Sensations came back to me quite slowly.
First feeling returned to my ears, which gave a single twitch.
I was still less than half-conscious, barely aware of who or what I was. Some part of my mind tried to put together the puzzle pieces that were my life at the moment. My ears twitched again, but I couldn't quite yet understand if I was actually hearing anything.
Something fuzzy brushed the underside of my hoof as my muscles moved gently, trying to remove the cramps of the tense position I had just been collapsed into. Finally feeling returned to the rest of my body, and I once again returned to feeling wrong and unsure of myself. My hearing was working, but my brain wasn't processing; all I heard was just fluff and feathers.
"And" My ears picked up a clear word for once, though not a very useful one. Everything else was still background noise as my body twitched back to life.
Well, not back to life, but back to the standard style of living usually referred to as consciousness. A single spasm of pain echoed through my stomach, as I tried to open my eyes.
Or maybe I did die, this is certainly an unusual amount of pain. More than I typically go through in a day. I found myself thinking, but not quite remembering just yet who I was or why I was in pain.
Did I have some sort of amnesia? Did the strain of magic on my body cause actual damage?
Hold on, magic damage. That's a memory, I need to latch on to that and figure out where to go from there. My body was still twitching every now and then, but the pain had passed for now. A quiet muttering left the room as I tried to process my thoughts.
I used magic. I made a glass bowl hover above the ground before it could smash. And then- Someone had picked it up, but my mind wasn't providing an answer as to who. Was it me? No, someone I knew. Someone I trusted. Where was she?
It's a she? Oh, yeah! Of course it's a she! Samantha! My- Sister? Somehow Sister didn't seem like the right word. I ravaged my memory, trying to determine why. Samantha was my Sister, and I was-
A pony. Wait, so if I'm a pony, how is Samantha my sis- I changed. Oh yeah! Okay, keep it up, get those memories flowing. Sister doesn't sound right when Sam calls me 'Sis', that must be it. I'm not supposed to be a mare! Okay, progress! My Sis is named Samantha, and I am- I didn't remember.
OH come on! I have to remember my name, it's been with me all my life! It's the one thing I refuse to forget! It had to be there, I had to have a name.
The name my mind returned was unfamiliar, but I was certain it was mine. I opened my eyes, finding myself in a lavender room. My room. I was on my bed. The bed that I've had for two years.
Had it been that long? It felt like I got the bed only a couple of weeks ago. It didn't feel like mine usually was, it was far more comfy.
The room was warm around me, and completely dark. Either someone had closed my blinds or the sun had gone down while I wasn't looking.
I closed my eyes, letting Luna's night carry me off to sleep once more. This bed was unusually large, but it sure was comfortable. I furled my wings around myself, drifting off.
And time passed.
No. My mind called out, as I began to wake up again.
Something is still wrong. Something is very wrong. I tried to open my eyes, but I seemed to be exhausted. I wasn't sure how long I slept for but it was certainly much too long. Luna's night? That's wrong, why is that wrong? It sounded right, save for one little detail. I'm... Not a pony. Oh yeah.
Which means that I shouldn't be thinking like one. I should be thinking like myself. I am human. I live on Earth. The nights here don't belong to Luna. I began to try and fight my eyes back open, though by now I had probably been asleep for at least an hour or more. My eyes finally opened, and I closed them again quickly. Someone had left my lights on. Maybe I should go back to sleep? I don't think there's anything pressing I need to be doing right now. Sleep felt nice, I was good at sleep. I began to tilt back on my side and- I found myself shaking my head violently for the third time that day, assuming it was the same day. Earlier I was shaking off pony thoughts. Memories that shouldn't be mine. I remembered. They had seemed just as wrong as my desire to sleep now seemed.
"I am a human. I am not a pony. I am not going to break down or lose my identity or anything crazy, I am going to keep my human memories." I attempted to convince myself.
The stomach pain from earlier visited once more, as I realized it was hunger. I should go seek out something to chew on, find out if I like hay or not now. Do ponies like me eat hay? That sounds kinda boring as a food. I'd rather stick with pasta or something.
I forced my eyes open against the bright lights of the room, turning my head towards the door. I noticed that someone had cleaned up the pile of clothes on my floor, and I had a clear path to the door.
My eyes tried to close on me one last time. No, stop that. I'm not even tired. My body was done with trying to sleep, and if it wasn't then I certainly wasn't going to let it get any more.
Where had Sam gone?
I had passed out, and here I was in bed. Shouldn't she have taken me to a hospital or something? No, I guess I would be going to a veterinarian now, being a pony and all.
The hospitals would probably be overflowing right now with people hoping for a cure to their ponyism anyway. Sam would have known that at wouldn't have even bothered taking me to a hospital. How would we get there anyway? Was she going to carry me, or would we just walk? She could always borrow a car from a friend, but who do we know that actually owns their own car?
Maybe I could have flown there, I am a pegasus after all. If only it was that easy, it would probably take months or more of practice for me to learn how to use these wings for anything aside from short glides.
For some reason, my mind decided that didn't sound right. Haven't I used these wings before? I was pretty sure I had. I was pretty sure I hadn't. But I'm a pegasus! Why wouldn't I use my wings? My mind asked, as if assured that I had been a pegasus for at least one lifetime. Haven't I? I'm Aurora Drift, I fly all the time, I'm a pegasus.
No.
That is not right. I am a po- human. A human. I repeated, My name is Aur- Aurora- No! Stop that! "My name is Au- LESLIE!" I found myself shrieking in frustration at my own thoughts. "My name is- Aurora Drift?" I tried one last time, my mouth giving me the wrong name again. Or was it the right name? I growled in frustration, throwing myself off of the bed.
