fell, the sight filling me with a sense of peace one often gets when watching rain fall during a storm. For awhile I was even able to forget my dire situation and examine myself a bit more. The odd feeling of having a tail, ears capable of moving about, hooves, an altered jaw and mouth structure. That last bit was kind of worrisome, id heard stories how people who’d had their jaws reconstructed or tongues modified (forked tongues, piercings) would have trouble for the first while as they relearned how to talk. From what I could tell this mouth was very different from my old one, a longer tongue, a different tooth arrangement (lacking canines as well)… My mind was telling me I shouldn’t be able to say a thing and yet…
“She sells sea shells by the seashore, she sells sea shells by the sea shore, seashellseashellsbytheseashore” Thank you Pokemon for teaching me that…
Despite the obvious voice change I was able to speak that perfectly fine. Sure the ponies in the show were capable of speaking but they’ve been ponies all their lives. I began to suspect some of those skills had transferred over when I became this mare. A thought that was worrying since if speech had transferred over so much more may still be hiding in my head waiting to be unlocked.
Groaning I settled my head down between my hooves as those last thoughts unlocked more questions. Was I a pony from the show? I remembered a purple one, a white one, pink, rainbow, yellow and orange… But none really stood out to me as being whoever this mare was, well… Maybe the orange one. But If I remembered correctly she had some apples on her but… Not this odd combination of a sun and a Tao yin-yang symbol. No I would certainly remember this mare if I’d seen her.
Assuming that I really was a pony from the show what had happened to her then? What was her name? Why had this even happened? My ability to talk made me suspect she might be in my head somewhere but then again… I was dealing with a world of magical talking ponies… Nothing about this situation made sense. Maybe she was back in her world running around in my body, the thought of which caused me to laugh. The image of my body running around on all fours, trying to eat grass, or anything else really was rather amusing, embarrassing maybe, but considering I couldn’t do a thing to stop it there was no point in worrying.
From where I was I could see that the wind was picking up beyond the treeline and realizing id be here for awhile I let my mind drift to other topic. Family, friends… Eventually they drifted even more into the things I normally thought about: video games, money, bills, girls; anything to distract my mind from the situation. As time went on and the snow continued to fall I soon found myself getting sleepy, the falling snowflakes sometimes sending me into a calm trance. I know many consider it bad to sleep in a snow storm, especially without a fire, but right now my body was feeling tired from all the time spent working earlier, and then there was the stress and journey over the last couple hours. Considering the storm was showing no signs of letting up (and I wasn’t particularly cold) I decided to give into those desires and closed my eyes for a short nap…
I was in a tent… Nothing fancy, just a brown thing with two stick in the ground. What surprised me most what that either I was human again in this dream. Or the tent was pony size. My answer came a moment later as I saw a familiar peach colored hoof reach up to rub my eyes followed by a small yawn.
“Morning sweetie, you have a good night sleep?” I hear a voice from outside the tent ask, letting out another yawn I nod, even though I know the voice outside cant see me.
“What was that hon?” I hear the voice ask again, this time im able to put a gender to it. Male, and from the sounds of things someone about my age…
“Nothing dad, just yawning,” I feel myself reply and start to crawl out of the small tent.
“Alright, breakfasts almost ready, do you think you can roll up our cots and the tent? I want to get moving before noon” I just nod, once again forgetting the other pony, my father(?), couldn’t see me. Poking my head outside I’m welcomed to the sight of a small camp , a fire in the middle with a unicorn stallion working diligently with a frying pan . I noticed the pan he was using seemed to be enveloped in a yellow glow. The rest of the area seemed to be forest, not too different from those i was stranded in only it was the middle of summer and everything seemed to be green and alive.
“Pancakes!” I yell out, the stallion giving a smile. He appears to have a slightly browner coat color than me, and his mane was the same shade of red that was mixed into mine. As I started making my way towards him I began to notice just how much larger than me he was. And how much younger I sounded.
“Yes Sunset. But you’ll only get them if you do as I asked.” Sunset… Somehow I wasn’t surprised by that at all. Her colors, that mark on her flank, they both fit her perfectly.
Letting out groan I watched quietly as Sunset did a 180 and started packing up the tent. It was a bit odd to say the least, like watching television, only I could feel everything she did. The grass in her hooves, the odd gust of wind across her hide, the sudden moment of pain as Sunset accidently pulled too hard on apeg and was sent tumbling backwards. To her credit she didn’t cry or say anything other than a short whine of pain… Within a few minutes the tent was completely stowed away in a small bag which I dragged over to the cart and stopped the moment.
“Well?” Sunset gives a small jump of surprise and looks back at her father who seems to be watching in amusement and expectation.
“Do I have to??” she asks in the whiny voice you hear children use so often. Whatever her father wanted her to do was akin to asking a child to eat their veggies… Although I don’t know how well that transfers to a completely vegetarian species.
“Yes… If you want to get better at magic you need to practice” he replies smiling.
Giving a groan Sunset turns her attention to the bag and concentrates. For a few moments I feel nothing but then an an odd sensation creeps into my horn before the sack gets enveloped in a teal aura and begins floating. I can tell she’s struggling, her eyes closing as she concentrates fully on lifting the bag.
“Almost there sweetie, you can do it!” I hear her father call out encouragingly but I doubt Sunset can hear him. Shes so focused on her magic.
Finally, after a few seconds she lets out of exasperated sigh and falls over breathing heavily, staring up at the sack that’s now resting on the edge of the cart. A moment later her father comes up and pushes it the rest of the way in, smiling widely.
“You did great sweetie!” he says scooping me up for a hug. Sunset seems completely pooped after that and gives her father a half hearted hug “Your mom would be proud of you.” He then adds and I feel the filly tense up at that and give a smile.
“Really?” she asks, turning her face to look at the other pony.
“Of course… “ he replies and gives our mane a rustle before setting us down “I know that she’s smiling at you from the Fields of Elysium” he said warmly and starts walking back to the fire. After a couple moments Sunset runs off after him and I feel the world dissolve into a mist of white.