My eyes snap open to darkness as I emerge from the dream, the followed closely by a panicked flailing about as I struggled against an invisible force that seemed to be strangling me from all sides.
“Whoa! WHOA!” I hear a voice call out; a moment later I feel the strangling darkness recede and light floods my vision followed closely by a sharp pain in my chest as I twist my body. I probably would have screamed in pain if not for the amorphous mass the seemed to be lodged in my mouth.
“How the hell did you… Here, let me help you,” a moment later I feel my mouth clear and give a couple coughs before opening my eyes. I was still in the woods, and still a pony, something I realized as I pushed away the arm that helped me.
Arm.
Blinking a few times I turned my body to face a rather large looking man who seemed to be regarding me with quite a bit of curiosity.
“There we go. Last I checked ponies arnt supposed to be eating sleeping bags,” he said with a chuckle. Looking around I realize I am indeed in what seems to be a sleeping bag beside a large fire. A couple meters away a large tent was sitting, the door open to the elements.
Seems that my initial thought of hunter had been right, the man was wearing a set of baggy pants and a hunting vest over his jacket, all of which had a woodland pattern on top of it to better help him hide in the brush. He had a rectangular face, with the beginnings of a beard likely caused from not being able to shave in days. On his head a baseball cap rested which beared the same woodland pattern and completed his ensemble.
“W-who are you?” I rasp out, my mouth dry from the sleeping bag. The fact I spoke at all seemed to shock the man, his eyes widening in surprise.
“So you can talk. Damn, now I owe Mitch...” He mutters and turns around for a moment to grab a water bottle from the tent.
“My names Kyle; me and Mitch were the ones who saw your weird little flare and magic show with those wolves. Glad we managed to get there in time. Didn’t look like you were doing well.” He explains setting down the bottle beside me. It’s about then that I notice the bandages wrapped around my chest and the dull pain I feel emanating from there. “Oh yeah, that. The bite was pretty bad but lucky for you we brought a first aid kit. It should be fine in a couple days.”
Giving a small nod I idly float the bottle to my mouth and start drinking, ignoring the momentary surprise on Kyles face. After taking a few gulps I let out a content sigh, and look over to him.
“Thanks… For everything,” I mutter and give him a small smile.
“S’no problem. I’m sure you’d have done the same in our situation. What’s your name?” I freeze for a moment and turn away to look into the fire. My name? Should I tell them my real one? Or say I’m Sunset? Then there was the fact that not only was I a pony, I’d swapped genders.
That last thought hit me like a ton of bricks. Sure if made the realization earlier but my situation had numbed me to that fact. I guess gender should be the least of my worries but somehow it nagged at me. Despite it being 2012 society was still sort of ‘sexist’ and I tended to follow those beliefs reinforced by the media. The loss of that identifier seemed more serious that simply losing my entire body. It was something that formed a part of my psyche. What else was I going to lose once this was all over?
“Uh… Do you not remember?” I heard Kyle ask, my ears perking up and following him as he headed down beside the fire. I stare at the flames for a few moments and give a sigh.
“Jean Claude Veilleux. But you can call me John,” I mutter,
“You’re a dude?!?” Yep, that’s pretty much the reaction I was expecting. Female voice, feminine appearance, female parts… (They probably saw when bandaging me. Pretty hard to miss…) Giving a sigh I just nod in response as I stare into the flames quietly. What more was there to say?
“Oh… Shit. Sorry man.” He says a couple seconds later, probably picking up on my mood about the subject “We just thought…” he gives a sigh and for the next few minutes the only sounds I hear are the crackling of the fire and my own pained breathing. Thankfully said feeling had diminished to a dull throb in my side.
Once again my ears perk up as I hear something move loudly through the woods towards us. Turning my head I’m greeted by the sight of another man carrying a massive bundle of wood in his arms. Unlike Kyle hes quite a bit… Rounder, and larger. I wouldn’t call him overweight but the difference between the two men was noticeable.
Mitch, I assume it’s short for Mitchel, is wearing similar clothing to his friend. Although instead of a baseball cap he’s wearing a toque, a mess of brown hair spilling out from beneath, and the camo pattern on his clothing is more military in nature. Actually I think he got his stuff from a military surplus store. Like I mention earlier hes a larger man compared to Kyle, his face rounder but no second chin or anything like that.
After dropping the bundle and throwing a couple sticks in he gives me a wave and a smile before glancing over to Kyle expectantly.
“She… He, woke up about a half hour ago. John, meet Mitch.” Kyle explains while remaining sitting.
“Hey… Again, thanks for coming to my rescue…” I mutter, still rather put off by Kyles reaction. Mitch just gives me a grin and looks back to Kyle.
“Told ya they could talk… You owe me five.” He says laughing. Well, at least he doesn’t seem to mind my apparent gender swap.
“Whatever. I’ll pay for your next two coffees when we get back alright?” Kyle replies, rolling his eyes as he gets up and starts heading towards the tent.
“How did you know I could talk?“ I ask, some of my discomfort evaporating.
“Got a cousin in the states who’s friend got changed. Like you he changed into a girl and seems to have no problems talking. Although, I’m kinda surprised to find one of you out here; seems like most of the changes are happening south of the border.” That certainly explains why he didn’t care about my gender swapping or being able to talk like his friend was. “Care tellin me how you got out here?”
“I… I crashed my truck into the valley. Probably should be dead but I woke up on shore like this,” I explain, waved a foreleg about. The whole thing with Discord was not something I was ready to divulge. They may have saved my life but talking of chaos gods and ponies in my head would probably only make them think I’m crazy. “Where are we exactly?”