If I had thought it bad earlier when I was merely recalling pony memories, I was in for a surprise. The pony had become part of my sub-conscious.
Would this continue until I lost all of my original humanity? Would I begin losing memories if I didn't fight for them? I didn't want to start being a pony completely just yet at all! I hadn't even wanted to be a pony! My life had been fine with the direction it was going, I still had friends to stay friends with at school! I still had a Sister who I refused to abandon after everything she'd done for me. What was the point of EVERYTHING if I just lost my memories and became some random pegasus who would never know everything I struggled through? Everything that I had gone through growing up with that hoof-rot of an Uncle! The times Sam would want to apologize for something she thought she had done and I hadn't even given a flying feather. A Pony's Man's personage, who they are, is built upon their life experiences! What was the point of living an entire life and planning it all out to be successful and respected if I had done the equivalent of dying and just stopped being me?
There was no point. Everything became pointless again. The conviction I had earlier of wanting to fight to make sure that filly in the mirror was happy was gone, seeing as she was the one who was ending everything I had left for me.
Well, not everything. I still have Sam.
Sam? Where was she? She had been there when I had passed out, had she just abandoned me? That wasn't like her at all! She would never abandon her brother.
Though I guess I'm not really her brother anymore after all.
Sam wasn't here, that was a fact I couldn't deny. So many times before when I had been sick she had been there when I woke up, bringing me soup or toast or whatever else. And now I wasn't her brother anymore, was I? She didn't look after random strangers, even if they were ponies.
I was in the process of losing everything important that had ever been mine. I lost my gender, I lost my body, I'm losing my humanity. Did I just lose Sam too?
That's exactly what it had been like for her. I didn't know how I knew it, but that stupid mare, Aurora or whatever, had lost everything the same way I had. She had become me, and everything she knew was gone too.
We were both alone, with nothing. And in a way it was neither her fault or mine. This stupid ponification thing had affected thousands of people, maybe more. Thousands of families were going through the exact same thing.
I glanced around, a little glad that I didn't have any tears in my eyes. I had already broken down once today, I didn't even know why I was going through it again. Maybe I was just fragile.
Either way, glancing around my room made me realize that I hadn't even bothered to look for Sam. I was giving up on her before I knew if she had given up on me! For all I knew she was just downstairs, making me some soup and hoping I got better.
What had happened to me anyway? I had suddenly collapsed after I levitated that bowl, which is probably something I shouldn't have been able to do anyway. That was definitely not typical pegasus magic, But I shouldn't be able to do anything except pegasus magic! I turned into a pegasus! Why would I be able to do magic that seems far more normal for unicorns? I questioned. It was possible that I probably shouldn't even bother trying to understand magic, seeing as how it shouldn't be a physical thing I can manipulate anyway. And if I can, then hey! All the better for me!
I finally got myself moving, heading towards my once again closed bedroom door. That went well. Here I thought I was just going to pass out again. Why am I so tired recently? It was like that the night before I became a pony too! Are ponies just naturally easily tired? Is it some sort of side-effect while I finish turning into a pony? Was falling asleep the only way I could continue becoming Aurora?
I reached the door quickly, and looked down at my hooves in wonder. I hadn't even thought about walking, or flicking my tail just at the right time to clear it out from under my hooves. Walking was coming back to me! I smiled, then frowned. It shouldn't be coming back, it should only be visiting!
I could worry about the fact that I was becoming more pony-ish by the second later. For now I had to get to Sam. It doesn't even matter that she won't be able to do anything for me, I just want to say goodbye one last time as a human. That was a bit of a scary thought. These could be my last minutes of being even remotely human.
At least some part of me still had enough to human to decided it wanted to say goodbye to the only person who has always been there.
Wow, I had never really noticed I cared for Sam so much. "Don't it always seem to go, that ya don't what'cha got, till it's gone." I began singing quietly. Before realizing I had sat down, and closed my eyes, and then lay down. I hadn't even noticed my self doing it.
I could go out quietly I guess, lay down and die as it were. I sighed, Let the last bits of myself slip away till there's nothing left.
I absent mindedly began chewing on my braided mane, my teeth squishing the lime green hair tie still trapped in the pink and red flow. Sam's hair tie. That-
"Why am I so bad at leaving my room!" I asked myself loudly, flailing my limbs wildly. I really have to get a grip on myself. I'm not just failing to carry out my last wish, I'm being excessively melodramatic as well. I found myself standing up once more, shaking the sleep from my eyes.
I have no way of knowing that I'm constantly losing my mind, it could be a transformation that only happens while I'm asleep. I hope. Either way the lethargy I was feeling was unnatural, and I was going to resist it whether I wanted to or not.
I turned my attentions to the white wood door. Okay. Door. It's right there. I need to open it. No distractions! I raised a hoof up to it, just barely touching the knob thanks to my tiny stature.
I had opened shower curtains, and I have opened cupboards. One door knob was going to be no problem. I felt the now familiar feeling of magic swirl around my hoof, pressing close to the knob as it turned gently. I willed it to open, and it did so. I was getting to be so good at this, that not a single door would ever be safe again! I was invincible-
And then a feeling as though somepony had driven a screwdriver through my hoof struck me, as my foreleg exploded in pain.
"AHHMpfffff" I burst out, stuffing my mouth with my hoof at the last second. The stab of pain began to dissipate from my foreleg once I stopped manipulating the flow of magic. My head turned to impossible aching, as I realized that using magic was something I was just going to have to avoid for a while. The pain started to go away, but as I put my hoof down I was forced to wince.
