Mr. Dickens' eyes swept over the class as he pointed towards a white board at the front of the classroom, "If you'll look here, class, when Andrew Jackson became president, thus began the Jacksonian era of America. We discussed this last week, so who here remembers between which years did the Jacksonian era last?"
He tightened his tie back up to his shirt collar as he looked out at all 32 high schoolers in his class. Some students were awake and attentive, while others were dead asleep with their heads on their desks. Some were paying attention to the underpaid teacher, while others remained secluded from everything and entertained themselves by playing Flappy Bird on their phones with Mr. Dickens unbeknownst. (The class-wide high score was 256 for the past two weeks. No one had beaten it yet.)
Mr. Dickens swept his eyes over the assortment of students until they rested on one student in particular, the one sitting in the farthest corner possible who was avoiding eye contact with everyone under the cover of a gray hoodie.
"Lyle?"
Frick. Why'd that old geezer choose me? I'm literally at the other end of the room from him, gosh dang it!
I glanced up at Mr. Dickens, making sure my hood covered everything except my face. "Um, yeah. Sure."
As you can guess, my name is Lyle; Lyle Anderson. I'm 17, a Junior at Lone Peak High School, a good student, and probably the lankiest guy you'll ever find in my age group. I wasn't super tall, but I was taller than most kids at school by standing at six feet zero inches. I had gotten a reputation here for being so 'unnaturally' skinny, which earned me my school-wide nickname, 'Lanky'. You know, like that orangutan from Donkey Kong? Yeah, the other half to my nickname was my love for video games.
Anyways, you're here for the story, not to talk about my personal interests and likes. Before we go any further, you should know two things. First, I don't usually sit in the back of the classroom during my American History class. Second, I don't usually wear a hood to shut everyone out. I'm a social guy, and I actually liked Mr. Dickens' class. It's just... eh, you'll figure it out as we go along.
I cleared my throat. Okay, so the Jacksonian era was... "1824 to 1840?"
Mr. Dickens nodded in approval, a smile came to his face after knowing at least somebody remembered last week's lesson, "Yes. Very good, Lyle."
What can I say? History was my favorite subject. Fist pump to the smart guy! Yeah-
"Now, can you come up to the board and write which presidents were in office during that time period?"
-Yeah... Frick.
"Oh, um..." Crap, crap, frick, and another crap for good measure. This was exactly what I didn't want today!
Unfortunately, the part of me that liked going to up to the board and answering history questions didn't receive that memo. Through a shaky voice, I heard myself say, "Yeah, sure."
But my mind was busy screaming, 'WHAT?! Why'd I say yes?! You idiot, Lyle! Abort! Abort! Mayday! We're going down!'
Seeing as my brain had crashed on itself from my stupidity, my body initiated its muscle memory and proceeded to get up and walk to the board.
Ah, crap! Why was I going up anyways?! I knew I could stop myself between my desk and the board and say I didn't know the answer. But I realized that not only would it make me look stupid, which I could've probably handled at this point, but I knew it'd draw even more attention towards me than I wanted. I mean, Lyle Anderson saying he didn't know a fact about American history? That'd be the talk of the whole school!
After what seemed to be an eternity of walking between my classmates' desks, I had reached the board without making a single bit of eye contact beneath my hood.
I took a silent, but deep, breath. Okay, just calm down, man. Nobody has noticed yet.
I reached for a marker and began writing up on the board the five presidents of the Jacksonian Era, starting with Andrew Jackson. Okay, it's fine, Lyle. Just... Write this up, head back to the desk in the back, and no one will be any wiser. Just-
"Lyle?" I could feel Mr. Dickens' eyes pierce through the back of my hood like razor blades, "What is my rule about coming up to the board?"
My hand holding the marker froze, right in the middle of the 'S' in Jackson. Aw, frick. As much as I called Mr. Dickens my favorite teacher, there was one thing about him I never understood. Even though he let other kids sleep or play Flappy Bird in his class, or he simply didn't notice it, there was one rule he strictly enforced: No one can wear hoods when coming up to the board.
That was the one rule he enforced the most. Man, it didn't even apply to hats, just hoods! I did not understand it, but I figured it had something to do with showing teachers a minimum amount of respect or somethin' like that. But either way, I knew I was completely and utterly screwed. If I took off my hood, I knew everyone would see what I had been trying to hide.
Grinding my teeth in defeat, I replied, "Yes, Mr. D." Without even looking back at the rest of the class, my fingers wrapped around the edge of my hood and I pulled it off my head. I continued writing on the board, hoping that at least the kids who were napping or playing on their phones wouldn't notice. But it wasn't until the kids who were paying attention began whispering in bewilderment that everyone looked up at me.
I winced as I realized I had been found out.
Behind me, I heard Mr Dickens ask, "... Mr. Anderson? Why, might I ask, is your hair blue?"
I winced yet again. Yeah, my hair was blue; a light, frickin', sky blue.
I gave Mr. Dickens a sidelong glance. "Um... I dyed it?" I lied, silently hoping that it was believable enough.
Mr. Dickens frowned at me, the wrinkles on his face tightening as one of his eyebrows raised, "Hm..." I felt a droplet of sweat roll down my neck as he looked at me skeptically. "Alright, I suppose. That's quite... Strange."
I breathed a sigh of relief, letting the built up worry escape with the successful fib. Behind me, I heard Mr. Dickens mutter in confusion, "...kids these days with their strange fads..."
I turned around and quickly worked to finish my task at the board. In all honesty, I felt as if I had dodged a bullet that had ripped through the hem of my shirt. At least now, the worst part to come would be when everyone started inquiring why I had 'dyed' my hair after class.
Relieved as I was, my brain was still wondering, 'Wait, they actually bought that?! How blind are they?! It's obvious that I didn't dye it!'
Right now, you're probably wondering if I'm just suffering from anxiety. Thinking that I'm overreacting? Well, you should shut your guesses back down the pit of your mind from whence they came, because I have a damn good reason for worrying like this.
My hair was not blue when I walked into Mr. Dickens' class just an hour ago. How could I have dyed my hair in the middle of a history class? Well, I didn't! My hair, believe it or not, changed color. On. Its. Freakin'. Own!!
This morning, when I woke up off my bed, my hair was completely fine, being just as brown, short, and just as normal as it always has been. But after waking up,... things started to get strange. Really, really strange.
I drive to school every day I have classes, and today, I had Mr. Dickens' American History class to start the day. But as I was driving to school, I caught a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror and noticed that my hair seemed about an inch longer than before. It wasn't until I reached the school that my hair was drooping down my face at six inches in length.
By that point, any sane person would've turned around and gone home due to unexplainable occurrences. I mean, how the heck does hair grow at a rate that isn't humanly possible?! But me, being as stupid as I was, stayed at school for one reason: My Mom worked at the school.
My Mom was a teacher here at Lone Peak, which meant she had to be at the school earlier than I did. Hence the reason why I drove myself to school... What? You expecting me to carpool with my Mom to school? Nope! I like the extra 45 minutes of sleep I squeeze in every morning, thank you very much.
Anyways, I'm getting off topic again. You see, if I missed school, my Mom would've been the first to know... And most likely the first to kill me as well. She knew my schedule, she knew which classes I had, and she would often peek into my classes to 'check on something'. Usually, that something was me.
And with a helicopter mom like my own, can you imagine how I'd explain my sudden hair growth? Man, even I couldn't explain it!
So, knowing I couldn't risk ditching American History, I sat in the back of the class room with my hoodie on, hoping that I could make at least some sense of what was going on with my hair.
But my plan went screwy from there. Within the first ten minutes of class, I could feel my hair literally venturing southward. When I felt it under my hood, I found that my hair was growing out the back of my neck! I wasn't sure if that was even possible either, but before I knew it, I was sporting a full on mullet. After that, at the halfway mark of class, matters only got worse for me.
It started with a sort of itch across my scalp, and by using my IPod as a makeshift mirror, I watched in absolute horror as my chocolate brown hair started to turn cerulean blue. The blue started at my hairs' roots, slowly changing color up to the tip of each hair.
I tried to stop the wave of blue from my scalp with my hands, but that did absolutely nothing! Within five minutes of that first hint of blue, I had a full on, cyan mullet, hidden right beneath my hood, and I had grown it during my American History class. Quite honestly, I had to pause and wonder if I was dreaming.
Unfortunately, I wasn't. The little welt on my arm leftover from pinching myself told me as much.
From there, at the verge of a complete mental meltdown, I hid under my hood the best I could, not even looking up for anything... Except after Mr. Dickens called on me near the end of class. You know the rest after that.
After writing up the five presidents of the Jacksonian Era (Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk. Nailed it!! <mental fist pump>), I took a glance up towards the clock hanging above the whiteboard. The clock read 9:40, which meant class would be over in ten minutes.