“About a kilometer from where we found you, and from there we are about an hours walk from where we parked our vehicle. Lucky for you we didn’t kill anything, sides the wolves of course,” he gave a grin at that and took a seat down by the fire. “Gotta say, that was some impressive… Magic? You were zipping all over that beach which made it hard for me to get a shot. It’s a good thing you eventually stopped and used that bubble thing so I could get a shot on big ugly…” at the mention of the timberwolf he looks away “You have any idea what that thing was? Looked like some sort of robot… But after I blew it to smithereens all I could find were rocks and sticks. “
“Timberwolf…” I could already see the man was about to say the same thing I had when I first herd it and raised a hoof to stop him “Not one of ours. Apparently its something from the ponies world. Wolves made out of timber,” I explained and started to wonder what other creatures besides ponies were making the trip to earth. Whenever I got home I resolved to watch the show, if only to get a better idea of what exactly I was getting myself into. Hopefully id learn something about Sunset as well; being the personal student of a princess should net you some airtime right?
Behind me I hear the tents open up again and turn to see Kyle dialing on a phone. He smiles and motions to the device.
“Calling the cops and letting them know we have you,” he explains and walks off into the woods a short distance… Mitch meanwhile tosses another stick into the fire causing me to turn my attention back to him.
“So, where did you learn how to do all that stuff anyway? It something all unicorns just ‘know’?” he asks, a suspicious tone entering his voice at the end.
“No… The pony this body belongs to helped me. She’s in my head apparently.” Where was Sunset anyway? I couldn’t feel her presence in my mind and it was rather odd that she’d be quiet at a time like this. Last Id heard from her was back in the cave with the Ender- I thought it had all been a dream. But Sunsets absence sent a chill down my spine. Was she hurt? And what about the enderman? Its flaming eyes and ability to speak suggested something was wrong with that world we had been in.
“CAW!”
No.
You have got to be kidding me...
Turning my head to the source of the sound I’m rewarded with the sight of Reginald sitting on a high branch calmly watching me. At least I assume it was the same bird as earlier, all ravens sorta look the same.
“Oh him? He’s been here since morning. Kyle tried to chase him away but I don’t think the bird will leave unless we shoot it. And I don’t wanna waste ammo. Besides, it’s not hurting anyone,” Mitch says, following my gaze to the bird.
That still didn’t explain why it seemed to be following me. I couldn’t just pass it off as the bird just wanting an easy meal anymore. Something was causing it to follow me around and I did not like the idea of having a stalker.
“Morning… How long have I been here?” I ask, still looking at the raven.
“It’s Monday. Or… Marsday as my phone would like me to think. We would have brought you back to town sooner but we had to hunker down all day yesterday when another storm rolled in. Also I didn’t want to move you until I was sure you were ok,” he explains and I hear him get up from his seat.
I’d been unconscious for a whole day? Pausing for a moment I go over everything that’s happened since I found myself like this. Id crashed Saturday morning, and then spent the next few hours walking… At some point that afternoon id taken a nap and had that weird dream and then I guess that evening is when I got a hang of my magic. Seems like the hours I’d spent in that dream world were somewhat accurate.
After a few moments I watch as Kyle returns with a smile on his face, “Good news! Turns out they found your truck on the side of the road yesterday. What they don’t understand though is how you got here.”
“My trucks ok?” I ask, rather amazed by that revelation. I had thought the vehicle lost. This was great! A moment later though my smile fades away “Wait… Where are we exactly?”
“About 50 klicks southeast of GP… Which is odd considering your truck was found quite a bit north of here. How long were you walking?” he asks looking a bit confused. To be honest I felt the same way. The Smoky river ran south to north, eventually emptying out in the arctic. If Kyle was right I would have been in serious trouble. My decision to head upstream was the wrong one, and if I had kept going I probably would have died. Or arrived in the Rockies….
“Half a day… I thought I was downstream of here I crashed, not upstream…” I didn’t make sense… Then again I apparently didn’t crash my truck… What exactly had happened that night then? Had I been hallucinating? Leaving the truck and stumbling into the valley where I changed? That still didn’t explain how I had travelled so far from my original location.
“So um… Do you think you can walk? They want me to drive you back to the hospital to make sure you’re ok. If not I can carry you. You’re not exactly heavy,” Kyle asks, ducking into the tent for a moment and pulling out a handbag.
Frowning, I get up onto my hooves, hissing as my chest flares with pain. Yeah, not gonna happen. Kyle seems to get the same idea gives me a sympathetic smile.
“Guess that answers that,” he chuckles, “I’ll be back in a couple hours. You fine with watching the camp?” he asks looking over to Mitchel. So that’s how it was going to be then? Sitting back down I start to wrap myself up in the sleeping bag with a sigh. The two men talk for a few more moments before Kyle picks me up and places my on his back. How long had it been since I’d been given a piggy back ride?
“Alright back there?” I give a nod and lay my head against his back and after thanking Mitch one last time we’re off. By this point I was rather… Depressed? I didn’t need to worry about survival, and as a result so many different thoughts id been shoving aside were now surfacing in my mind.
Was I always going to be like this?
How will I get a job?
There go my future plans to join the military…
Do ponies even count as people for the sake of human rights?
There’s a group of people out there who want me dead!
What happens to all my assets?
What was I going to tell my dad?
Actually, that last one wasn’t really a problem. We hadn’t been on speaking terms over the last few months and there seemed to be no end in sight to our squabble. It was a shame really, growing up we just had each other after mom passed away, but as time went on our differences created too much of a gulf until it finally exploded last year in an impressive fashion.
Finally one question stood out among the others, and had been growing as time went on…
Where the heck was Sunset Shimmer?