Sam finally got around to releasing me from the hug, and I inhaled gratefully as my ribs ceased squishing against my internal organs. She gently placed me on the counter, while I turned to stare deep into my reflection. I leaned forward, gazing intently into those eyes, while a part of me wondered if any of this was even real.
Uh, yeah. It's real. I know because- I bumped my sore nose/muzzle against the glass of the mirror, and pulled away quickly. Geez! Did I break that poor thing? My nose rejected the physical contact, feeling as though it had just been slammed into another door despite the fact I had only gently bumped it. It was still quite sore, and a rather consistent reminder that if this was a dream it was definitely a really painful one.
I carefully gave it a rub with my right forehoof, but another shock of pain retaliated against me. Okay! Ow! Why did I think it would hurt less if I poked it with a hoof rather than a mirror?
I glared at the mirror, and it glared right back. The growling face that met my eyes brought a slight chuckle out of me. I pulled the largest smile I could, while trying to observe just how expressive a pony's face could be. Turns out they are RIDICULOUSLY expressive.
"So, how does it, uh, feel?" Sam asked me, fiddling with something in one of our bathroom drawers. I pondered my answer momentarily, trying to flex my wings and finding I had no idea how I had flopped them around earlier.
"Feel? Well, I don't feel too different I guess. I'm still me, I just have a completely different everything, it's like-" I stopped, no explanation forthcoming for exactly how it felt to suddenly find everything changed. It was like- "Oh! It's like you've been working with two buttons all your life, and you suddenly have to get used to the N64 controller, there's a huge whack of new features, and you don't expect you'll ever find a way to make your thumbs comfortable."
"I- Okay. But, I'm- What? Good analogy I guess, but it- I guess it works?" She mumbled, as I puzzled over how I could come up with a way to clarify any better.
I pouted gently as I brought my hooves up to my eyes once more. I didn't even have thumbs anymore, how could I possibly make them comfortable? "Or maybe those thumbs are my knee joints, though I guess thanks to the way equine bodies work I still have my normal ones they are just higher up on my body. Even though I'm smaller. Or- Oh! Or maybe the thumbs are my tongue? This mouth is huge sis, Like, seriously." And don't get me started on hearing a voice an octave too high whenever I spoke.
I looked over at her, hoping she would understand somehow. She gave a nod, but her head was tilted with confusion. "Okay, so it's very... Different. Good to know." She replied, holding something mysterious behind her back. She closed one of our bathroom drawers with her hip. I neglected to notice this, and went back to staring at my reflection and wondering how to explain my situation to her.
Samantha drew closer to my reflection, holding a black object that looked like a handle with an orange rimmed ellipse attached to it. There were little spikes all over it, and my mind tried to process it's name rather than telling me to run like it usually did.
"Surprise hairbrush!" She attacked me, as she swung the now recognizably dangerous hairbrush towards me, and I- "Make sure not to tug too hard, please?" I found myself saying.
Woah woah WOAH! Hold up, since when do I say things like that? I found myself mentally questioning, not knowing why I was expecting some sort of answer. When I spoke the words, I felt- Well, I didn't really feel any different than usual, I just felt a feeling of- Something? I have no idea what that was! It just didn't seem quite like I was really the one saying it?
Most of the time I at least somewhat thought of what I was going to say. This time the words had just spilled out of my mouth like a glass bottle of the opposite sort of thing of ketchup.
Even Sam was a bit surprised. She stopped in the middle of her assault, taking a step back and leaving the hairbrush dangling in my mane. "Are you- Sure you're my brother? I mean, I guess I never asked you for sure. Are you just some random pony that wandered into my home?" She chided, a smug smile of sarcasm stuck to her face.
I shook my head quietly, a bit unsettled by my sudden outburst of... Not-me-ish-ness. "I-I'm pretty certain I am. My name is Leslie Keegard, and- Well, I guess I'm more like a sister now, don't call me Sis though."
Sam gave a short laugh, "Tee hee! Sis... Anyway, don't do that again, You're supposed to be the annoyed little brother, what happened to that? You used to run away from hair brushes because you thought Shagginess looked cool. Seriously, the heck?"
"I... Don't know. Seriously, I think I'm losing it." She gave a slight chuckle, and retrieved the brush from my mane. I gave a fake and faltering smile, as I didn't want her to think I was seriously doubting my mind. Which I was, No really, what was that?
I didn't expect to be quite so worked up about a slip of the tongue, so I finally shook my head and tried to forget about it all. This proved to be a bad idea, as the hairbrush was now being held stationary by my Sister's hand. "Yeouch!" I squeaked, my vocal capabilities surprising me once more.