Basically, that left me ten minutes to figure out how I'd explain this to everyone who saw my blue mullet and came asking about it after class. Groaning inwardly, I quickly pulled my hood back up and made my way back to my desk, where I slumped down in frustration.
Just thinking about my hair made me groan. I mean, how was I supposed to explain to everyone that I didn't do this to my hair. It just grew on its own! And if I told them that, they'd just think I was either high on something or just completely insane! So much for sticking with the truth...
Gah, why'd this have to happen to me?! None of this should even be possible! I'd blame some kind of disease for this, but last I checked, most illnesses didn't include side effects such as rapid hair growth, discoloration of said area, and overall 'WTF'-ness!
My face fell flat against my desk, as I continued my silent moaning. If it turns out that I have literally gone insane, and these changes are really hallucinations, then I might as well turn myself into a mental hospital, because-
*scritch*
My head perked up off my desk. Wait... What was that?
As I asked myself, I instantly felt an itch coming from my ears. My eyes widened as I remembered that my scalp had started to itch when it started changing color.
Oh... Frick. Please don't tell me my ears changed too!
I raised a hand up to the itching area... And my heart skipped a beat as I felt my ears....
Or rather, the sides of my head, where my ears had been before.
That's right. My ears were gone. Now how do you think you would've reacted to losing one of your five primary senses? Truth be told, I think I took it rather well. All I did was clamp my hand against my mouth to muffle the loudest scream of my life. I think I might have kicked the desk in front of me in outright shock, which earned me a few weird glances from my classmates, but I didn't care about them at the moment.
My. Ears. Were. Freaking. GONE!
For the next minute, I proceeded to have the world’s most silent freak out session, in the back of my History Class, while trying to keep my hood on and remain ‘hidden’ from the rest of the class.
WTF!WTF!WTF! I DON’T HAVE ANY EARS! WHAT THE FFFUUUUUUU-
*scritch*
I instantly froze… Crap, that sound again… That means…
Just like last time, the sound was followed by another itchy feeling, except this time it came from two places on the top of my head.
I moaned again. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. I reached a hand up to the spots, causing me to flinch when I felt something sticking up from my thick hair. And at the same time, I felt my hand touch me. Which meant… This new thing on my head was part of me.
I quickly fumbled for my Ipod in the pocket of my jeans with a shaking hand. When I managed to procure the device, I looked at my reflection in it. Under my hood, I could make out the two little appendages growing out of my cyan hair, barely an inch tall. They were both a bright, neon yellow, and they were still growing bigger.
Well, the good news was that I knew where my ears were. The bad news was they weren’t human anymore. They were… were those horse ears?
At this point in this crazy experience, the logic center of my brain decided it was no longer needed as it burned out and shut down. I didn’t care that there were still five minutes left of class. Right when I saw my ears growing out of the top of my head, I stood up, grabbed my backpack, and ran right out of the class room.
As I left the room, I heard multiple reactions from my class mates, as well as Mr. Dickens’ incoherent shouting at me. Like I said, I didn’t care at this point. I just needed a mirror!
I ran through the hallway of the school and into the nearest bathroom I could find. After checking that I was alone in there, I took off my hood and looked at myself in the mirror.
“Oh…” That was all I could bring myself to say at what I saw.
I looked completely ridiculous, with long blue hair that ran down my neck like a mane, and a pair of bright yellow, horse ears to go with it.
My knees buckled beneath me, and I dropped to the floor on my butt. I leaned my back and backpack against the wall of a bathroom stall, moaning “Oh, fuuuu…”
It was kind of pitiful really, how I couldn’t even scream anymore. I guessed that the adrenaline that had pumped into my system back in class finally wore off after I had to contain it for so long. I wanted to scream. I wanted to be angry. But now, I was only confused.
Why’d this happen to me? In fact, what was happening to me?
I held my head in my hands, shaking my head, “Alright, just calm down, Lyle. You just gotta figure out how this happened. Then maybe you’ll be able to reverse it.” Yes, I realize I was talking to myself, which kind of seems crazy. But can you honestly judge me for that? I was in the middle of thinking I was crazy for an entirely different reason. I was turning into some kind of a horse!
Come on, Lyle. Think! Was there anything weird or strange you did lately?
Anything weird or strange…
Weird or strange…
Wei-
My eyes narrowed as something, or rather someone, came to mind,
“Angela.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Angela was a friend of mine, to say the least. Even if you tried, you were never going to find a weirder chick than Angela on the planet. She’s a nice girl, but it’s really her hobbies that make her weird. In her free time, she’s always looking up stuff that has to do with the supernatural. I literally went on her computer when we were hanging out one time, and the first results on her Google Search browser always had something to do with Satanism, Witchery, and Black Magic.
She has done her research on those subjects very thoroughly. Angela has told me herself that she knew everything it takes to sell her soul to the devil for arcane powers, yet she hasn’t done it. She’s what I’d call a ‘borderline witch’.
Although, when put that way, it makes her seem bad. But in all honesty, she’s one of the coolest girls I know. She’s over at my house often whenever she just wants to hang out (though I wish she would call ahead of time first before knocking on my front door).
But friend or not, I knew she had something to do with my sudden transformations. She had come to my house last night, and at some point she began talking about some sort of witchcraft spell called a circle ritual… But while Angela had rambled on about it, I had been busy playing Pokemon . (Hey, you’re never too old to play Pokemon!) Though in hindsight, if that did have something to do with my current situation, I probably should have listened. All I got from her ramblings about circle rituals were that they consisted of drawing a chalk circle on the ground to curse someone. And I was beginning to assume that curse had something to do with growing horse ears.
Once the other classes got out, I snuck out of the bathroom with my hood covering my new ears (which was a pain in the rear to hide properly, seeing as they stuck upwards a few inches beneath the fabric. But I was able to hide them once I realized I could actually move them to flatten downwards. Kind of weird to know I suddenly had full mobility over my ears.) But once out in the halls, I searched for Angela.
I soon found her at her locker, a blonde girl at five foot six inches, wearing a pink… Well, everything. It honestly didn’t take much effort to pick Angela out of a crowd just because of her appearance.
I approached her, a bemused look on my face, “Angela!”
She glanced towards me, giving me a cheerful smile, “Oh, hey Lanky.”
I didn’t care for formalities at the moment, so I just jumped to the problem at hand, “Angela, change me back.”
Angela blinked in surprise, her smile fading, “Um, what?”
“You know what I mean.” I hissed, “It has something to do with *these*.” I lifted up the front of my hood and raised my ears up so they could be seen by her. Of course, I didn’t take my hoodie off fully, because dozens of other kids were walking by at the moment.
When Angela looked up and saw my ears, she grinned from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat, which she pulled off with frightening accuracy. She suddenly clapped her hands like a four year old at a candy shop, “OH! Yes, yes, yes, yes! YES!”
As Angela giggled to herself, I put my hood down again to cover my hair and ears, frowning, “Angela? What did you do? What’s going on?”
She, however, only gave me an annoying, toothy grin, “Haha, I can’t believe it actually worked!”
“What worked?” I asked as I felt my patience wearing thin.
Angela just giggled again, “Well, you know those circle rituals that I told you about last night?”
I nodded, “Yeah, bu- Wait! Hold on a sec! Are you saying you used a circle ritual on me!?”
“Yep.” Gah, I was right. Okay, note to self, ‘Never play Pokemon while Angela’s over, otherwise she’ll use witchery on you when you’re not looking’.
I just stared at her, unbelievingly, “Wha- How did you curse me like this?! I didn’t even see you draw a chalk circle for the ritual at my house.”
Angela’s smile briefly disappeared as she rolled her eyes, “Come on, Lanky. Didn’t you remember what I told you last night? I said, ‘Circle Rituals are an important part of witchcraft because they allow the caster to cast an enchantment on something without having to be in the same vicinity of said thing’. It’s basically like a long-range spell caster.” She clapped her hands excitedly again, “Ooh, I can’t believe it actually worked this time. Most of the stuff I find online don’t work because they’re fake.”
Gee, I wonder why. I sighed as I shook my head, “You’re telling me that you’ve already tried to use a circle ritual on me multiple times already?!”
“Yep.”
“Way to put it bluntly.” I muttered bitterly, “But what exactly did you do to me, Angela?”
Angela simply smiled as she continued to browse for items in her locker, “It’s a transformation ritual. It slowly transforms the specified target into a certain creature, depending on how the ritual is performed.”
I glared at her. This just kept getting better and better, didn’t it? “You intentionally tried to turn me into an animal?”
“Not ‘tried’, I did. After all, you did grow ears, didn’t you?” She giggled, “And try not to be so butt-hurt about it. Be glad that I modified the ritual recipe to change you into something else besides the original animal, which, I might add, was a toad.”