Well, at least the door was open. I limped my way through, and then set off in a trot when the pain finally vanished. Okay, I've got to find Sam and- My mind began, as became aware I no longer knew what it was I had wanted to do. Find Sam and- and... And? AND! My mind suddenly recalled the voice that I had heard while I was still waking up. "And?" I echoed it aloud.
It had sounded like Sam, so my guess was that she hadn't left me at all! or at least, not until the exact moment when it mattered. At least now I knew she hadn't watched me pass out on the ground, put me in my bed, and then ran for the hills.
I had heard a quiet muttering almost immediately after as well, was that also Sam? Or was that just me going crazy? What if I had already gone crazy, and I was actually imagining everything. Is that how crazy works? I had never been crazy before. If I was crazy, then crazy wasn't as fun as the lunatics who spend entire days laughing let on.
I reached the stairs once more, recalling that my dangerous descent had only been stopped by Sam last time. This time no one would be there to carry me down. Well, maybe that's a good thing. I can't just rely on other ponies forever. I bit my tongue, even though I hadn't actually been speaking aloud. Rely on other people forever. I corrected my thoughts, getting a bit annoyed. Why couldn't I just have consistent dialect, instead of one that varied between human and pony.
Why do I have to get my memories back? I wondered, before biting my tongue again. Stop it! Those aren't my memories! I am not Lesli- I am not Aurora! Well, I kind of am, but- No! I am not!
A surprisingly loud growl cut through my mental arguments, as I realized I wasn't just hungry, I was starving. We'll discuss this later! I claimed, before realizing that there was no 'we', it was just me, alone.
I thought losing my mind would be frightening, but instead I was just angry.
I took the stairs slowly, one hoof at a time. Some hidden memory told me I could probably fly down the stairs, or at least glide, since I was a pegasus. I told that memory to shut up, I can barely walk as it is! let's not be trying to figure out additional ways in which I can't move succesfully.
Ten more steps to go, and then eight. One hoof down, then the next three. One hoof down, hop! Two hooves down, hop! One hoof down, one hoof to the next step, back hooves forward.
Suddenly I was at the bottom, just as I became aware that I had been moving smoothly. I was regaining old muscle memories. No! Aurora's muscle memories, not mine. I reminded myself. This was getting ridiculous.
The living room was quite different in the dark, with the only light being the pale blue of the computer monitor. Our dusty beige couch sat crooked and lonely, facing a darkened television where my family had spent many a family bonding moment together. 'My family' consisted mostly of Sam and myself though, my parents had weird tastes in entertainment. I wonder where my parents are? They said they were on vacation, but I had never found out where they had gone. I'd have to ask Sam when I got the chance.
I crept up to the computer, again hopping onto the large chair. I spun round once more, and sighed. Okay, let's do this again. I prepared myself, tensing the muscle that encouraged my wings to spread open. I gently flapped the left one until gradually I began spinning. My line of sight met the kitchen, and something in my mind nagged me to go search for something to eat. I put it on my mental to-do-list right below 'find out how to stop becoming more and more pony like'.
My gentle spin left me facing the monitor at last, and my eyes squinted as I observed what Sam had been doing.
It was her Twitter account, and her most recent Tweets were about me. She was posting pictures and updates and seeking help on, 'HOW TO HELP AN UNCONSCIOUS PEGASUS'. Two hundred and forty one replies so far, most of it was caps-lock raging trolls that were telling her to have me put down. Or at least, I hoped they were trolls.
Today I learned my Sister has more than 1200 followers, all of which were caps-locking right back, defending my honor. Well, not really my honor, just my right to be alive.
She did care about me, she just wasn't here to show it.
I must have a defective sister. Isn't sibling rivalry supposed to be a real problem in most families? I mused sarcastically. I wondered if more families were brought together or pulled apart by the entire ponification thing. Probably pulled apart, I hate to be a cynic but I doubt family that sticks together like Sam and I are the norm.
I looked down at the mouse, wondering if it would be safe to use magic again yet. Last time I had simply twisted a door knob had resulted in super-pain. I decided to play it safe, and just slowly drag the mouse with my hoof. Looking up at the monitor, I slowly pulled the cursor across the screen. I reached the new tab button. Okay, now I just click and- I brought the pointiest part of my hoof down on the left mouse button, and sighed as the mouse slid away. My hooves were just not designed for this.
My stomach growled once more. Where's Sam? I'm useless. If I went to the kitchen I would probably have no hope of even seeing food. Well, I would see it, but I would have no hope of reaching it.
I had set up every hiding spot for every morsel of food to prevent my dog from reaching it, and now I was going to starve because of it.
My hoof succeeded in clicking the mouse, and I was presented with a new tab. A pang of pain rumbled through my gut. Okay, do I go on a hopeless search for food or do I continue browsing? I looked towards the darkened kitchen, and then back to the bright Firefox homepage on the screen before me. I typed in a letter, 'P', and carefully pressed the 'enter' key with my nose.
The results brought ponies. Many ponies.
After a while had gone by, I had gotten familiar with the various news articles and information I could find about the entire pony fiasco. Apparently the number of confirmed ponied people had risen to a hundred and forty thousand, with new cases showing up every minute. Not a single case so far mentioned anyone else struggling with pony memories. On the bright side, gender swapping was rare, but not uncommon, so I wasn't totally alone. I was just the only pony that was losing my mind and regaining the memories of the original pony whose body I was in. Why am I special? I mean, I understand it had to happen to somepon- Somebody, but what about this pony is special? There are lots of other pegasi, what makes me different?