Sam tugged my mane one last time. "Okay, open your eyes! I think I've done it!" She had told me to close my eyes earlier, as apparently my new mane style was to be a surprise. I had considered protesting, but apparently some part of me was okay with my mane being brushed, so I had gone along with it.
I slid my eyelids open, and took in the red and pink... "Oh, well I wasn't quite expecting that." She had done barely anything with my bangs forelocks, but the flow of hair that had been trailing down my back and onto the floor was now tucked into a much shorter section of braids that fell down my left side. It was long enough that Sam had found it necessary to fold it upwards on itself, and then back down again. With all that excess hair it was a impressively thick braid.
"So? Any comments? Concerns? Anything for the Sammy bank of complaints?" My Sister asked, poking me in the side trying to get some sort of response.
"Its... Nice Sis. Thanks?" I replied mildly. My normal quips and teases just weren't visiting me today, so evidently Sam's desired response was not forthcoming.
"Nice?" She repeated, her face adopting a worried expression. She stood up and turned away from me, repeating herself, "Nice?"
I offered her a shrug, "Well what do you want from me? It is pretty nice. You did a fair job, though I think if you had used lime green hair ties it would have offered a much nicer contrast with my mane."
Under my fur I felt a shiver of goosebumps. It happened again! I had no control over what I was saying just now! What was going on? Was I still in control of my body completely, or was there some other pony trapped in here with me that was speaking for me? I'm a bit reluctant to be sharing my body with someone, or rather somepony. So if you're in there somewhere then reveal yourself! Or something! I'm not quite sure how somepony would go about revealing themselves mentally in a shared body-mind situation thing.
No answer came, so I sat staring at myself in the reflection, trying to understand why I enjoyed having a braided mane so much. Something to do with Mother never letting me grow out my mane when I was younger?
WHAT. Where did that thought come from?! Seriously? It didn't feel like an idle thought, but instead like a memory of something that occurred while I wasn't paying attention; incredibly vague but still definite enough to know it had happened. It obviously couldn't have been a memory of mine, I didn't grow up with a mane. I also didn't grow up with my Mother, I grew up with my Sister and lame excuse for an uncle. So where did my memory come from?
Was I really... Sharing my mind and body with somepony?
Samantha's head was tilted as she stared directly at me, her expression quite serious this time. "Okay, what did you do with my brother?" She was evidently a bit curious as to why the brother she had told time and time again not to wear mismatching socks was now telling her which color of hair ties would look good in his hair.
Or mane, whatever. I shouldn't have to get everything right, I've only been a pony for less than an hour. I told myself, beginning to wonder why in the world I was even trying to use correct pony terminology.
"I'm... Starting to wonder about that myself," I responded with a pause.
"Right, that's reassuring." Sam rolled her eyes, before searching through the drawers for the requested bright green hair ties.
I finally got around to standing up, kinda, standing up with four legs is pretty weird. I slowly trotted in place, turning myself around, before glancing downwards at the floor. It was about three feet away from me, and if I had my regular body I would have had no hesitation before jumping down. Instead I found myself trapped on the narrow ledge that was my bathroom counter.
"Found one! C'mere you." Sam chimed with a smile, reaching towards me. My usual brother instincts apparently decided to strike, and I reflexively took a step forwards.
Straight off of the counter.
As my body began to drop, my wings shot out to their fullest wingspan, wavering slightly as they attempted to keep me upright. My tail twitched as well, helping my balance in a similar way. My forelegs stretched out to the floor, while my hind legs quickly bent inwards and then outwards, kicking the counter and pushing me away towards a clear landing spot.
My forelegs came in contact with the linoleum flooring, bending slightly to absorb the shock. My hind legs followed suit soon after, and I found myself crouched on the ground, breathing quietly but quickly as a small surge of adrenaline assaulted me.
Oh. Apparently Pegasus pony reflexes are excellent at dealing with short falls. I considered silently, while I tried to take in the fact that I had not even felt the shock of an impact. My landing had been silent too, making me wonder just what my hooves were made of. I would have thought that I would have made some sort of noise, at least a plop, but instead my entire ordeal was eerily quiet.
I stood myself up, before lifting my head and rotating my neck to see how Sam was reacting. Her eyes were wide, and the hair tie she had been holding was dangling out of her mouth after she had raised her hand to it in surprise and concern.
I stood there for a few seconds, trying to understand what had just happened. "So, I guess you're not fragile, despite your size." Sam commented, with a nod.