“Thanks, Angela.” I replied sarcastically, “But what exactly am I turning into?”
“A pony, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.”
My jaw dropped as I stared at her. Really? She had to be kidding me, I was turning into a pony!? Then again, that means my ‘turning into a horse’ guess wasn’t that far off. But seriously? A frickin' cartoon pony?!
For those of you guys who haven’t realized it yet, I am not a brony. Angela is a Pegasister, the female equivalent of a brony, and a borderline obsessive fan of My Little Pony… Now that I think about it, she’s a borderline of a lot of extremes. Anyways, that’s all fine and dandy for her. She just succeeded in turning one of her friends into a pony, so why shouldn't she be happy?
But as for me, I don’t like ponies. I’m not saying that I hate them, but I never bothered Angela about it when I found out she was a pegasister. But now, this was just… taking things too far.
“I’m turning into a pony?!” I groaned, “Angela, you couldn’t have chosen anything worse for the circle ritual? Gah, I swear, if anyone sees me like this, I’ll be the laughing stock of all Lone Peak High.”
Angela laughed, “Oh, lighten up, Lyle. Besides, the transformation is only temporary. It’ll start to wear off by Midnight tonight, and you’ll be fully human again by tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow morning?!” I winced at the thought of me having to avoid everyone, my Mom especially, the whole day while slowly turning into a pastel colored pony. “Angela, I don’t think you understand me. I need you to change me back now!”
Angela shot me back a cold look, as if she were looking down on a dog that had peed on her foot, clearly peeved, “And it’s clear that you don’t understand me. Look, I know you’re stressed about this, and I would change you back, since I was only experimenting to see if it’d work, but I can’t. You’ve already started the transformation process, so there’s no way for me to reverse it.”
“Ugh, no…” I held my head in my hands as my shoulders slumped, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I felt Angela’s hand place itself on my shoulder in a comforting way, “Hey, don’t worry. I know plenty of people who would kill at a chance of a lifetime like this. You just have to stay positive about all of this.”
I gave her a flat look in response, “Angela, just tell me something. How long do I have until I’m a full pony?”
“About four hours, I’d say, judging from your current changes so far. So I guess that means you’ll be a full pony by about 2:00.”
Oh…
...
...
...
Crap.
“Um, Lyle? Are you okay? Your face is turning white, and I don’t think that’s part of the transformation.”
“I-I’m alright.” I managed to stammer, “It’s just that… well, I’m not alright actually. I’m the exact opposite of alright! I’m doomed!”
“Why?”
“Yes, why are you ‘doomed’, Lyle? I would like to know as well.”
My blood suddenly grew cold as a third, feminine voice added to the conversation. I glanced behind me to see her out of the corner of my eye, a tall, brunette woman dressed in a blue blouse and khaki pants. I kept as much of my face covered as possible, because I knew if she saw my pony features, she’d have the worst reaction out of anyone.
Angela waved at the woman, “Hi, Mrs. Anderson!”
I chuckled nervously, “Heh heh. Hi, Mom. It’s um, it’s nothing.”
My Mom raised an eyebrow at me skeptically, “Really?”
There’s a common rule that applies to all moms. They can be terrifying when they want to be. My Mom is what I call the very definition of this rule. Just looking at her, I knew that I could not risk her finding out about my transformation, even if it was temporary. Heck, it’d be best to just avoid her from finding out until this mess was over.
I gave a tiny smile, which may have come out as a cringe. But at least it kept me from having to talk to her.
My Mom gave me an amused smirk, “You’re talking about your detention after school, aren’t you?”
Yes, I had detention today. I know that earlier I said I was a good student, and it’s the truth. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for a few friends of mine. I’ve been dragged into doing stupid things with them countless times, but I knew how to not get caught in the act of doing it. That is, until a certain exploding trashcan fiasco happened, and I didn’t quite make a spotless escape.
I nodded at my Mom's mention of detention, quickly, “Oh, yeah. That…”
My Mom gave me a gentle smirk, “And I expect you to be there for your detention at 1:30 sharp. And I’ll come by to make sure you’re there by then.”
I only nodded again, this time saying nothing.
“I’ll see you later. Bye, Lyle! Bye, Angela!” I didn’t look, but I could hear my mom’s voice travelling further away from me and Angela.
Angela giggled as she waved goodbye to her, “Bye, Mrs. Anderson!”
As soon as my Mom was no longer in sight, Angela gave me tiny smirk, "So, I hear you have detention. That wouldn't happen to be at 1:30, would it?" She laughed, "And your Mom was surprisingly calm when talking about detention. I thought she would have gouged out your eyes when talking to you about it."
I shook her head, "Nah, I've already experienced that bomb shell. She exploded on me when she came back home with a detention notice in hand, and I don't want to experience that again."
"So... Your Mom's making extra sure that you're there for detention as a punishment?" Angela ventured.
I sighed, "Yeah, but it's more than likely that I'll be a full pony by then!" I groaned again, "I'm so doomed."
Angela's smile disappeared when she saw that I wasn’t taking this as positively as she had hoped, "Then... What are you gonna do?"
"I have no idea."
A small moment of silence grew between us as we pondered how I'd last once detention time came. The only sounds we heard were the other high schoolers passing us by as they went about, totally ignorant of my impending doom.
I sighed after a moment, having come up with a small plan of action, "Hm, I'm gonna have to think of something during class. I'll need to figure out how I can show up in detention for my Mom to see, and then afterwards distract the teacher watching us so I can make an escape before the transformation's complete."
"And that's going to be a bit hard, considering you'll be only partially human and mostly equine by then." Angela commented.
I nodded, "Which is exactly why I need to get out of there as soon as possible. But frankly, I don't think I really have any other options that won't get me in trouble." I paused slightly, "Well, I'll already be in trouble for leaving detention early, but I mean- Ouch!"
I gave a sudden yelp as a pinching feeling racked my tailbone, both painful and uncomfortable. Though the pain only lasted for the first few seconds before it receded, leaving the discomfort in that area.
Angela raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
I paused as I glanced behind me and saw that the rear of my jeans had bulged a bit. I groaned again as I turned back to Angela, "I suppose I'm fine, except I think I just grew a tail."
Angela's face suddenly perked up into a manic grin, "Ooh, really? Let's see it!"
I quickly gave her a flat look, turning my back to her as she tried to peek around me to catch a glimpse at the new appendage, "No, Angela. Not right now." I gestured over towards the other kids in the hallway, "How do you think they'd react if they saw me pulling a tail out of my pants, which normal people aren't supposed to have?"
She paused for a moment, but then shrugged, "I'm guessing they wouldn't think much of it. High School was always a weird place to begin with, so I doubt it'd be out of the ordinary here."
I groaned yet again, giving myself a facepalm in the process, "Angela, you're impossible to talk to, you know that?" I shook my head, "Look, I need to get to class soon, otherwise my Mom will give me another huge lecture for being tardy again. I'll see you after class. Hopefully I'll have thought of a way to get out of detention by then."
Angela nodded, "Okay, sounds good. I'll try to think of something during class, too. Meet back here after you get out from next period, and we'll try to plan out something before you have to be at detention. Good thing it's a half-day today, which means we'll have a solid hour before you have to be there to figure something out."
"Right." I replied, as I turned and headed back down the hall, walking a bit awkwardly as the tickling sensation of my new tail slithered down one of my pant legs. Man, I hadn't even taken a glance at the thing, but it was weird enough to feel it there.
As I tried to subtly readjust my tail's position in my pants (... Man, no matter how you say it, it's really, really weird.), something told me the next two hours would be the longest hours of my life. I had no idea which changes would happen next, and I could tell I was not going to enjoy them when they came.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
You know how I guessed my next two hours of class would take forever? Yeah, unfortunately I was right. Well, my next class was Calculus, so at least everyone had their own things to do that sort of helped draw less attention towards me. And every change during then was just as strange as the one before it. But at least the 'surprise' factor of it had died down ever since I learned from Angela that I was becoming a pony.
Let me just give a basic overview of what happened during class between 10:20 to 12:00:
10:32 AM
The class was being given a lecture by the Calc. teacher when I felt a sudden twitching in both of my feet. Making sure that no one was looking, I took off my shoes to find that the toes of my socks were sagging, for there was a lack of said appendages; all ten of them were gone. My feet then continued to shrink before my eyes, until they shaped themselves into the hard surfaces of hooves. I had to put my hooves back into my shoes before anyone saw, but I was faced with another problem: My shoes could easily fall off my legs if I wasn't careful, seeing as I didn't have toes to keep them on.