A few more searches just added to the confusion. Barely any other ponies were able to walk successfully yet, and yet hadn't I been trotting down stairs just a little while ago? A lot of the timing was messed up too. People had mostly begun mysteriously finding themselves to be ponies around mid-afternoon. My problems had presumably started around the time I had went to sleep the previous night, a full eleven hours or so before the peak ponifications were occurring.
And not a single pony, unicorn or otherwise, had figured out magic yet. What was wrong with me? Why was I already a step beyond the rest? From what I can tell, everyone else has the body of a pony but not the mind, and I'm the real deal. I'm an actual pony. I was Aurora.
I stopped searching for posts and the like from the families and the victims, and began searching for the people who had yet to come in contact with a pony. Contact? Oh gosh, it's like a disease: "Help! I've been bitten!" "Oh no! Stay away, you pony! I've avoided coming in contact with ponies so far, I'm not gonna change that now!" The 'survivors' had little of value to say about ponies, though I did find several people on Facebook wishing the best to those affected by all of this.
Wikipedia had crashed as millions of people suddenly came to edit or read about ponies, and therefore had nothing valuable to say about ponies. Imgur had crashed, as nearly another full million people posted pony pictures that wouldn't be seen until the server was rebooted. A great deal of news sites had crashed, as those that weren't posting pictures flocked to them for advice and information.
Reddit was dead, 4chan was dead, Tumblr and Twitter were being ignored by all but the most internet addicted.
An hour or so after I began my hunt for information, Facebook died as well. Too many people had taken to the digital waves of the internet at once, and had immediately begun going to the most popular sites. Even though the amount of people turning into ponies had peaked hours ago, the peak hour for those same people and their families to visit the internet was now.
Okay, change tactics. Go to unpopular sites. Let's go see what the government is claiming. a few minutes of slow typing later, I found myself on a webpage that only told me one slightly worrisome thing: A state of emergency may be called, a bill will be passed by morning determining what to do about the sudden rise in equines that were previously ordinary citizens.
I see. Lets hope it's not a bill claiming that all ponies are to be exiled to the moon or something. I shouldn't like to be banished to the moon. I half joked, seriously hoping that no politician would be so stupid as to think they might be able to allow harm to come to an entire new race of sentient quadrupedal magic creatures. Seriously hoping.
I glanced down at the computer's clock, and found it was again just after two in the morning. I had been browsing for nearly three hours. Oh hey, nearly twenty four hours of being a pony. That wasn't so bad. It was certainly short, but it doesn't help that I slept through most of it. Honestly, where was Sam? What could she be doing at a time like this? I turned my eyes to the kitchen, my stomach reminding me I hadn't eaten at all today with a now constant buzz of light pain. "Okay, I can no longer take it. This pony is hungry, and she is going to go eat grass if she has to!" I determined aloud, slipping off the chair foreleg first once more.
---- Meanwhile ----
"Come on Sam, can't you stay a little while longer? I really need your help with a few other things!" Ramona complained loudly, her his short stallion form giving me a pout.
I shook my head again. "No is a no Romeo! I have to go check on Leslie! I told her- Er, him- That I'd be back in a second!"
Ramona had been my friend for almost six years now, having been the first person I had talked to that was my age after I had started living with my parents. I hadn't kept any friends I made living with my Uncle, seeing as how he scared them all off.
She used to be a tall brunette with an attitude who frightened away all but the toughest boys. Now she was a dusty yellow and brown-grey Stallion, who was half my height and needed my help to make her dinner. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
As a Stallion, Ramona looked quite a bit different from Leslie. She was a good deal taller, and her snout was a fair bit longer and more squared off. She also seemed to have a body at least a year or two older than Leslie, who was comparatively almost a filly. I also noticed, not for the first time, that she had a cutie mark, quite unlike my 'Sister'. It was a red string attached to a needle, and when I asked about it Ramona had revealed she was indeed quite talented at sewing. Why doesn't Leslie get one of those? She's- Bleh- He's talented! I don't know what he's talented at, but he has talents! Thinking upon it a little harder, Leslie had always been a bit more of a 'jack of all trades' than a 'super special secret talent... But only one,' kind of guy.
It still didn't seem fair that my brother didn't get a cutie mark though, I really felt sorry for the guy.
I also noticed something entirely weird, but I hadn't noticed I had noticed it until I saw Ramona as a pony. When I had first seen her this morning, Leslie had looked a great deal like a perfect copy of a cartoon. Giant eyes and entirely impossible body proportions. As the day had progressed, and especially after she fell into her mini-coma, her pony body had adapted more to the mundane world of earth, changing slowly and almost unnoticeably. Her eyes had shrunk down a little bit, and her body had unscaled itself so she looked less like a bobble head and more like a natural creature. Her muzzle had gotten even larger, though it still wasn't quite as large as Ramona's stallion muzzle. And though her coat had kept the slightly cartoony sheen that gave it an outline, it too was less noticeable now.
All in all, she looked less cartoonish and more like a proper creature that could almost belong on earth. She definitely looked more horse like, the only difference between her and regular horses being the unnatural coat color, the feathery wings, The still much smaller but impossibly sturdier frame, and the eyes being spaced much closer together. The eyes of an intelligent creature rather than a silly farm animal.