"Do you think we should be writing these facts down or something? You know, for science?" I asked, tentatively lifting a hoof to see if I had simply gone numb. Nope, still have all my feeling, my hooves are just supreme shock-absorbers.
"We could, but I don't think that would be... Necessary. There's all the other- Oh! I totally forgot to tell you. Oops." Samantha said, leaving me to wonder what she had forgotten.
"You forgot to tell me what exactly?" I questioned. It wouldn't be necessary to take notes on the anatomy and physical capabilites of a real life cartoon pony?
"Uh... So yeah. You aren't the only one who woke up as a pony this morning. There are about... A lot of people." She claimed.
Well, I couldn't say I wasn't expecting it. Well, technically I totally wasn't, but I had already given up on expectations earlier. I hadn't really thought about how the world would react to me yet, but knowing that I'm not the only pony around certainly made my prospects of being re-accepted by society certainly more plausible. "Just how many is 'A lot'?" I squeaked, my voice defying me once more.
"Well, A news report came in this morning. Supposedly there are at least ten-"
"Only ten? Okay, well thats..." Was that good or bad? I wasn't quite sure. The more the merrier? No. If there a great deal of people then surely a bunch of humans are going to react in erratic ways, and-
"Thousand..." Sam finished. A moment of silence passed between us, as I slowly breathed in and then out.
"Wow. Okay." I said simply. No seriously, how do I react to that? I took another breath, and realized I was breathin normally. Or was I? Yes, yes I am. Breathing is all clear, you are free to panic.
But I didn't panic. The number didn't seem real, I literally couldn't comprehend something like this. Ten thousand people just turned into ponies? Like that? Following that thought, I began to wonder how this had even happened.
"Was it just people who were-" I began to ask.
"No. All sorts of people, not just fans of the show. The only thing they've had in common so far is that they were young and usually nice people. No really, I don't even know how they determined that but apparently the great majority are friendly people." Sam informed me with a grim look, before smiling and adding, "Making me wonder how this could have ever happened to you!"
"Hey! Whatever Sis, I'm nice!" I whined my retaliation, my tail flicking back and forth on its own while my ears flopped downwards.
Interesting, so my tail and ears will express emotion even if i'm not truly feeling the emotion? My tail and ears are sarcastic too? My body is neat! I discovered, my annoyed expression giving way to glee at being so expressive.
Wait, i'm losing track of my thoughts, there are at least 10,000 people who were suddenly ponifed in the world. How? Why? What will my parents think? The final thought caught me off-guard. I'd have to tell my parents that their son turned into a mare sooner or later, how would they react?
I gave my nose an anxious lick and- Ew... My blood is still dried on my nose. I should wash off or something. "Okay, so there are now live ponies in the world. Sounds like a typical summer lies ahead, don't cha think?"
"Yep, extremely typical."
"Yep."
We left it at that, as we stood silently reflecting on the situation. Or at least, I was reflecting on it. I don't know what Sam was thinking. I turned around and headed for the bathtub, careful of my hooves and hopeful I would eventually learn to be confident in my walking.
"Hey sis, can ya bring me some clothes? I-"
It was around this time a terrible realization hit me. AND... I've been naked this whole time. In front of my sister.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I cried out, leaping desperately for the bathtub. HOW COULD I NOT HAVE NOTCIED THIS EARLIER?!?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER?
I landed on the shower mat, my hooves sliding slightly but not quite slipping out from under me. "Why didn't you tell me I was naked?!" I shouted at my sister, whose eyes were wide with shock due to my sudden leap and shout. I slammed the shower curtain behind me, but then gently pulled it open again with one hoof.
Sam's surprised expression dissappeared, "Oh! That's what the screaming is about? I thought you stepped on a lego brick or something! Don't scare me like that Les!"
"Don't scare you? Don't scare me! I've been in the nude for ten minutes beside you, and you didn't even say a word!" I hadn't been naked around my sister for at least ten years now, so I wasn't quite sure what the proper reaction was supposed to be.
"I- What? Les, I've seen you naked before. You do have a memory right? It's only been eleven years. You're family, I don't care at all."
"Well I care! This is a horrific invasion of my privacy, I demand you leave my bathroom right this instant!" I proclaimed, my tail whipping back and forth.
Sam tilted her head with an incredulous look, "Seriously? Okay. Whatever 'Sis'. Good luck turning the knobs with no fingers by the way." She stood up and strutted out, giving me a parting shrug and a wave.
"Don't call me 'Sis'!" I called after her, before slamming the curtain closed once more. I turned to face the knobs of impossibility, my face blank.
I took a tentative step forward, and jammed my right forehoof towards the cold water knob. It was thicker than the hands I was used to, and got stuck between the faucet and the knob. I tugged and twisted, but the knob itself was too slippery to turn.