10:56 AM
The next change I felt was an itching on my calves, as well as an uncomfortable pinch in the joint there. I took a peek underneath the pant leg of my jeans to find that I had begun growing short, yellow fur over my skin. My leg hair actually turned the same yellow as my ears, and patches of the same colored fur sprung up where any skin still showed. That explained the itching there, but I still had no idea as to what the pinching in my... leg bones was. I figured that I'd find out what it was later.
11:12 AM
The fur change didn't stop at my calves. In fact, for the past twenty minutes, the fur grew in a wave-like pattern, slowly making its way up to my waist. But before it got there it reached my... um, my unmentionables. Let me tell you, having fur grow around that area... Worst. Feeling. Ever. It didn't help that I couldn't even do anything about it. I was in the middle of Calculus class for Pete's sake! I didn't want to do anything that would make it seem like I was a narcissistic pervert. (Shivers) Ugh, I don't even want to know what kind of things the rest of the school would say after seeing me like that. During that phase of the change, I had to just sit still with clenched fists and power through it until the feeling was over.
11:30 AM
Phew! Okay, I believed the worst part of the transformation was over with. Of course, by this time, the fur had reached up to my belly button, which seemed to have disappeared... Did real ponies have belly buttons? But then again, I was turning into a cartoon pony, so I guessed this spell Angela put on me just decided to say, 'Screw Logic!'. Also, at this point, I figured out what that pinching in my legs had been. Apparently, that feeling was my leg structure being rearranged. By moving my legs a bit, I found that their structure was a hybrid between my old human legs to those of a pony. I could tell that when class ended, it was going to be very difficult to walk... Hopefully I could make it out of the class room without faceplanting onto the tile floor.
11:59 AM
The fur kept rising up the length of my body, up to about my neck level. (Might I also add that my nipples had disappeared? I didn't realize it then, but they were utterly and truly gone. Stupid cartoon pony logic!) But the fur wasn't just going up anymore, but instead, it was now running down my shoulders. And another note to add: During the whole length of class, I realized that I was getting slower at using a pencil. I had been slowly losing my dexterity, which I assumed had to do with me about to grow hooves in those places.
12:00 PM
BBBBRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNGGG!
I let out a sigh of relief as the bell rang to end class, and end school as well for the day. With school over, and nothing else to do (besides possibly hide in a closet until this whole thing blew over), that meant I had about an hour and a half to meet with Angela and come up with some idea of how to get out of detention.
... Although, I was hoping that Angela had come up with something by now. After all, with all of my changes distracting me, I hadn't even been thinking of an idea of my own.
Wait, what? What do you mean I'm just leaving all the work for Angela?! Hey, next time you have a tail running down one of your pant legs, pressed up against your own furry thigh, come tell me how easy it is to stay focused! Let me tell you, when you're changing into a cartoon pony at the rate of one centimeter per minute, thinking about detention isn't the highest thing on your list of things to think about. (But then again, that applies in any case.)
As everyone in Calculus class stood up and filed out of the room, I stood up, since I was no longer in the sight of the other students. But as soon as I did stand up, my legs suddenly wobbled uneasily beneath me. I had to catch myself on a nearby desk to keep my legs from buckling underneath me.
I groaned as I muttered, "Man, I guess walking is gonna be a problem." I took another experimental step forward, while using the desk to balance myself. It was easier, though I still felt a bit unsteady now since I had hooves instead of feet to tread on. Each step forward on them made it even more apparent that shoes were not meant to be worn on hooves.
I shook my head. I didn't really have time to worry about this. If I could at least get from place to place, even if it was while holding onto a wall, I'd be fine. I just needed to get to Angela, and then we could both think of a way out of my current problem... You know, the detention problem. I'd count the whole 'turning-into-a-pony' thing is a problem, but Angela had already established I couldn't do anything about it. Like the old saying goes, 'Why cry over spilled tea?'... Or was that 'milk' in the phrase?... 'juice' maybe? Hm... You know what else sounds good? Apple juice! Or maybe just an apple. Either way, I'm really craving some red delicious- Wait,... Did fruit cravings come with being a pony?
Whatever. Not important. Back to the story.
I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. I turned towards the door, and using the desks as bracers, I made my way over to the door of the room. Outside it, I could hear and see the commotion of dozens of high schoolers getting ready to leave the school. As I reached the door, and I was about to step across the threshold, I found someone standing in my way.
"Oh, Lyle honey. I'm glad I caught you here."
Ah, frick. My Mom.
I glanced up at her from beneath my hood, "Oh, hey Mom. I was just heading out to find Angela. I promised that I'd hang out with her after school until it was time for detention."
Surprisingly, my Mom's face frowned a bit, "Well, I'm sorry, sweetie, but you won't be able to hang out with Angela until after detention."
"Wait, why?" I asked.
"I hate to say it, but the time of detention has been moved." She replied, "Mrs. White was supposed to be in charge of detention today, but something has come up for her at that same time she scheduled for detention. So, she told me she'd be doing detention right after school, and that's why I came looking for you."
If I could've seen my own eyes, they probably would've been the size of dinner plates. I instantly froze as still as a statue. AH FRICK! I hadn't even come up with a plan for getting out of detention! Angela was going to help me with that, but how could she if I was already in detention?!
"Can't I just have detention some other day?" I asked with pleading eyes, "I'm sure Mrs. White would like to not have to watch me. It'd save her trouble, and-"
She abruptly interrupted me with the raise of a hand, "Look, honey, I understand you want to hang out with Angela right now, but you can play with your friends later. I don't want you to put off a punishment so long that you eventually forget it. Where's the justice in that?"
"But- Whoa!" I tried to protest, but I was wrenched from my hold on the wall by my Mom as she grabbed my arm. She then proceeded to pull me down the hallway.
"No 'but's, mister. You're going to detention, and that's final."
Ah frick! As she pulled me down the hallway by the arm, I found myself stumbling on my feet- er, I mean, hooves. I cursed to myself as I realized it was the changes at work. As we walked, I realized it was getting harder and harder to walk on just two legs. I knew I'd be on all fours in a couple of minutes.
I was falling off balance, and I had to pull down on my Mom's arm to keep myself up. But the motion caused my Mom to jerk back with me.
She instantly stopped in the hallway, frowning at me with disapproving eyes, "Would you stop pulling, Lyle?" I quickly gave a sheepish smile, but to no avail, "I'm not liking your attitude mister. You are going to detention, so stop trying to resist." Her eyes caught sight of my hood, "And what's with the hood? You hardly ever wear one in school."
"Oh, um... It's nothing. I j-just feel like wearing a- NO NO MOM DON'T!" But it was too late, my Mom had already grabbed a hold of my hood. Wincing slightly, I felt the cloth fly off my head and I prepared for my imminent doom. Well, it was nice knowing you, life. We had a good run these past 17 years, but now is where we part-
My Mom practically screamed, "YOU DYED YOUR HAIR!?"
I paused at that, a frown on my face. Wait, she only noticed the hair? What about the giant frickin' pony ears on my head?! How did she miss that?!
My Mom yelled again, "Why on earth would you dye your hair blue, Lyle? And why the yellow streaks in it?
I blinked in surprise. Wait... Yellow streaks? There weren't any yellow streaks there before... Was that another part of the change? Either way, it still didn't explain how my Mom miraculously missed my pony ears... wait a minute...
Suddenly, my mind clicked. I reached a hand up to my hair and felt the area where my ears were. Sure enough, they were still there, but they weren't sticking straight up. The two appendages were lying flat against my mane, due to when I had cringed at my Mom grabbing my hood (Yay reactive motor movements!). And since they were covered in fur, they passed off as normal hair.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief. At least I had inadvertently hidden the biggest part of my problem. I figured it would be better for my Mom to think I had randomly dyed my hair like the stupid teen I was, rather than have her know I was turning into a cartoon pony from a little girl's show.
But that didn't stop my Mom's oncoming rampage. In a sense, I had dodged the bullet, only to be hit by the ricochet. Ironic, eh?
"WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU EVEN THINK OF DYING YOUR HAIR?!" Mom demanded.
"Um... Well..." I found it kind of hard to come up with some kind of cover up story. You know, it's kind of hard to think when you have a parent screaming into your ear at full volume.
Before I could answer, Mom let out a frustrated snort. If I didn't know any better, I could of sworn I saw smoke come out her nostrils. "We'll discuss this later, young man." She snapped as she continued to drag me down the hall, "But right now you have some detention to attend."
Again, I had to pull on my Mom's arm to keep myself upright, since my legs were still in the process of changing into a pony's hind legs. Glancing down, I noticed that the transformations were growing more and more visible beneath my jeans, which meant they wouldn't be able to hide them very well anymore. Hopefully, I thought with a grimace, just hopefully, I'd be able to keep my Mom from noticing it. I don't think anyone else will be glancing down at my legs anytime soon, so they wouldn't be much of an issue.