Ramona of course hadn't noticed herself going through any changes of that sort, and after I had borrowed her computer I determined that none of the early pony pictures of other pony-people on the internet showed any changes of that sort either. Every Pony in the world except apparently Leslie had started looking a bit more terran.
What made Leslie special? What was so different about that one morning-blue pegasus?
Ramona brought me back to the present, still chiding me about my decision to leave."I think you just want to go back and tease him a bit more, You told me you were jealous on the phone earlier. Come on Sam! I need you more than he does right now!" Ramona retaliated weakly. I had already taught her how to walk from what I learned watching Leslie earlier, and though magic was still beyond her I was certain she was almost making progress towards being able to attempt to try! Yeah, I don't think she's going to understand magic. Ever. She didn't really need magic though, since she didn't need clothes at the moment, and all her easy-to-snack-upon food was kept in low cupboards easily pried open by hooves.
She was right though, I was jealous of Leslie. It just didn't seem fair that he would get a chance of a lifetime like this and then just be so meh.
That certainly wasn't going to prevent me from going back home and making sure she was okay though. I wasn't going to let a small thing like me not getting to be a magical pony when nearly everyone else I knew had become one. Well, not everyone I know, just everyone I could possibly be jealous of nearby in about a thirty mile radius of my home.
I had already freaked out about it once though, so I had to follow my 'Sammy code' and never speak of it again. I didn't come up with that name I swear. It was Leslie! It was always Leslie! He totally didn't get me to go along with it or anything, it just happened one day!
Ramona was still saying something about how unfair to our friendship I was being by caring about my Sist- Brother. "Come on Sam! I've never called a favor like this on you before-" You call favors every time I visit. "And since when have I ever not followed through on something you asked me to do!" Just about every time actually. "All I'm asking is that you stay over one night! Make sure I stay okay and all that! Come on! I'll even give you the comfy blankets!"
Oh, that was something new. Ramona offering me the comfy blankets- "And stealing them back in the middle of the night?"
"It was a one time thing!"
"It was an every-time thing."
"I- Yeah I guess it was." Ramona frowned. She then looked up at me expectantly. "So, you're totally staying right?"
I was already out the door. "Okay! Thanks for everything! I'll call you or something! Tomorrow!" Ramona called out to me. She was a good friend, but she was also a very needy friend.
"Later," I replied, stepping out of her apartment and into a cold and musty hallway. The door closed gently behind me, springs stretching quietly. I walked forwards, reaching the stairs and listening to the echoing tap of my feet as I descended. Down. Down. Down. Bottom. My mind repeated once more, as I finished the entirely all too familiar routine. Good thing I wasn't a pony or I might have had trouble with that flight. Leslie certainly didn't have it easy with our stairs. Then again, he didn't have it easy with movement in general. I pushed on the thick glass door, and stepped into the comforting fresh air.
Only about six blocks to walk, through the dark, on an early summer morning. At least this was a good quiet neighborhood, and it wouldn't be too cold out either. Leslie is going to be starving, I hope he finds the lasagna. I had cooked up the vegetarian lasagna while Leslie had been sleeping and put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge, but something told me he wouldn't find it. Leslie wasn't the most observant of people most times. Probably didn't even realize he was a pony until he made it to the bathroom this morning.
The morning seemed far away now. After Leslie had passed out, I had begun freaking out. I checked the internet for help, but the most popular webpages have been crashing all day long. I called Ramona to see if she could give me a ride or if I could borrow her car to go to the hospital, but she was a pony so no help there. Her car had already been borrowed by another of her friends anyway, and the hospitals were likely overflowing and desperately under-staffed. I ended up going over to Ramona's after she nagged me for several hours, but first I took my sweet time making sure Leslie was okay. His condition didn't seem to go beyond being a pony and unconscious, so I figured it was probably fine to leave him. He almost woke up right before I left, but it was more like he was moving in slow-motion and wasn't properly aware of anything. Hopefully he wouldn't be an amnesiac or something when I got home.
I pressed a button attached to a traffic light, and waited for the cross-walk signal to come on. I heard a familiar chirp, and walked across the road, mostly lost in my own thoughts. four more blocks to go. I was leaving the tall apartment blocks and entering the rows of sub-urban homes I knew as my neighborhood.
My pocket vibrated, as I received a text. I slipped my phone out of my pocket to read that- Oh, that's not a text. I was a little disappointment, my phone was merely at twenty percent battery. The clock informed me it was just after two in the morning, but I already knew that.
Three blocks to go. The houses surrounding me disappeared as I turned right, taking a shortcut through the local park. This path saved me about three minutes of walking, but Mom had always warned me that parks could be dangerous at night. It was ridiculous of course, though it was a really large park, it was in the center of one of the quietest and safest neighborhoods in the nearest nine miles. Absolutely nothing bad could ever happen here.
A dim glow pierced the quiet, forested park.
That's curious, it doesn't look like a flashlight or lantern, it looks like that area is just kind of... Lit up. Every now and then a family or two would set up a tent and go camping in this park, it was a big enough park that nobody really cared. At first I thought maybe a family was there tonight, but through the surprisingly dense trees I couldn't make out a tent of any kind. Just people, the night sky, and sleeping bags then? Human curiosity drove me closer.
The park was about 3 square miles, in a long narrow band. It stretched just far enough north to almost connect with the provincial parks and the Rocky Mountains. It contained several natural rock walls, a cold stream that people might fish from every now and then, and a jumble of kids climbing structures and other assorted things. Picnic tables and benches could be found throughout, and at least four washrooms were available. There was even a spray park at the end of the park opposite from where I was.
The glowing thing I was staring at now was not a natural feature of the park. It was just plain wrong.
