//------------------------------// // Rough Morning // Story: The Sound of a Heartbeat // by Orion97 //------------------------------// You ever have one of those days where you got to come home after a nice, relaxing day and get a good, peaceful night's rest? Yeah, well neither have I, and today would be no exception. I usually came home from school tired and feeling like I got hit with a shovel but today I really felt like just going to sleep for a week. School tended to be just a little more annoying to go through when people knew you were a brony, most were fine with it or just did care but now and again some dick in one of my classes would feel the need to treat me like the six year old girl he claims the show was meant for, as I was reminded daily about his ever so important opinions. When I came home today rest continued to elude me in the form of chores and enough school papers to make a campfire. Despite feeling almost dead on the inside I managed to get the chores finished early and I finished the school work at some time past midnight, I wasn't sure what time, I just know my head fell onto my desk right after I completed the gauntlet of meaningless, time consuming assignments and I finally drifted off into sleep, at least until Monday morning when the painful cycle repeats. I slowly opened my eyes to prepare for yet another day, I was anticipating my alarm clock to go off like a car alarm at any moment but I never heard it ring, what I did hear however was...wait did I hear snoring? I opened my eyes more and right in front of me was a white unicorn asleep and sure enough, she was snoring. Now rather than calmly assess the situation like a reasonable person, my first instinct was to scream, in hindsight probably not one of the smartest things to do. "AHHHHH WHAT THE HELL!" I shouted at a painfully close distance to the mare next to me. In a near instant she snapped her eyes open and screamed even louder than me. "AHHHHHH WHO ARE YOU!?" She yelled as she kicked me off the bed and straight into the wall on the opposite side of the room, knocking the wind clear out of me. The first thing she did was pull a pair of purple shades and put them on, then she scrambled out of bed and stood on four legs, walking towards me quickly. "W-wait a minute, hold on! I have no idea what's going on!" I said as I held up my hands in- wait...where were my hands! I was holding up two hooves! I quickly looked over the rest of myself as well, I found two more legs and hooves, a tail and a pair of wings on my side. Apparently my skin color was now a tan or light brown as well. I felt upward and even my face felt different but I had no time to reflect on these revelations as a hoof was thrown right in front of my face accusingly. "Who are you and how did you get in my bed!?" She looked like she was one wrong answer away from knocking my lights out. I was never the best liar so I figured telling the truth would be for the best...if only I knew just what in the world that was. "I swear I have no idea how I got here! I was going to sleep last night and I woke up here, I'm even more confused than you are!" The white mare tilted her head as if I started speaking a different language, but if nothing else she seemed to calm down a little. "Okay...I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt but so help me if you are lying..." she said as she narrowed her eyes and inched closer. "I'm not, I really mean it. I just want to go home, I don't even know how I got here..." I told her, crestfallen that I had absolutely no idea where I was and how I became a pony. Unfortunately she looked even more confused. "Look, I think you might have some form of memory loss, maybe I do too, seeing as how I always lock the door before I go to sleep, maybe getting something to eat will clear our heads and help figure this out." I nodded as she went to open the door and gestured for me to walk out first, I smiled and thanked her on the way out but not before finally taking a glance at the room she we were about to leave, it wasn't very fancy or even that large but all over the room I could see instruments, recording devices, vinyl records and much more. It all seemed new yet strangely familiar and expected at the same time. I put it out of mind for the moment and followed the unicorn mare in front of me outside the door. The door led directly into a club, there was a large dance floor in front of a new DJ table, to the right of the dance floor there was a fair sized bar and lined around the rest of the place were tables and chairs. I could see light coming in from one of the windows, it must have been the morning still, which would have explained why no one else was here. Apparently I had been looking around for a while as my thoughts were interrupted by a loud "Ahem." My impatient host was starting to tap her hoof on the ground as she waved me over to her table, not wanting to make her more upset than she already was I sat down across from her. I noticed that since she had gotten up she was wearing those purple shades, usually it was fairly odd to wear those indoors but considering the fact I was sitting across from a unicorn at the moment it didn't seem quite so unusual. "Are you awake in there? You seem to be pretty distracted." She asked, trying to keep my attention for more than five seconds. "Sorry...this is all pretty new to me, and I'm sorry about scaring you this morning, I really have no idea how I got here." "Alright I believe you...for now, I'd know if you're lying so don't think you'd be able to get away with it. What's your name anyhow?" She asked me as she rested her chin on her hooves. "Oh, my name is Anders, I don't have an occupation but I'm in college to become a pilot." "Okaaaay...well my name is Vinyl Scratch, I'm a DJ, the one and only DJ PON3! Though I'm not sure what a pilot is." Wait a minute...I knew it all seemed familiar, then that would mean this was a My Little Pony universe, well that does give me one possible answer...I'm in a coma, it would be impossible to suddenly wake