And speaking of everyone else, on our way to the detention room, we passed by several High Schoolers, many of which knew me and also had my Mom as a teacher. I could hear a few snickers from them as we passed by, but luckily I was able to pull up my head before we passed any of them. Cringing, I wondered what was more embarrassing: The fact that I was being dragged across the school by the arm by my Mom, or that I couldn't even let go of her without risking a casual meeting between my face and the floor.
But as luck would have it, Mrs. White's classroom wasn't all that far away. So, my embarrassing trek led by Mom didn't last too long.
As we entered Mrs. White's room, I spotted said teacher sitting in the corner at her desk. Looking around the room, I found that there was nobody else there. Hm, either they didn't know that detention had changed times or I just happened to be the only one who got detention today. Go figure.
Mrs. White was the oldest member of Lone Peak's staff, in her 60's and growing her white hair in a 'Grandma Bun' style. In fact, if I recalled correctly, she was supposed to retire in two or three years. She glanced up from some papers on her desk as we walked in, a pair of reading glasses on her nose. Upon seeing us, she gave a kind, little wave, "Hello, Janet. Hi, Lyle!"
Mom waved back, "Hello, Betty."
I would have waved back, but I was busy trying to stay upright on two legs.
Mom dragged to a desk near the front of the class room, and I gratefully plopped down into it as I felt my legs nearing their full equine stage. I sighed in relief knowing that my Mom hadn't looked down at them, because now it seemed like my knees were bending backwards. But in reality, I now had a pair of... um, they're called haunches, right? Unless that anatomical term applied for only dogs and cats... Rambling again, sorry! Either way, I just had to remember to keep my legs as straight as possible to make them seem normal from the outside.
As I sat in the desk, Mom talked with Mrs. White at her desk.
Mrs. White chuckled, "I guess you never hoped to see Lyle come to detention, did you, Janet?"
Mom gave a polite laugh, "No, I thought I had taught him better than to stick pressure cookers in the trashcans." She narrowed her eyes towards me, since her raising voice was directed towards me. I simply rolled my eyes at her. I was already mostly pony, and changing continually, so I didn't need to add Mom drama to the mix.
Mom glanced back to Mrs. White, "Just make sure that Lyle behaves. If he steps out of line in any way, then feel free to give him another session of detention for next week."
"Hm, tempting as that seems, most times the teachers in detention don't want to be here as much as the students." Mrs. White laughed, "But I will keep that suggestion in mind."
Mom then turned back towards me, pointing a stern finger, "Now, Lyle, no funny business. This is detention you're here for, not free time. I would come to check on you later, but I have a meeting, as well as grading to do. When detention is over, you can head home. I probably won't be back until five o' clock, but I'll be sure to check with Mrs. White about your behavior before I leave the school. Bye!"
I watched Mom walk out of the class room, promptly shutting the door behind her. That left me alone in detention with Mrs. White.
Glancing back at Mrs. White at her desk, I realized that I was the only one she had to watch. I groaned silently as I realized that would make it even harder to distract her enough to get out of here. Maybe even impossible, since I had no plan to begin with.
"Pressure cookers, huh?" I glanced towards Mrs. White to see her giving me an amused smirk.
"Oh, um... Yeah." I chuckled sheepishly, "Didn't exactly think they'd cause that much damage to a trashcan."
Mrs. White laughed, "No, I don't think you did. I'm just glad you and your friends aren't sharing detention together, otherwise I'd have a madhouse on my hands."
I nodded, "Yeah. Would you believe me if I told you that I had been dragged into doing it?"
Mrs. White paused at that, "Hm, I wouldn't doubt it, that's for sure. Knowing your friends, they would have done something like this." She chuckled, "You're a smart boy, Lyle. If it had been your idea to do it, then you would have done it with some fireworks. It would have at least put on a good show."
That made me chuckle. If there was one thing Mrs. White had, it was an awesome sense of humor. Having a conversation with her just reminded me how awesome her generation was, and just how outclassed mine was. I don't care what anybody else says, but old people rock, and that's not just because I have a thing for history.
I would have said something else to keep the fun banter going, but Mrs. White had gone back to work at her desk. Well, that was fine by me, because that gave me a moment of silence to figure out what to do before I went full pony. I knew that when the transformation completed itself, it'd be almost impossible to hide the changes. If anyone saw me like that, my reputation in high school would crumble from an awesome, history geek, to 'the-guy-who-turned-into-a-magical-talking-horse'.
I glanced around the room for any possibilities that'd help me break out of detention.
Hm... Well, nothing came to mind that would help. For one thing, I was in detention, which meant I couldn't even stand up from my desk without risking a 'bad mark' on Mrs. White's report to Mom. And since there was nothing near me, save for my backpack, I couldn't do anything that wouldn't draw any attention towards me. If I was going to sneak out of here, I needed Mrs. White's attention away from me, not on me.
Groaning slightly, I slouched back in my desk, silently hoping tha-
*Scritch*
That sound again... Crap, that meant another change was happening. A small inch, and a pinch, in my neck confirmed my suspicions. I used my hands to explore my neck, only to feel that my fur had spread up higher on my neck, and was now visible beneath my hood. Noticing that, I quickly turned myself away from Mrs. White to keep her from seeing it, as well as any other changes that were to come.
I turned my focus back to my neck, and my hand I held over it. And my eyes widened as I realized that my neck was actually stretching. It grew slowly, coming at a rate of about an inch per minute. My neck grew only a few more inches before stopping. But I was surprised to find that my hood could still cover my full head, even with the extra length my neck provided.
Although, I was turning into a pony from a show called My Little Pony, so I figured my transformation had been slowly shrinking my size... I guessed that was why my jeans felt so baggy all of the sudden.
*scritch*
My eyes widened as I heard the sound of another change occurring. What struck me as odd was that I hadn't had two changes come so quickly one after another. I suddenly felt the familiar itch of the changes at work.
I gasped in shock, since the itch... I could feel it everywhere! On my arms, my hands, my face. Heck, even my eyes! (That feeling was extremely weird. I'd say it came in a close second with the feeling of fur rapidly growing where mother nature split ya.) The changes were happening everywhere, and the suddenness of it all nearly gave me a heart attack! It was as if whatever was controlling this transformation just decided, 'Hey, let's quickly finish changing this guy at the worst time possible. I'm sure he'll thank us for that.'
You know what, strange witchcraft forces of the universe? Screw you!
I watched in horror, with my back turned to Mrs. White, as my elbows and forearms creaked and molded like clay. Fur quickly ran down my arms, far quicker than it had been growing before. My joints shifted up my forearms, making my arms fully pony. And that diverted my attention to my hands.
My fingers all drifted towards each other, even when I resisted, until they were tightly touching each other. As if they had melted like warm chocolate, the skin of my hands merged with each other in a thick membrane, only to be covered in fur a split second later. My finger bones twisted and joined together, and a hard, nail-like part pushed through where my finger nails had been, creating a pair of hooves.
I probably would have screamed at the rapid transformation, but my jaw, as well as the rest of my skull, had begun changing too. My eyes went cross eyed as my nose and mouth stretched out from my face as the fur began to cover it as well. Within a few seconds, my face stopped expanding outwards and I was left with a long, yellow muzzle. I could feel the rest of my skull quickly shifting to fit this massive change, as did my eyes as well.
I felt a very weird sensation on my eyes, as if they were being stretched. I clamped them shut out of pure reaction, but when I opened them, I instantly noticed the difference in my vision. Everything I saw just seemed... clearer. I can't really describe it more than that, but I will say that it took me a moment to realized that my field of vision had expanded, past the point my peripherals could see before.
I quickly reached into the pocket of my jeans to try and pull out my Ipod, and big emphasis on the 'try' part. I hadn't realized that my hooves didn't have the same dexterity as my hands, so all I managed to do was pull the Ipod out of my pocket and drop it on the floor.
I cursed silently to myself, not only for potentially breaking my Ipod, but because the sound of the device dropping had gotten Mrs. White's attention.
"Lyle? Would you kindly pick up your phone and put it away? You're not allowed to have that in here."
My muscles completely froze. There was no way I was going to try and pick that thing up again, not with hooves at least. Maybe I could've picked it up with my mouth, but doing that would include turning around, right into Mrs. White's line of sight. She'd freak if she saw me like this!
"Lyle? Are you paying attention to me?" Mrs. White's voice took on a sterner tone, "You better not have fallen asleep, in detention no less."
Crap! What was I going to do? Just tell Mrs. White that I couldn't pick up my Ipod 'cause I apparently have hooves now? Yeah, you know, the ones I got just a few minutes ago?! Ugh! I was supposed to get out of here without drawing any attention to my transformation! Everything was going downhill! How w-
"Mr. Anderson!" My ears suddenly stood up straight in shock, as I found that Mrs. White's voice was right behind me, rather than at her desk!