"That's utterly impossible. That type of thing isn't a real thing." It was a strange thing to try and wrap my mind around, and even stranger to understand as I crouched down to get a closer look.
There was a glowing hole in reality, and it wasn't even attached to the ground.
It was just kind of... Sitting there. Floating a few inches above the ground. A blue-white shape that looked like someone had taken the universe, pretended it was a piece of paper, and stabbed a hole in it with a giant pencil. It even curved out around the edges giving the impression that something had been forced into this side of the hole. I don't think I want to know what's on the other side.
And then, while I was watching, the hole gave a slight pulse as a butterfly fluttered its way into my world. "What-" My mind broke temporarily, as the butterfly- That's not a butterfly, it can't be. the butterfly shaped thing flitted around the hole aimlessly. It was a pure blue, and looking closer I could tell it was actually translucent. It was larger than most butterflies I had ever seen, though most butterflies I saw turned out to be moths. This butterfly also left tiny after-images whenever it flapped it's wings, so I was almost certain it had no chance of being from this world. I noticed my hand moving towards it, and the butterfly hovered in place momentarily. My hand extended out to poke the butterfly and it flapped it's wings once. It landed on my hand gently, and felt like- Like what I imagined a normal butterfly sitting on a hand might feel like. It began to glow the same blue-white as the hole, and it's wings fluttered madly. It stayed on my hand though, just fluttering madly but not actually trying to escape. Little motes of glowing stuff fluttered off it, illuminating my hand entirely blue. It was supremely beautiful.
It then suddenly faded out of existence.
It- Um. Okay. I- What? Well that hadn't answered any of the questions I was beginning to ask myself. I stood up, taking a step back from the hole and wondering when I had gotten so close. I found my hand slipping into my pocket, attempting to find my phone. I found it, and raised it up in front of my face intending to take pictures. My finger tapped the lock button, and I found myself staring at my phone with a frown. Full... Battery.
My phone had somehow charged itself. I lowered my phone, glaring at the hole. "Did you do this?" I asked aloud, realizing just how quiet everything was. The hairs began to raise on the back of my neck, and I turned around. I broke into a run, suddenly desperate to escape.
If that thing can charge a phone, what could it do to me? I trampled through the park, crunches and snaps under my feet as I broke tree branches that should have known better than to get in my way.
I really hoped I didn't just get a lethal dose of radiation.
I finally escaped back onto the park path, and stopped. I gasped for breath a little, putting my hands on my thighs as I let my breathing regulate. Turning back the way I came, the possibly deadly glow remained in place, never wavering. Good, if it stays there then I don't have to worry about it following me home. I am not very good at staying serious in serious situations.
I turned my attention back to the path, finding the gap in a section of fence that would lead me back to my street. I could worry about glowing holes in the universe later, for now my brother needed me.
I had managed to answer several pressing questions I had though. The entire pony fiasco was likely caused by holes like those. I didn't know how I knew it, but my mind decided it was true.
Also, that butterfly had been made of pure magic energy, I was equally certain of that as I was certain that socks didn't go well with sandals.
Two more blocks, hopefully they wont be as exciting as that last one.
---- Home at last ----
I approached my home quickly, scanning for any signs that Leslie was awake or at least still home. Most of the lights were still off, but the kitchen light was now on. I sneaked down the driveway, and scampered past the front window and up to the door.
My mind had drifted back to my earlier thoughts as I opened the wooden passageway and stepped into the warm household. What does make that blue pegasus so special? Why is she the only one able to do magic so far? Why is she the only interesting one? I wondered, closing the door behind me.
A sound of something metal clattering to the ground loudly echoed from the kitchen, and I hurried down the hallway. I passed through the darkened living room quickly, noticing that Leslie had made it to the computer, closed my tabs, and was now browsing Fox News for some reason. I stepped into the kitchen expecting a giant mess and food stains everywhere. Instead I got a cheer as I walked into the surprisingly neat kitchen
A box of granola bars was spilled on it's side, and a metal cookie sheet lay turned over in front of a disheveled looking filly sitting on the floor with a look of surprise and joy plastered on her face. Her face was splattered with lasagna and cheese sauce, and judging from the empty tin pan in the corner she had eaten the entire thing. The fridge door was hanging open, but other than that the kitchen was completely fine with nothing out of place.
"My magic is working again! I don't know why but it just is!" Leslie informed me, at the same time informing me that at some point her magic had stopped working.
"That's good to hear, you'll need it to clean up this stuff." I gestured at the room around us. Leslie raised his hooves, rotating and trotting in a perfect circle to see what sort of mess he had made. He mastered walking in a pretty short time-frame. Wasn't he still having issues with turning when I left? I noted.
Leslie stopped his rotation, sitting back down cutely and closing his eyes. He opened them again, and they were glowing bright purple once more. I held my breath, hoping he knew what he was doing. It was always neat to see magic tricks, but I certainly didn't like when the magician was at risk of passing out every time he performed.
The cookie sheet flipped itself over, then floated into the air. I stepped forwards, with the intention of grabbing the tray to remove the magical strain from the poor pegasus.
"No no, I've got this. I promise." He promised, and a lack of stress in his voice told me it was probably true. Probably. He better not pass out again right after this.
The tray wobbled in mid air, but steadied itself again before rising the last few inches up to the counter. It promptly stopped glowing, and plopped down on the counter with little more than a tiny bone rattling noise.
Leslie's eyes were deep purple again, and he was staring at me expectantly. A second or two passed by, and he didn't tip over so I assumed it was all good.