up and be here of all places. It quickly occurred to me that if this really was like MLP then they probably wouldn't have the foggiest idea of what a pilot was. "Um, I'll explain to you later, it has to do with flying though." "Oh, I don't know much about pegasi jobs, hope it works out well." Vinyl said, at least I wouldn't have to explain to her exactly what a pilot was, the last thing I wanted was her to think I was crazy. "Alright...so do you own this place?" She shifted upright before telling me "Yep, sure is! Well for now at least..." as she finished she slumped back down and starting to fiddle with her hooves. "Wait, what do you mean for now?" I asked in concern. She gestured to the building around us as she spoke. "This place is losing money, you know that changeling invasion that happened like five months ago? Well ever since then, Canterlot's tourism has been in the sink. Nopony wants to visit a place they think they aren't safe in, even my regulars that live in Canterlot don't show up much anymore and just stay inside more often than not. With all that, I lose money, this place doesn't run on sunshine and if customers don't start showing up like they used to within a few months I'm going to have to think about closing this place up or go bankrupt." After she finished Vinyl went and made a couple drinks from the bar since no one else was there. She carried the drinks back to the table with her magic and set them next to herself. It took me a moment to register that she was really using magic but the novelty of it faded faster than I expected, even so things like magic and talking ponies would take some getting used to. "Behold, alcohol, the cure-all to stress." Vinyl waved her hoof in the air as she slid one of the glasses over to me with the other. I paused as I reached for my glass to join her as she sipped from her own. "Careful, it's strong stuff." She said as she continued drinking. I wanted to take a sip, one part to not leave her hanging and the second to wash away some of my own stress, the problem was, hooves tend to make you nervous about picking up glass. I reached for my drink regardless and my fears jumped to surprise as I picked it up with no problem, I examined my hoof wrapped around the glass that was somehow holding it. It was certainly not something I expected a hoof to be a capable of, but I let that go and raised the drink to my lips. Must be magic I thought to myself as I drank, only to nearly spit the alcohol back into the glass. She certainly wasn't kidding that this stuff was strong. Vinyl saw this little scene and couldn't help but chuckle. I sat my glass back on the table, still in silent amazement of what hooves were actually capable of here. Rather than drag on my attempt at trying to drink I would try to explain to her what I am or more correctly...was. "Hey, um Vinyl? There's something I need to clear up..." "What is it? You in my bed really was an accident...right?" She narrowed her eyes at me, truly a fantastic start to getting kicked again if that was my goal. "Yes but you see, I'm not really a pony, I'm a human. I went to sleep last night in my home and woke up here, I've never had hooves, a tail, and no wings either." I said, gesturing to the respective body parts. "Uh huh...sure, what's a human anyway? And I can see plain as day you're a pegasi." She eyed me suspiciously. "Well right now I am, but I don't know how. You see humans walk on two legs and have hands in place of hooves, we have no magic but are good at inventing." "So...like a minotaur? I saw one a while ago while visiting Ponyville, they sound like that." "Well, kind of, but the top half is different, and we have no horns, and inhabit a planet called Earth, I specifically lived in a place called the United States." That would probably be about the most I'd tell her...for now at least, it had taken up to now but I was sure that this place is almost exactly like Equestria, and I'm not sure how I'd take being told that in another world my entire civilization was in the contents of a children's show. She nodded and looked as if she was recalling something from memory, better than what I had expected at least so far. "You must be pretty far away then, I've never heard of either place, but I have heard of spells going wrong and ponies have ended up going from Manehattan all the way to the edge of Everfree. Seeing as you can't use magic someone must have used it on you, did you feel anything unusual when you went to sleep?" "Well not really, I thought I heard someone speak but I was probably dreaming it." I sighed, if I was lucky Vinyl would be able to help me get back home. If unlucky well I guess I'd have to learn to love vegetables, then I remembered I'd probably never have meat again in that case, and the thought of never touching bacon again was almost enough to make me cry a little. "Hey, look, we're going to get you home, I promise." Vinyl put her hoof on my shoulder. "Thanks, I appreciate it, but how are you taking this so easily? If the same thing happened back home they would have said that guy was crazy! "Trust me, in Equestria crazier things happen like every few weeks, especially since Discord's supposed reform. He's not trying to spread evil or anything but that evidently doesn't mean he won't wreak chaos, but at least most of it seems to be pranks and jokes." The mare in front of me then made a short list of increasingly random pranks and jokes he had played this weeks alone, one seemed to be temporarily turning Luna into a guy at one point but did reverse it after a few hours during which she got caught on camera, unfortunately for her. "Princess Luna is awesome but I gotta admit, that was priceless! At least ponies seem to get over stuff like that quickly, I would have tried to strangle him if he turned me into a stallion." She laughed just before downing more alcohol. "I'm not sure what I'd think if I was turned into a mare." I shrugged "Hm, I don't know I think you'd look pretty cute as a mare." She said as she eyed me over, then we shared a brief