My heart skipped a beat as I felt my hood suddenly fly off my head. Frick! Mrs. White had pulled it off! And my ears were sticking straight up, which meant there was no way she'd be fooled like my Mom had been!
I whipped my head around to face Mrs. White, whose pupils had shrunk to pinpricks behind her glasses. Her jaw dropped and she had one hand grasping my hood in one hand while she clamped her other one over her mouth. And when I turned around to face her, she looked down at my muzzled face and her face went as white as her own hair.
She shrieked, "Holy G- What?! WHAT ARE YOU?!"
My ears flinched back at the loud volume of her scream. This was not how I had wanted things to go. She had seen me with a horse's face. I doubted it could get any worse than that.
Cringing, I looked Mrs. White in the eyes, putting up two hooves in my defense, "Wait! Mrs. White! Calm down! It's me, Lyle."
Whatever color that had been left in the elderly woman's face quickly blanched at that, "L-Lyle?" She staggered back slightly, "W-what? B-but how... I don't.... I think I'm gonna..."
Mrs. White's body teetered back as her eyes rolled into the back of her skull. She fell back onto floor with a *thump*, and her eyes closed. Like anybody, I probably would have tried to catch her before she fainted on the ground, but I couldn't for two reasons: One, I had hooves now, and most likely would have tripped over myself before I could've caught her. Second, she still had a firm grip on my hood even after she fainted, and she did not let go. I was dumped over the seat of my desk as she fell with me in tow.
I let out a yelp as I was pulled off of my seat, landing hard onto the floor next to Mrs. White. The impact sent my head spinning for a little bit, but I eventually recovered enough to reorient myself. I shook my hood out of Mrs. White's grip, which had thankfully loosed upon her fainting. I stood back up on my legs,
Only to fall backwards onto my butt again.
I grunted as on the floor again, pinching my tail inside my pants under my weight in the process.
Crap, I can't walk on two legs anymore without falling over. I sighed at the loss of my bipedal movement as I tried to stand up on all four of my hooves.
I positioned my hooves beneath me and extended my legs to bring me up. I stumbled slightly, but I managed to place my legs out into a more balanced position. Groaning under my breath, I realized that if standing was this hard, then walking would be a pain. Not to mention running, which, considering my luck so far, I figured I'd have to do some hard running to get out of the school.
But one thing at a time, I decided. I'd get to that when it came up. But for now, I took a glance down to get a better view of my current self.
I looked down at my arms, or rather my front legs, to see two yellow hooves poking out from the sleeves of my hoodie. Above that, my shoulders had shrunk into my torso, and my neck seemed to have bent upwards so it would feel more natural to walk on four legs. Speaking of my neck, it really had grown! I would have guessed it was almost as long as my arms, and with the length came an extra range of motion with the appendage. I twisted my head around to see the full view of my back, and my backside... Which was kind of... unfamiliar. I had never been able to see my back before, but it wasn't much. All I could see were my clothes on it.
But at my backside, I noticed a bulge in my jeans, right where my tail was. I wouldn't have thought much of it, but I suddenly realized that it felt really uncomfortable under my pants. I'd have to remedy that later, but for now, I took a look at the rest of myself. I glanced down at my hind legs, only to see my jeans sagging over them. My pants had become loose on me, since I had shrunk a bit from the transformation. I knew that if I tried to walk in them, I'd probably trip over myself. So, I sat back and used my hooves, as well as my mouth, to slip the article of clothing off.
It felt weird to take my clothes off inside school, but then again, I was a full cartoon pony now, so things really couldn't get any weirder for me. But as the jeans came off, I realized that my boxers still covered my tail, so I took those off, too. (Stripping in school? There was seriously something wrong with me, besides the obvious transformation.)
Although, I felt a bit of satisfaction as my tail was introduced to the open air for the first time since I got it. It felt really good to have it out, though I can't exactly explain why. And with a small twitch from it, I smiled as I realized that I could move my tail as easily as I could a leg. I remembered then that horses could move their own tails fairly well because it was actually attached to a tailbone. (Huh, I guess that one semester of Anatomy did pay off.)
The tail itself was just straight hair that stuck up from my rump, but then hung down where it had no leverage on me. The whole tail was a deep cyan color, the same as my mane. I prodded it with a hoof experimentally to find it was soft to the touch... But don't ask me how I knew it was soft by touching it with a hard, bony hoof. I don't know how to describe it, but it just felt really soft, almost like a blanket. With that thought, it almost tempted me to curl up and hold it close like a security blanket. And I probably needed that, too. You know, what with all this madness going on today. I was honestly done with everything. I just wanted to go home now and sleep it off.
Of course, that wasn't happening, 'cause Mrs. White-
Aw, frick! Mrs. White! I had completely forgotten about her!
I quickly whipped around onto my four legs and looked at Mrs. White, who was still unconscious on the floor. Her eyes were shut, but fortunately the rising and falling of her chest showed she was still alive. However, that didn’t calm me down. After all, she was an old woman, so there was no telling what kind of damage a fall like that could have done to her. I silently hoped she didn’t have too serious of injuries.
I sighed in relief as I turned away from her. She would wake up soon enough, no doubt. But for now…
Wait, what was I going to do next?
Oh, yeah! Get out of detention. Of course, that was still going to be difficult, with Mrs. White watching me…
… Who was unconscious at the moment.
A grin slowly crept to my face. Before I could contain myself, my mouth made a (really) strange sound. I’m not sure what it was, but it sounded something like, *squee*.
I laughed, because I frankly couldn’t believe it! I had gone into detention without even a shred of a plan, turned into a full pony, and had scared Mrs. White into fainting! With her out cold, and my Mom off to a meeting until after the time I was supposed to be home, I was literally home free!
“Well, that went better than I expected.” I cheerfully muttered. With my shaky legs, I stumbled over to my stuff, stuffed my clothes and my dropped IPod into my backpack (Though it was very hard to function a zipper with hooves), and slung the pack onto my back. Within a minute or two of fumbling through these actions, this pony was ready to gallop out of here at top speed…
And why on earth did I just say that? Shouldn’t I still be freaking over the fact that I was no longer human? Technically, yes. But then again, the choice between emotions was either freaking out due to transformation, or smugly breaking out of detention like a boss. I think I know which one anybody would’ve chosen. In my case, I just had to do the latter on hooves.
I nodded over to where Mrs. White was taking an involuntary nap, “See ya later, Mrs. White! Same time again next week?” I laughed as I took off towards the door at the fastest stumbling speed I could muster.
Even though Mrs. White had been taken care of, I still needed to get out of the school without being seen. I opened the classroom door with my front hooves and peeked out into the hallway. After sticking my head out of the door way with my extra-long neck, I confirmed that no one was in sight. I ran through a small, mental map and traced out a path to the closest door leading outside. Fortunately for me, I remembered that the nearest exit was just barely around the corner.
Taking a deep breath, I made my way out of the class room and started um… trotting down the hall. I headed down in the direction of the exit, towards a small intersection in the hallway.
But as I traveled, I decided to slow my pace down and pay more attention towards actually walking without stumbling. You know the saying ‘You can accomplish anything when you put your mind to it’? Well, it’s true, though maybe partially in my case. After a few steps, I found my walking becoming more steady, and I could even pick up the pace if I wanted to. My hooves made a ‘clip-clop’ sound as I walked, which was kind of annoying, but it did feel satisfying to hear it in a synchronized beat, one after another. It at least let me know I was progressing.
I finally reached the intersection in the hallways, and I turned the corner. But when I did, my eyes widened a leg ran right into my snout.
I was kicked over, and I landed on my side. But I then felt the all too familiar feeling of somebody tripping over me. (You’d be surprised how much it happens in a huge high school). Whoever it was who tripped on me, they fell with a shriek. I didn’t know who it was, but I could tell from their voice that they were female.
With a slight groan, I popped my head off the ground and quickly looked towards the girl on the ground. She was wearing a pair of skinny jeans, and a light green mod bod. She looked like a brunette from the back of her head, but she then turned to look at me and I saw who it was.
Oh… Frick. (I've been saying that a lot today, haven't I? Oh, well. Just shows how bad my luck was.)
The girl who had basically trampled me... It was Emily Clearwater, the only girl I happened to have a crush on.
Emily was basically in the same boat as me, school-social wise. She wasn’t the most popular girl, but she was still very social like me. And I knew her to be the most amazing girl in school. In the past, I had said ‘hi’ to her once in a while, but other than that, I had only admired her from a ways away. Pathetic, right? What can I say? I’m useless when it comes to girls! Angela has already shown that much before.