"Seven out of ten, would witness again." I informed him, giving a nod of approval. "What was up with that one wobble though? And how does that all work anyway? How did you figure out how to do it?"
He held up a hoof, attempting to block my stream of questions. "One thing at a time Sam, slow down there." I rolled my eyes.
"Okay. Attempt two. What was up with the wobble." I crouched down to meet him at eye level.
"That was me almost losing control. Next question." He nearly lost control? Was it a lack of practice or was levitating solid metal sheets with nothing but your mind just that hard? Probably the second one.
"How does it all work?"
"That would take hours to explain."
"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I barely spent anytime with you today. Well that's not true, I spent almost the entire day with you, but you were passed out for most of it. Either way, I have time to waste."
"Um, Okay." He looked unsure, probably wondering where to begin. "Well magic itself is pretty much everywhere. All around us right now, constantly moving and flowing. I don't know if it was always like this but it's like this right now so whatever."
My knees began to hurt, so I settled into a cross-legged position. Leslie continued, "I don't know how it works entirely, but for some reason I have this ability to 'sense' the flow of magic, like see where it is and stuff. I also have a stranger ability of being able to tell magic where to flow, and how. I can tell it to go slow, or go really fast, or in which direction, or how much. The only limitation so far seems to be if I tell too much of it to do something or to do too much of something then my head tries to explode. Which hurts a lot. Earlier I could tell it to do only a little bit but right now I'm pretty sure I'm at my peak."
I nodded, then inquired, "So the moving the curtain earlier? You were telling the magic to flow in such a way that the curtain was pulled open or closed?"
"Not quite. That was magic that I was using sub-conciously. Passive-magic. I don't have to tell it what to do, it just kind of happens. Though I do have the ability to withhold the flow of magic from my hooves, preventing anything from happening. And vice versa of course. I can tell my hooves to start letting magic flow through them."
"When you say, flow through them, you mean the magic is coming from inside yourself?"
"I- Yes? Apparently. The changes to the flow of magic are probably caused by invisible waves- Well, almost all magic is invisible, I mean invisible to me as well- Invisible waves of magic that I am releasing, that will collide with the general flow and change it. It- But sometimes it's not really a flow, and not all the invisible waves come from me, otherwise I wouldn't be able to pull things towards me. It's more like a force that I can control, and tell where to go, and it's warm but not physically, and I-" He looked quite unsure. "It's basically really hard to understand- And I'm currently the worlds leading expert! I can't really explain magic to someone who can't feel it for themselves. It's alive, and beautiful, and I don't know how I lived without knowing it was there. It really just feels like a part of my life now."
"That's poetic. Now try again without trying to be deep." I sighed. This is helping me understand it I guess, but it's also just making me more and more jealous. I like being part of things too! Quit hogging the magic to yourself Bro!
"I- I was trying! I think. Look, Magic is nice! Okay! That's all the explanation I can explanate!" He explained. "Don't tell me that's not a word, because it should be!"
"Okay, final question. How does this all make you feel?"
"The magic? The being a pony, or- Or that I'm-"
"The magic, duh! I already asked you about being a pony earlier." I wonder what the third thing was going to be.
He smiled, "Oh, well the magic. It's, how do I describe it?" I began expecting some built up description about how life as he knew it was changed forever, and how- "It's neat." He finished, derailing my train of thoughts.
I stood up, and noticed that the granola bars had disappeared from behind me. Apparently they had floated to the counter top while I wasn't looking.
I inhaled heavily, and exhaled rather slowly. I had come to know this as my body's way of telling me I needed time to process something. A little something like the fact that my brother was, as he had said, the worlds leading expert on true magic. Not stage magic, or card tricks, but true arcane manipulation of the physical world through unseen forces.
Growing up I had always been the kid that liked going to magic shows. I watched the magicians very closely, always mesmerized. It was around my eighth show that I began to understand some of the simpler tricks. Sometime later after I was kicked out of my thirty second magic show, in the ninth grade, I realized something about myself. I didn't go to magic shows because I enjoyed the unknown, rather I went to them because I enjoyed knowing. I loved being able to spoil the tricks and stunts my fellow classmates and friends would stare slack-jawed at.
And now Leslie had in his fore hooves true magic. Needless to say I was a tad jealous. He also wasn't very good at explaining it, meaning I couldn't know as much as I wanted to.
But worst of all, he merely thought it was neat.
I inhaled again, realizing I wasn't processing knowledge but rather staving off pure frustration with deep breaths. Calm yourself Sam. You already snapped at him earlier today, you're better than this. "Hmm." I attempted to mutter, instead finding myself growling. Change the topic, ignore the fact that Leslie has magical powers and isn't dancing for joy like he should be.
Leslie changed the topic for me. "So, what's for breakfast?" I raised an eyebrow, before gesturing at the empty tin platter of veggie lasagna behind him. "Besides that?"
"How much do ponies eat? That was a full meal for a family! You had at least eight dinners right there!" I wasn't even mad, it was impressive! Leslie hadn't been a very big eater in my family, that had always been Dad and myself. Apparently he was now the biggest of eaters in our family, and yet three feet shorter than the rest of us.
"What can I say? I'm as hungry as a h-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence. I'm sure it's already been said a million times by every other person in the world who turned into a pony.
"Okay, I'm hungry like the wol-"
"And that response has probably been made in response to every person who made the exact same complaint as me following the times other people said the sentence I refuse to let you finish."