moment of silence staring awkwardly at each other. As if on cue, we both burst out laughing so hard I'd swear I was about to cry. "Ha, so only if I was a mare huh? Didn't know you swung like that." I told her with a mischievous grin on my face. "Huh? W-wait no, it's not like that, you know what I...grrr, come on!" She said tripping over her own words. An obvious blush appeared, turning her normally white cheeks rosy red. "You set yourself up for that one and you know it." I smiled innocently while she desperately tried to hide her blush. "Yeah well just, oh shut up. Just wait I'll get you back." She said, no doubt planning something already. "Oh who am I going to tell? Besides, you look cute when you're blushing." We looked at each other for what felt like several minutes, the awkward tension persisting until Vinyl spoke up again. "Well uh, thanks, that's really nice of you...um hey I got an idea to figure out how you got here, let's talk to Twilight Sparkle, we're friends and she knows lots about magic." She said nervously. "Yeah, okay that sounds like a good start." I stammered back, relieved that the awkward situation was over at least. "Okay cool, there's a train leaving for Ponyville at noon, that one leaves in an hour. We can get lunch and catch the train, it's a two or three hour trip and I know from experience their food on board is terrible." After leaving the club we looked around for a cheap restaurant that served decent lunch. I learned what a daisy sandwich tasted like which surprisingly, was pretty good. That probably had to do with the fact I was know in the body of an herbivore so it would make sense I found plant material tasted better than I remembered. Vinyl and I discussed all sorts of things ranging from her ideas to where the changelings came from to my idea of trying to me trying to figure out how the first languages would have been created, it's not like you can say something like yarp would mean fish, because you wouldn't be able to tell them since there was no language yet. We had lost track of time while eating lunch and it was only by a sheer stroke of luck that we made it to the train station moments before it was preparing to leave. Since I didn't have a single coin on me Vinyl thankfully paid for the ride, we didn't get great seats but at least it was quiet seeing as we were the only ones in the car. I had noticed this pattern ever since we left the club, most places we went had no more than a few ponies and those that were there didn't seem to be in any kind of a rush, like if you had a whole Sunday to yourself and your sole responsibility was to make sure you fed the dog before you went to sleep. As we settled into our seats I figured I should ask Vinyl about it. "Why was there hardly anyone around today?" She pondered this for a moment before telling me. "It probably has something to do with the Wonderbolts show today, it's mostly a pegasus thing but it still draws huge crowds wherever they do a show, normally there's always plenty of room but sometimes if it's in Canterlot or Manehattan though they get sold out. Also remember that there's less tourists here than usual because of the changeling invasion." "Right, that does make sense, well at least it's not crowded anywhere, I hated crowds back on Earth, it was always hot and people would be pushing or shoving and it was awful if it was like that all day." Finally I felt a tug below us and I could tell the final passengers had boarded and that we were on our way. "Yeah, I've never been a fan of crowds either, I mean at the club it would be a good thing for business but if i was trying to get somewhere and there were ponies everywhere it got annoying fast. Anyway I'm going to take a small nap, I went to sleep pretty late last night after trying to fix the club's lights and after we reach Ponyville the conductor will sound the whistle which should wake me up pretty easy." "Ah, I might take one too, I don't have anything better to do." "Alrighty, chat in a bit then." She yawned as she stretched out taking up her entire seat, then she removed her glasses and levitated them onto the floor beside her, despite my best efforts I still couldn't see her eyes and I was afraid to ask in case she was sensitive about it, like had a glass eye or something. Like her I laid out comfortably on my seat but wouldn't fall asleep just yet. As Vinyl fell asleep I took the time to really look at myself, my wings really did look nice, it had always been a dream of mine to have wings but I never imagined it like this, not that I was complaining. My hooves were...well hooves, not much to them other than how incredibly well they could be used in place of hands. What I was really curious about was about what my face looked like, and when I looked in the window I was able to see my reflection. Though I couldn't judge whether I was attractive by pony standards I thought I looked fairly handsome actually. I was still tan or light brown, not sure which color it resembled closer. I also noticed my eyes were deep blue, rather than the brown I had always seen in the mirror as a human. My hair, or mane as I should say was a dark brown. I didn't know what my hairstyle would look like in pony terms but it did look nice at least, not fancy or ratty but it was decent which I couldn't complain about. After content that I'd recognize myself If I looked at a picture of myself I settled back into my seat to go to sleep, it would still be a good while before we reached Ponyville. As I closed my eyes I couldn't help but gaze at Vinyl a little, she really was a beautiful mare and she had been pretty nice to me under the circumstances. I just wish I could have seen her eyes, those were really the most interesting and beautiful parts of most anyone, pony or human. It was a little odd that she hadn't taken off her shades once since she woke up and trying to see through from the other side was like trying to see the wall behind a mirror. You can really tell a lot about someone from the look in their eyes, so why would she hide them?