Okay, let's do this the fun way- I thought, raising my other hoof to try and turn the knob. I managed to get my hoof against the wall in time to keep my balance, but without the usual grip I usually have it was proving impossible.
Well, then fine. I'd rather sit here being dry than have to call my sister back. It was a mutual agreement between siblings that going to ask for help after you said you could do something was the greatest shame, therefore I had already cut off my greatest ally.
No matter how I twisted and nudged my hooves, the knob would simply not budge. Well, actually it did budge, but I budged it the wrong way and now it was even harder to turn.
Don't give in Leslie, you have only to turn a metal object literally built to turn. How hard could it be?
Okay, pretty hard apparently. I opened my mouth once more, attempting to clasp my teeth around the thing to turn it. The metal knob tasted somewhat like the blood still plastered to my upper lip, and worse than that it still wasn't budging.
Should I just give in? I've been at this for fifteen minutes? It's obvious that unless I something magical happens, this knob ain't turning.
Magic? Is that an option? I had been sarcastic, but after I thought about it I wondered if it might be applicable. I was a cartoon pony now, so-
No. Magic is not real, be rational. I told myself.
I took a step back, and sat down on the unfortunately dry floor of the porcelain tub. Or is it acyrillic? I thought I read something about that one time. I shook my head away from the bathroom thoughts, and looked longingly past the curtain. I would probably have to call Sam for help, and then she would be all smug, and I would-
Curtain. How did I close the curtain, with hooves?
I reached a hoof up to it again, and tried to pull it aside. Nothing happened, except the curtain slid around my hoof. I couldn't budge it at all from my low area in the bottom of the tub.
But I closed it earlier... Twice. I pondered over this, trying to remember what I had done differently. I poked and prodded the curtain again, in a slight bout of confusion.
What did I do? And how? I questioned, If I could do it again, it'd be... Well, it would be magical! Did I accidentally use some sort of pony hoof magic when I was tugging on the curtain earlier? I had always wond- Okay, maybe not always- I had at least at one point wondered how ponies did anything with their hooves. They were shown several times in the show as having been able to grab things with their hooves that wouldn't be physically possible.
I gave one final poke to the curtain, before locking the crook of my... Wrist? Does this count as a wrist? I'm gonna pretend that this is a wrist. I pulled sideways, taking several steps in the same direction. The curtain slid open, and I revealed-
"Giving up?" Sam asked, sitting on the counter with crossed arms.
"I- I'm not- I'm still naked! Get out of here!" I reached for the curtain, trying to pull it closed once more. It danced around the tip of my hoof, no matter how I tried to flex the fingers I didn't have any more.
Okay, no luck there. Maybe my hoof was randomly sticky, and it was all a fluke? There was something missing that was there before. Was it a certain magic muscle I wasn't flexing properly? Was it that my magic curtain-closing hooves were powered by mild-frustration at my sister that wasn't in full bloom right now? Was it simply that- I didn't believe, and that I had to use the power of friendship to-
It was probably a fluke.
I gave up with a sigh, closing the curtain in shame as I bowed my head and sighed.
I opened them again with slight shock, trying to memorize my sensations and refusing to release my grip. A slight warmth, well not really warmth but- I don't really know how to describe it. A feeling of, energy and power? How do you describe something indescribable? Surely there is a word for the sensation as the non-feeling flowed through my body and out my hoof, and- Oh! The word is indescribable! I already said it. huh.
It was a sensation I wasn't at all used to to be sure, having never felt it before in my life. I could sense something new inside of me, not really warm or cold, The only feeling I got was, alive.
It felt magical.
Sam was gaping slightly, "Uhhhh." She stammered quietly, evidently unsure of what to say. Words weren't exactly spewing from my mouth either, but I definitely knew how to feel about it.
I willed for the curtain to follow my hoof as I tugged it to the side, and the entire curtain- Flopped backwards and then stood still. That's a no go? Why? What did I do differently? The feeling of excitement and energy seemed to slip away.
"Sis, you just. Did you just- You must have. Did you? Yes. DO IT AGAIN!" She stammered and then shouted, processing what she had just witnessed. She lunged towards me, and I found her hands pulling hooves back to the curtain as she tried to reproduce the magical effect.
"I don't think think it works like tha-"
"I DON'T CARE THAT WAS MAGIC!" Her face lit up as she resumed standing, "Real magic! That's not supposed to be a thing! Leslie, do you know what this means?!" She asked with far too much excitement in her voice for me to determine a proper response.