Yet at the moment, Emily was staring right at me. In any other situation, I probably would have been happy to have caught her attention. Although, her current expression was one of shock at seeing a bright yellow, cyan maned pony wearing a hoodie and a backpack. Yeah, not the best of terms to meet your school crush on.
So much for getting out of the school unseen.
In front of me, Emily rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating, “Please don’t tell me I’m seeing things.”
Without a reply, I quickly got up onto my hooves, ready to take off towards the school exit like the panicked teenager I was. But as I turned tail to run, I felt my tail jerk back out from my spine, causing me to wince as I found the sensation to be painful. I turned my head around to see Emily holding onto my tail. She was looking down at my tail in her grasp with wide eyes, as if she were holding a live snake instead.
Her voice shook a bit, “Oh my heavens above.” She glanced up at me, “You’re real.”
I gritted my teeth. Right now, the only thought running through my mind was to run the hell out of there. But another attempt at running told me that Emily still had a firm hold on my tail.
As I tried to run, Emily caught on to what I was doing, “Oh! Oh, I’m sorry. Um… Please don’t run. It’s just that… I didn’t think ponies like you really existed.”
I froze in place, and all thoughts of running were quickly replaced with ‘Wait, what? She knows what I am?’ I would have thought she would have called me a tiny, pastel colored horse, or something along those lines. Did that mean…
“You watch that show, too?” I immediately regretted saying that. Honestly, the first time I actually get to talk to my crush, and that’s the first thing I say to her? Man, I suck at this. Whatever, I’d worry about a love life later, after I get all this pony craziness out of my own.
Emily did a double take as I spoke, “You can talk!” She shook her head again, “I have to be dreaming. This has got to be a dream.”
I rolled my eyes a bit. If only that were true.
I gave Emily a wary smile, “Um, no. Didn’t you just prove that I was real a few seconds ago?” I gestured a hoof down to my tail, “And speaking of which, could you let go?”
Emily immediately complied, and proceeded to apologize thoroughly, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
I gave a nervous chuckle, “Um, yeah. It’s okay. I’m just glad you didn’t scream.” The sheer volume of Mrs. White’s outburst was still fresh in my mind. “The last thing I need was for other people to come running and find me.”
Emily sat up from the ground, so we were only a few feet away. Although, it was then that I realized I much I had shrunk. I was standing up, yet I was only a few inches taller than Emily when she was sitting down. I brushed it out of my mind for now as Emily replied,
“Oh, it’s no problem. I’m just… I dunno, I guess I was more curious than scared. After all, you’re only supposed to exist in a cartoon show.”
“My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
Well, that was news to me. Emily was actually a fan of the show like Angela was. What do you know about that?
Emily looked at me skeptically, “So, what’s a pony like you doing in my school?”
I remained perfectly silent, because if I told the truth, I’d be telling her who I was. The last thing I needed anyone to know was that I was Lyle Anderson transformed into a pony, but I wasn’t going to lie to a school crush either. So I just resolved to say nothing.
My eyes drifted down to Emily’s shoes, because that way I wasn’t looking into her eyes. After a silent moment or two, Emily picked up the hint that I didn’t want to talk about it.
Her smile drooped, “Oh… Um, I probably shouldn’t have asked that, right?”
I gave a small nod, “Yeah, but it’s fine. I just don’t want to talk about it.”
“Sorry.” Emily’s smile suddenly returned, as if the awkward moment of silence never happened, “My name’s Emily Clearwater. What’s yours?”
Nope. Nope. Nope. Not saying my real name. That’d entail saying who I really was. But we had already suffered an awkward silence, so I decided to make up a name… Since I technically wasn’t the human, Lyle Anderson, anymore, I guess I needed a new name for my new form.
Um… I remembered from hanging out with Angela that all the ponies from the show had really ridiculous names that had to do with their ‘Special Talent’. And I also remembered that every pony had a mark on them to represent their special talent; a freaking tattoo on their butt.
Another thought crossed my mind. If I was basically a full blown pony now, didn’t that mean…
I glanced around towards my flanks (They were called flanks, right?), and I was not surprised one bit. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I knew it was there. I had a tattoo on my butt. (Haha, Mom was not going to like me coming home with a tattoo on my butt: AKA, every parent's worst nightmare.)
The mark there was one of a leather book with SPQR written on the cover, the famous Roman slogan for one of their platoons. If this mark was supposed to depict my talent, I assumed it had to do with history.
Turning back to Emily, I answered on the fly, “My name is Roman Writ.”
I was actually quite proud of myself at that. I managed to keep my cool, come up with an awesome name, and had given it to Emily without even missing a beat. And the best part was that Emily bought the name I had made up on the spot.
“Oh, nice to meet you, Roman.”
I gave her a smile, “Likewise.” But at that moment, the idea of running came back, “Um, it was great to meet you, Emily. Thank you for not screaming when you saw me, but I really need to go now.”
I turned tail towards the exit and started to gallop that direction. However, I only got a few steps before Emily called out, “Wait, don’t go yet!”
I stopped again and glanced over my shoulder to see Emily get up and walk to me. She was looking down at the ground when she approached me, though she did sneak an occasional glance towards my face. Wait, was she nervous? What was she nervous about? Oh my gosh, she was blushing! That’s so adorable for her!
“Um… Before you go, could I… Ugh, this must sound like a stupid request.”
“Yes?”
“Could I, um, give you a scratch behind your ears?”
At that, my mind shattered into two pieces as it warred against itself.
One half of my mind was outraged by the request. My human dignity wouldn’t allow it, even if it was from Emily Clearwater. I had been a pony for only like five minutes, yet I was already being treated like a dog? What’s up with that?!
However, the other half was jumping for me to accept. A chance like this didn’t come every day. Get close to Emily and experience at least a small bit of affection, even if it was just a scratch behind the ears.
So naturally, being the love deprived, teenage boy I was, I sided with the latter half of my mind, “Yeah, sure.”
Emily blinked in surprise, “Really?”
I nodded, putting on the most convincing smile I could, “Yeah, it’s fine.”
A bit warily, Emily raised her arm and placed her hand behind my ears. Then, her nails began to gently scratch back there,
And my nerves just about died in ecstasy.
I had never felt anything before that could have compared to a simple scratch behind the ears. Now, to you inexperienced humans, scratching behind your ears sounds uncomfortable, and maybe even painful. But when you have the ears of a pony, oh man, it’s like getting a massage from an angel.
If I had been a dog, I probably would have been wagging my tail. Although, now that I think about it, I had a tail already, so… I’m not even gonna think about it. I still have my human dignity to protect.
Anyways, I dropped to my haunches as the pure power of the ear scratching overpowered my system. I was happy, and judging from Emily’s laughter at my reaction, she was too.
But after a moment, I felt Emily’s soft fingers pull away, leaving me with satisfaction as well as disappointment that she had stopped.
I sighed in giddy fashion, “Oh, wow. That felt amazing, Emily.”
Emily giggled, “The pleasure’s all mine. It’s not every day you get to meet a real talking pony.”
I laughed as well. Aw, man. I really needed that scratch behind the ears, what with all the stress of that day. I was really feeling like I wasn’t completely doomed. Heck, Emily had discovered me, yet she took the knowledge of my existence pretty well.
“True that. I’d love to stay and chat, Emily, but I kind of have to get going.”
She smiled, “Okay, but where are you going?”
“Home.” I simply replied.
“You mean to Equestria?”
“…Sure. Let’s go with that.” I had no idea what Equestria was, but I figured that was the home world of the ponies, which DIDN’T exist. But that was an understandable misconception, considering our current circumstances.
But as I turned to leave, another thought struck me. If Emily ever tried to tell about this encounter with me, she’d more than likely be called crazy by anyone who heard. I couldn’t let that happen to her.
“Hey, Emily?”
“Yes? What is it, Roman?”
“Do you think you can keep our little meeting here secret? You know, because last I checked, humans who see ‘fantasy creatures’ in real life are usually labeled as lunatics.”
Emily giggled again (Oh, man, her laugh sounded cute), “Sure thing. Is there any chance that I might see you again later?”
You kidding me, Emily? With a friend like Angela, that’s going to be more than likely, whether I liked it or not.
“Hm, we’ll see. Catch you later, Emily!” I waved a hoof in farewell, and proceeded to gallop towards the school’s exit.
Behind me, Emily called out, “Bye, Roman Writ!” Afterwards, I heard her mutter to herself, “A pony in a hoodie. That’s so adorable!”
Blushing slightly, I got the hell out of the school and made my way home.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Of course, getting home was easier said than done. Since I was a full pony, there was no way I could drive home, which left walking home as my only sane option. And trying to walk home without being seen, during the middle of after school rush hour? That was about as hard and tedious as walking a tight rope with hooves instead of feet.
