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// I Don't Wanna... 
// Story: Don't Go Into the Everfree Forest, TD 
// by BronyWriter 
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The itch went away mostly. It was beautiful. I mean, I lost a few fingernails and a ton of skin too, but the blasted itch was gone. That really made it all worth it to me. If I had to go back, I'd do it the same way over again. 

After that, I felt really tired, almost like I hadn't slept in a week sort of tired. The basement floor was as good a place as any to curl up, so I did. I don't remember what I dreamed about, if indeed I dreamed about anything at all, but I do know that I woke up to the sound of a piercing scream. 

My eyes snapped open and I raised my head to see Twilight standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at me with an expression of pure horror on her face. I frowned at her and cocked my head. "What's wrong? It's just a little skin. Nothing too bad about that."

Twilight's lower jaw quivered, and I heard a quiet whimper from her as she shook her head. Her horn ignited, and she levitated what turned out to be a mirror in front of my face. 

Huh.

One of my eyes was five times the size of the other one. About the same size as a pony's. My mouth was sticking out, and I knew that it was shaping into a muzzle already. I slowly raised a hand to my mouth and brushed it against the side of my face. Like before, more of my skin began peeling off, revealing the light red fur underneath. To top it off, a few of my fingers had begun fusing together. I idly poked at the fingers and tried to peel them apart by forcing my finger between the two, but I only succeeded in cracking one of my remaining fingernails in half. I clicked my tongue and tore it out with my teeth, spitting it onto the floor. No need for it, really. 

I shrugged and looked up to Twilight, who had tears streaming down her face. I smiled at her and took a few steps towards her on my hands and knees. "What did you find?"

"Uh..." Twilight blinked a few times before slowly walking down the steps towards me. She reached the bottom and walked towards her workbench, being sure to give my discarded scraps a wide berth. "I... I didn't find anything."

I raised my eyebrow and cocked my head. "What do you mean? It was kind of hard to miss. Were the chicken tracks gone? You just had to follow those."

Twilight deeply exhaled and shook her head as she sat down. "No, the chicken tracks were there, but the pool you and Fluttershy claim you fell into isn't there anymore." 

"So..." A frown slowly crossed my face. "So does that mean that you can't turn me completely back into a pony? That I'm going to continue turning back into a human until I'm one forever?"

Twilight's eyes widened again, and she spun her head to look at me like I had gone mad, which was kinda weird. I mean halting my transformation to a human and turning me back into a pony was the whole point of this thing, so...

Uh...

My own eyes widened, and my jaw dropped. My forelegs began shaking, and I started lightly hyperventilating. "T-Twilight? What the heck was that? Did I just say that I wanted to be turned back into a pony?" 

Twilight solemnly nodded and looked down at one of her books. "Yeah. I think that whatever is turning your body is..." Twilight took a deep breath. "Also turning your mind. If what I just observed is true, you're going to start having the mentality of somepony who has lived in Equestria his entire life."

I groaned and leaned my head against the table. "Great. That's just freaking brilliant. No more TD then, I guess."

"You'll still be alive," Twilight pointed out. 

I glanced up at her with a glare. "Not to get existential and all that, but if what makes me me is completely destroyed, am I still alive?" 

Twilight went silent for a few moments, but quickly shook her head. "Let's not focus on that right now, TD. Right now let's figure out exactly what sort of tests we can run." Twilight bit her lip and looked over to a few scraps of my skin. "I... yeah, I'll run some tests to see if there's some residue of the water, or whatever it was, on your skin still, and if there is then we'll figure out how to cure it. I'll also get a hair and urine sample, okay?"

I nodded. "You got it." I walked to one of my skin scraps and took it in my mouth. Yeah, it was kinda gross, having my skin in my mouth, but I couldn't balance it on my hooves and walk at the same time, and we can't all be unicorns. That...

I sharpy inhaled and spit my skin out, not even bothering to look over at Twilight who was doubtlessly horrified by it. I heard her fire up her horn and pick up the skin scrap to take over to her workbench to begin testing on, and I saw a few other skin scraps float off of the floor, as well as one of my fingernails. I grimaced and sat down on my haunches. "Don't tell anypony about that, okay, Twilight? I..." I sighed. "That kind of thing is just between us, okay? Nopony else needs to know that happened."

Twilight sniffled as she levitated some beakers over to the workbench, but I saw her give a single nod. 


*  *  *  *


It got worse. 

The itch returned, and both of my hands were fused together by this point. My right foot, where this had all started, was completely a hoof. As in, if I compared it to Twilight's it would look exactly the same. I had spent the past half-hour scratching the itch, not even bothering to try to resist, and more and more of my skin was coming off as a result. 

Twilight glanced over to me as I was scratching some skin off of my back. "TD, stop doing that! We don't know if it can be reversed once it's permanent."

I returned her look with a glare. "Look, Twilight, it itches so bad that it freaking hurts, okay? I'm going to need a screwdriver to get rid of the worst of it at this rate, so unless you have a cure now, this is all I can do to stop it!" I scratched my neck and peeled off more skin. "Besides, I don't even know how I got this stuff on me in the first place. I mean, I go to bed a pony then wake up like..." I motioned to myself. "This. You'd think that you'd be glad that I have a way to get rid of the abnormalities." 

"Oh, TD," Twilight whispered. She turned back to her work without saying anything else, but I could figure what was wrong. 

"I did it again; went into "Pony Mode," didn't I?" Twilight gave a single nod, and I facehooved. It was something that was becoming more frequent over the past half hour. I would slip into Pony Mode for a few minutes, and in those few minutes... well, it's like I had never been TD at all. That kind of frightened me. I felt a tight feeling well up in my chest as I began to realize that I might not get out of this one. If Twilight couldn't find a cure, then I would be stuck as a pony not just in body, but in mind as well. 

No. No, I wasn't going to let that happen. 

I looked up to Twilight. "Anything yet?"

Twilight sighed and shook her head. "Nothing. As far as I can tell, this is just... skin. I can't detect anything abnormal about it. It's almost as if you shed it to make room for your new body."

I grimaced and pushed myself onto my hooves and knees. "Okay, I'm going to go to the spot in the Everfree Forest where that freaking puddle was. If it isn't there, then I'm going to dig where I knew it was to find it."

"TD, what do you think that will accomplish?" Twilight turned back to me, a grim expression on her face. "I know that you don't want to be stuck as a pony like this, but I'm not sure what to do, even if we do find a sample of whatever you stepped in." Twilight looked over to the door to the basement. "Right now I think all I can do is call Princess Celestia over. Maybe she knows something about it."

I bit my lip and scratched the back of my neck. "Eh... I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. I mean, she's Princess Celestia."

"TD, I know you and Princess Celestia haven't always gotten along, but she's our best bet for fixing you."

"It's not that, it's just..." I took a deep breath and began tapping on the ground. "I'd hate to bother her. I mean, she's a powerful princess and I'm just a lowly pony." A small, embarrassed smile crossed my face. "Besides, I think I'd get all tongue tied around her and not know the proper things to say or do. I'd hate to make a scene. She's my princess, and I want to show her proper respect."

Twilight bolted up the stairs and out of the basement.