"Something something change history?" I tilted my head. For some reason magic being real or not had never really been a big thing to me.
Sam didn't even bother answering as she dashed from the room. More than likely she was off to find a notepad and pencil to take notes. Sam always liked taking notes.
So why didn't she take notes when she discovered I was a pony? Was there so many people effected that note-taking would be redundant? Would everyone else and their cat have already taken every interesting note possible?
I shook my head, ignoring Sam. Even if it didn't matter if magic was real or not, it was still pretty cool now that I had a chance at performing it. Performing it? Using it? Controlling it? Engaging in it? Commanding-
I gave up trying to find the right verb, and went back to focusing on trying to close my curtain.
What did I do the first time? Was it the emotion, the focus? The lack of focus?
By the time Samantha had come back into the room, I had opened the curtain and closed it twice. I still had no idea how I had done it at all.
I closed my eyes, trying to see if I could see something. Something like... I don't have any idea. I moved my hoof in the same way I just had five seconds ago, and tried to pay complete attention to all my senses. I thought I saw a slight flash of light, but it was just my eyelids flickering.
"Any luck- You DID IT?" Samantha exclaimed loudly as she approached the tub. Noticing the moved curtain as she came into the room
"And I have no idea how!" I replied happily, my eyes open once more. I looked at the curtain in frustration, for following my will but not revealing how my will could possibly have any effect on the physical world.
I moved my hooves once more, not quite understanding what I was doing that allowed the curtain to move. I wasn't making any mental grasps or anything, my hoof was just doing it semi-automatically. I wanted it to happen and so it did.
"Hang on! Do that again!" Sam stopped my curtain mid-close, ripping it from my "grasp." She leaned closer to my face, claiming, "I need to see something."
Without breaking my gaze, I reached my left foreleg towards the curtain. I flexed some sort of magic muscle or something, and began pulling the curtain closed slowly, the plastic sticking to my hoof as if it were a magnet.
"Aha! Your eyes change color when you do that!" Sam announced.
My concentration broke, and the plastic sheet flopped silently away from me. "My eyes change color? What do you mean?" I inquired. What the heck do eyes have to do with magic?!
"Well, they kinda... Glow a bit. Like, a slightly brighter purple." She explained. "I guess pony eyes are the thing that depict magic use for non-unicorn ponies?" She jotted something down on her notepad, and I noticed it already had half a page of writing.
Well, it had been shown several times In the show That pony eye's glowed during strenuous use of magic, So that definitely seems legit... Or at least it would, if not for the fact that this was real life and not a semi-famous cartoon about magical equines. Then again, nothing about today follows the usual rules of real life anyway, so I might as well toss logic to the wind.
Sam finished her idle scribbles, and looked up at me. I blinked, still naked but beyond caring about that silly issue by now. Though I would probably start caring again all over when I went outside. Outside? Can I even go outside like this? What if-
I abandoned the train of thought, knowing how often I derailed when I followed those. Worried of outside could wait.
"So let's recap everything I know so far, and then everything you know so far." Sam spoke, standing up dramatically and making me feel eight times shorter than I was used to.
"People are ponies, this mess is happening all over. My Bro is now my Sis, and a Pegasus. I'm still human. Life still isn't fair. Your turn?"
"Being a Pegasus is pretty cool. I am currently rubbing this in your face." I raised a hoof and booped her on the nose for emphasis. "I am now going back to attempting to take a shower, get out of my mane, silly human."
I attempted to close the shower curtain dramatically, but something way cooler/freakier/interesting happened instead. The shower curtain closed itself, while I was overwhelmed by a sudden sensory overload.
My vision appeared a tad purple
I swear I could taste pomegranate, though I have no clue why.
Nothing interesting happened with my nose, though it was still clogged with dried blood.
I heard Sam gasp a little, but that's it for what I heard.
The first four senses I usually used were mostly uninteresting. It was the sense of feeling and a new sense I wasn't entirely aware I had until then that were the most interesting.
My entire everything was dripping with the feeling of liveliness and energy I had felt earlier, only about tenfold this time. Everything from the tip of my nose to the last hair of my tail seemed to be something more.
Speaking of something more...
I could now perceive something entirely new. It wasn't any one thing, in anyone spot. It was everywhere, and in some of the most vibrant of colors I could understand. It was static and it flowed, it was light and it was dark.
I would have loved to described it endlessly, but it went and disappeared not even a half second after I began to know of it.
More to the point, the curtain was now closed, the taps had turned themselves, and a stream of water now lightly pummeled my split pink-red mane.
"Wait, what?" I heard myself and my Sister ask at the exact same time.