After about an hour hopping fences, hiding in bushes, running from killer dogs who were stupidly left outside, I reached my own house. I unlocked the front door with the key to the house held in my mouth, hurried inside, ran through the house, and locked myself in my room.
Once there, I allowed myself a sigh of relief as I slumped onto my bed. I was safe from everyone now. I had finally crossed the stormiest of seas, and I had now reached the calmer ones. It looked like it was smooth sailing from here on out.
I took a glance towards the digital clock on my computer desk, seeing it read 2:02. Hm, looks like Angela’s guess was off an hour. My transformation had finished a little more than an hour ago. At least I had something to gloat about when I saw her again, after I was human again.
I still couldn’t believe that Angela had no way to turn me back into a human herself. She said the spell would wear off on its own by tomorrow morning, which meant I was basically stuck in my room for the rest of the day. Thanks a lot, Angela.
Well, that settled it. Today was, without a doubt, the worst day of my life. First I had panic attacks in American History, because of unexplainable changes to my body. Then I learn I was turning into a pony due to witchery, and there was no way for me to turn back before my session of detention! Then my Mom saw my ‘dyed’ hair, and proceeded to blow my eardrums out with her vocal chords!
I groaned as I realized she was gonna want to ‘discuss’ my dyed hair when she got home. Just another thing to add to the list of problems I have to deal with. Not to mention that fact that Mom was gonna be a bit curious when she found Mrs. White passed out on her classroom floor.
“Ugh, ‘Think positively?’ Yeah, right. That ain’t happening, Angela.” I whined out loud to no one, “Not only do I have impending Mom drama on the way, but another punishment for breaking out of detention… Today has been insane; Mom yelling at me, embarrassing me in school, a complete transformation into a pony, making Mrs. White faint, busting out of detention, Emily seeing me as a pony, her scratching my ears…”
My thought process shut down as I remembered back to that feeling, with Emily’s gentle hands behind my ears. It had been so calming and relaxing. Ah, I was already missing it. Right now, I really could have used it just to relieve more of my stress. That’d be nice.
A smile came to my face as I thought back to it. Maybe that moment with Emily hadn’t been quite as bad as everything else. Heck, even better than everything else.
I thought a bit more as I recalled today’s events. I laughed as I remembered walking out of detention (like a boss). The way I came up with ‘Roman Writ’ so awesomely twisted my smile into a grin. Even thinking about the discovery of my tail made me smile a bit.
There had been some good things that came from this… And ironically enough, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that none of my current problems actually had to do with being a pony. Nobody knew I was a pony, save for Emily and Angela, but I didn’t have any problems with them. I laughed, “Maybe being a pony isn’t so bad. Maybe it’s just the rest of my life that’s jacked up.”
I sat up from my bed and glanced towards a mirror in the corner of my room. Even from on top of my bed, I could see my reflection staring back at me.
I was definitely a fully pony, without a shadow of a doubt. I had a freakin’ muzzle for crying out loud, as well as the ears of a horse poking up out of my cyan mane. But something else that caught my attention was my eyes. Holy frick, those things were huge! They took up about half of my face alone, and they were positioned more towards the sides of my head, rather than at my front. No wonder my range of vision was so large.
But even as I looked at myself in pony form, I could still see… Well, me. Even though I was an entirely different race, I could still define my appearance as that of the human Lyle Anderson. I was still the awesome looking guy from before, not a girly play horse from a tv show.
As I thought that, I frowned a bit, “What if not all ponies are like that? Maybe they’re just as awesome as me.”
…Okay, that just sounded a bit egotistical. But what if I was just loathing the idea of turning into a pony in the first place, just because of what I thought about that tv show? I hadn’t even seen the show before… What if I was wrong?
My eyes drifted towards the computer on my desk, with its beckoning monitor: The gateway to the internet. I paused for a moment as I stared at it, “Well, only one way to find out. I’m stuck in here until tomorrow, so I’ve got nothing better to do.”
I hopped off my bed and trotted over to my desk chair. I jumped into the seat and sat down, though I made sure to pull my tail off to the side before I sat on it. Once I was comfortably seated on my haunches, I opened up Google Chrome, logged into Youtube, and typed in the search bar, ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Episode 1’.
Once I found the right video link, which was as difficult as heck, both because I was using big, bulky hooves to access a computer, and because there was a definite lack of full episode videos (Stupid copyrights), I clicked on it and sat back to watch.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
And that, my friends, was the story of how I became a brony. Shocking, right? Turns out, that show was better than I thought. Probably the worst part about it was the theme song, and a few other moments in it, but overall it still impressed me. That night, I stayed up until about 2:00 AM, watching all of season 1, and part of season 2. It wasn’t until my fore hooves shrunk back into human hands that I realized how late it was. So, I headed to bed because I knew I had school tomorrow, and because I did not want to be awake to relive the human to pony transformation in reverse.
Thankfully, by the time morning came, I was a full human again, and Mom had no idea about my transformation into my ponified self. And when it came time to go to school (I had to catch a ride with Mom because I left my car at the school. You know, cause ponies can’t exactly drive cars), Mom actually told me I wasn’t in trouble for anything anymore.
Upon waking up that morning, my mane was gone, and my brown hair was back. So, Mom figured I had dyed it again last night on my own. So that problem was solved.
But concerning Mrs. White and breaking out of detention, it turns out that Mrs. White claimed to have fallen asleep until after detention was over. So, Mrs. White assumed that I had stayed like a well behaved child until detention was over that day. My Mom bought the story, and I went unpunished.
Well,… Unpunished, except for going to school in the morning with bags under my eyes. What can I say? Who needs sleep when you’ve still got three more seasons of ponies to watch?
I yawned drowsily as I made my way to Angela’s locker before school began. I had decided beforehand that I needed to talk to her about something before classes started.
Luckily, she was there, wearing her normal pink skirt, as well as a pink hoodie over her head. I approached her with a ghost of a grin, “Hey, Angela!”
Angela looked towards me as she slammed her locker shut, smiling, “Oh, hey Lyle. Welcome back to the human world.” But her expression drooped when she saw the rings under my eyes, “Whoa, you don’t look so good. Was it hard to sleep when you were changing back?”
I shook my head, replying nonchalantly, “Nah, I barely even felt it. I just stayed up ‘till 2 in the morning watching all of season one of Friendship is Magic.”
Angela literally squeed at that, “Oh my gosh! Are you a brony now?”
I shrugged, “Yeah, just about. Though I don’t think I’ll be going to any brony conventions just yet. Just try not to announce it to the whole school right now, okay? I still need to get used to it all.”
Angela just laughed, “Hahaha, if I knew the only way to get you into the show was to turn you into a pony, I would have done it months ago.”
I chuckled tiredly, “Haha, don’t get too full of yourself, girl. But I want to ask you for a favor.”
Angela raised an eyebrow, “And that would be?”
“Well, you see…” I scratched the back of my neck nervously, “When I was fully transformed, I was running out of detention, but I ran into Emily Clearwater.”
“You mean that girl you have a huge crush on.” Angela teased.
I sighed, nodding, “Well, it turns out she’s into ponies, too. And we just got to talking, and she didn’t seem really freaked out at that fact that I was a talking pony. She even scratched my ears a bit.”
“Really?” She asked, intrigued, “How was it?”
I laughed, “Amazing, but that’s not the point. You see, I was hoping that you could turn me into a pony again, so I could introduce Emily to my human self, maybe… um, ask her out?”
Angela grinned wickedly at me, “Let me get this straight. You want me to turn you into a pony, just so you can get a pegasister to date you?”
I smiled sheepishly, “Um… Yes?”
She paused for a moment, before giving me a bright smile, “All right, I’ll help. But unfortunately, I can’t do the transformation ritual until tomorrow. I can only perform it once every 24 hours.”
I blinked in confusion, “Wait, when I fully transformed back to a human, wasn’t that the 24 hour mark?”
“Yes, it was… but…” Angela chuckled nervously as she reached up towards the pink hood on her head.
My eyes widened as she pulled the hood back enough to reveal her hair, which was a foot longer than it had been yesterday. And upon closer inspection, the roots of each hair were turning green.
I deadpanned, “You didn’t.”
Suddenly, the school bell rang and Angela replaced her hood, smirking at me, “Catch ya later, Lanky!” She ran off towards class, even though she knew she’d probably sprout ears in the middle of it.
As I watched her go, I couldn’t help but laugh. I knew she was in for a wild ride, but I was still her friend. Which meant, I was probably gonna have to smuggle her out of the school once the transformation was complete, or something along those lines.
I chuckled to myself as I turned around to head to my own classes, “Angela, you are one crazy friend to have.”