"I- I'm lost. Still hungry, and now lost." He turned around, heading back to the still hanging open fridge. A jug of milk glowed purple, then leisurely floated it's way up to the counter.
I walked over and closed the fridge. I continued my walk over to a pantry door, opening it and bringing a box of cereal stuff down for my brother. "So really then, your sure you aren't going to pass out any more? You can just magic as you like now? You aren't even going to try to worry that you aren't using magic within your species' limitations?"
"I seem to be fine for now. Ponies are pretty darn magical."
"Yeah, but you aren't exactly using the right magic." There was something that had been bugging me all day ever since Leslie had levitated a glass bowl.
"I'm not? Seems to be working fine for me. Am I not a magical pony?" He seemed to not quite understand what I was getting at.
"Pegasus magic Bro! You seem to be using Unicorn magic, but you aren't a Unicorn!"
"Well, you seem to be using silly, but you aren't an Applejack."
"Wh- What?"
"She's a silly pony, Google it! The point I'm attempting to make is that it doesn't really matter. I'm using magic, period! It's neat!" There's that word again. "Who cares if I'm not using the magic generally associated with winged equines. Who cares if I'm using the magic for equines with spindly forehead bones instead? Seriously, who is there to stop me?"
He had a pretty good point, there wasn't exactly a pony magic police coming around and telling him to stop doing something he shouldn't be able to do anyway. Hey you! Stop doing that really cool thing that shouldn't be possible but since it is you might as well have fun with it- Wait, no. I'm not good at pony magic police impressions.
"I'm here to stop you. If you can do unicorn magic, can you do Pegasus magic too? Can you cloud walk? Can you actually fly? Or are those wings good for nothing?"
"Why does that matter?" He tilted his head, a little confused.
"What kind of Pegasus doesn't like flying! Besides Fluttershy that is. Are you really just going to ignore the fact that you have wings? Flying has always been your dream, magic has always been mine. Don't be latching onto my dreams when you have a chance to fulfill your own!" He went very quiet, as he slowly looked over his wings. He flapped them once or twice, before moving them in a motion similar to a shrug.
He looked down at the ground, as he muttered something.
I grabbed a couple of bowls from another cupboard, before using the cereal and milk to craft two bowls of breakfast. It was a little late for me to be having breakfast, but who was there to stop me?
"Why can I do these things? What did I do?" Leslie asked himself quietly, having some sort of internal monologue. He looked a little sad and defeated, so I placed a bowl of cereal sans spoon in front of him.
"And what kind of name is Aurora anyway?"
Hmm? Who was named Aurora? Did Leslie decided to give himself a pony name while I was gone? "A pretty cool one. Who's name is it?"
"Mine apparently. Aurora Drift. I don't know what was wrong with my old name, but apparently some part of me wants to use a different one."
I took a look at the filly, sitting sad on the floor with her wings splayed out. "Sit up straight, look proud." I instructed, wondering how well the name suited her.
"Why?" She questioned, looking at me with confusion. Well she was pretty, and the aurora borealis was also pretty. We're they evenly matched? It was hard to tell if one was an astonishing event in the sky and the other was a sad pony.
She sat up, stood even. Tilting her head back and giving her mane a slight toss. She tensed her muscles, and raised her wings. Can confirm, is Pegasus. But was she as pretty and awe-inspiring as an aurora? Her purple eyes glimmered with determination for a brief second, and the well shampooed mane seemed to shimmer at the line between red and pink. Her morning-sky blue coat was admirable and glossy, and her tail was long and shimmered just as hard as her mane.
Oh, that's interesting. Leslie's body had been changing almost imperceptibly all day, but if there was one noticeable change it was definitely his wings. They had gained nearly a full foot of wingspan, and the feathers were even glossier than his well-conditioned coat.
Leslie actually noticed this change himself, "Hey, did my wings get larger since this morning? I thought I was done changing physically!"
"Eyes front! The judges are far from finished!" He snapped his eyes away from his wings, standing at attention. "Jump!" I instructed again.
"how high?" He joked, as I seriously wondered exactly how high a pegasus could jump. He answered the question by leaping straight into the air like a cat, and peaking at about six feet off the ground.
"That high apparently." Again the mare landed gracefully and without a sound. The bowl of cereal beside his hooves barely shook. Pony hooves are quite impressive if they can absorb that much shock without a peep. "Congratulations. You have completed phase one of the Pegasus trials. Evaluation Phase." I began, wondering if I should start something where I slowly teach Leslie to fly and all that jazz. Phase twelve could be a sonic boom. I have my doubts we'll get that far.
Leslie smiled, "And the results?"
"You have been deemed worthy of the name Aurora Drift."
His face gained a frown, and I wondered why. It was a nice name, but he didn't seem to like it. Maybe he didn't feel like he had earned it quite yet. It disappeared as he asked, "So what's phase two like?" He seemed to be ready to go for a run. His legs twitched as he gently shifted his weight back and forth between his left and right sides.
I felt my face muscles stretch as I caught myself yawning. "Phase two is sleep. For me at least." I looked at my untouched bowl of cereal and wondered what on earth I would do with it. I wasn't actually all that hungry, having already had dinner at Ramona's.
He shook his head at me. "That's not the 'stay up for two days at a time' Sam that I know, Where'd she go?"
"She must have gotten old or something. Look at all these wrinkles." I grabbed my bowl and shoved it beside Leslie's other bowl. "Here Bro, have some more."
"I thought I was being called 'Sis'?"
"Do you prefer Sis?" He didn't actually answer, seeing as he went to work slowly sipping at his bowl of mini-wheats. I'll take that as a yes.