//------------------------------// // ... Then we both grow hooves, tails, etc.,... // Story: Yeah, It Needed More Ponies // by Shadowflame //------------------------------// My more-than-annoying alarm clock buzzed in hmy ears relentlessly at 6:30 in the morning, calling out to me to get up in the language many teenagers world-wide have come to despise. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE- WHAM-~ "Ugh... Stupid clock." I moaned, rubbing my now bruised hand as I blinked myself awake. I sighed to myself, "Time to get up... Just wish that alarm clock wasn't so loud." I rolled myself up and stood up from my bed, stretching as I 'embraced' the morning, "... *sigh*, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that alarm clock was louder than it was yesterday..." A sudden knock came from my door, "Lyle! Time to get up! I'm leaving for the school now, so I'll see you there! Don't be late to class again!" My ears swiveled on the top of my head towards the door as I mumbled in response, "Okay, Mo-" Wait... SWIVELED?! I could hear Mom's footsteps as they descended the staircase and out of earshot... which was considerably farther than it normally should've been. Both enhanced hearing and full mobility of his ears could only mean one thing... one thing that I had gone through before... "Uh, oh.... Don't tell me..." I reached a hand up on top of my head, where I felt something long, furry, and sensitive. I looked towards the mirror in the room, only to groan at my reflection. My hair had turned a familiar shade of neon blue, growing into a long mane that ran down the back of my neck. And protruding out of my mane, two yellow, fur-clad, pony ears stuck up into the air like flag poles. I facepalmed, knowing full well who was responsible for this, "What the hell, Angela?" _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Naturally, I wore a hoodie to school, just like any other day at the boring learning institution. Unnaturally, I covered my pony ears under the hood as I made my way through the hallways. Several kids passed by me, an occasional acquaintance greeting me as they walked by, to which I would only halfheartedly give an equal reply. I was more concerned about getting to Angela's locker before class started, so I could find out what the hell Angela was thinking this morning! Soon, Angela's locker came into view, and luckily for me, its owner was standing in front of it, talking to some blonde guy in dark clothing. I put on a scowl, just to make sure Angela could see how pissed I was at the moment. "Angela." As I approached, she turned around and smiled, "Oh, hey Lanky!" "Angela," I grumbled, ignoring her greeting, "Could you and I talk alone for a bit?" My eyes drifted towards the guy Angela had been talking to previously, who wore a smirk on his face. The guy spoke, "Let me guess? You noticed the transformation began already?" I gave him a blank, but slightly startled, stare, "Um... How did you...? Who are you?" Angela giggled at the confusion written on my face, "Sorry, I forgot you two haven't met yet." She gestured towards the guy, "Lyle, this is Ben. He helped me last night when I was modifying the circle ritual for transformations." Ben nodded towards me, " 'Sup?" "Ugh, Angela, I thought this whole witchery business was supposed to stay a secret..." I grumbled. I shook my head, bringing me back to the task at hand. I shouldn't really complain about Angela telling other people about this stuff. After all, it is her secret to keep and give out. I glared at Angela, "I only want to know why you'd even use the transformation on me today! You of all people know that I have a date with Emily tonight, and I can't show up to it as a pony!" Angela laughed, "Sure you can! You haven't even seen half of what I've done yet." She giggled to herself, "Though I'm impressed. Ben and I initiated the transformation at around 4 o' clock this morning, so the transformation would finish after school ends today, but you already noticed the changes happening. Did you catch on when your hair started growing a bit?" "You could say that." I muttered, pulling my hood up so only Ben and Angela could see my pony ears and mane. Ben only chuckled to himself when he saw my ears, since he had never seen a transformation in action before, but as for Angela, the sight stopped her dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide, and the color seemed to drain out of her face. Angela only managed to whisper, "Uh, oh. That can't be right...." "What?" Both Ben and I asked, slightly worried by Angela's expression. Right in the middle of a crowded hallway, Angela began pacing back and forth, muttering to herself, "No, no, no. That can't be right. The total transformation should only take 12 hours, with the ears coming in around the 6 hour mark... The transformations do accelerate near the end... Could the acceleration come early? No, that doesn't make any sense... It's only been three hours since it was activated... How could the ears come early?" She suddenly stopped as a new thought struck her, "Unless..." She turned towards me, "When did you sprout those ears?" "Um, when I woke up this morning." I replied, "That was around 7:00 this morning." "Seven?" Angela shook her head, "That doesn't make any sense. That was three hours after we activated the ritual, half the time it's supposed... to... take..." She trailed off, her eyes growing wide, "Oh, I see..." Angela turned towards Ben, "When we modified the ritual circle, we basically doubled the circle into a single glyph. We thought it'd double the targets, but do you think it could double other effects as well?" Ben scratched his head in thought, "Hm... I'm not sure. It could be possible, seeing as we didn't test it until now. Maybe the time-frame sigil was off when we drew it?" Angela shook her head, "No, I drew it myself, which I have never messed up before." I stared blankly between them. Whenever Angela started explaining every little thing about witchery to me when we hung out, I always found myself unable to follow half the things she said. Now, when hearing two people talk about it, I must have looked at them like a cow looks at an oncoming train. "Um, anyone care to explain what's going on? Why do you look so worried, Angela?" She bit her lip, as if she were wondering how to phrase it, "Well... last night, Ben and I changed the circle a bit so we could transform two people at once, instead of just one person. With mine and Ben's power combined, we activated it, but I guess the power of two people on it was too much for it too handle. It looks like the speed of the transformation doubled as well." ... "WHAT!?" The speed of the transformation doubled? I was turning into a pony twice as fast?! Angela winced as my outburst brought back some unwanted attention from nearby students, "Sorry, Lyle. I didn't think this would happen. I tried to activate the transformation later this morning so you'd only turn into a pony by the time you got back home, but it looks like you'll be a full pony before school ends." I facepalmed. Just my luck. I finally get a date with the girl I like, then I get turned into a pony on the day of the date. Not only that, but I'll be full pony in the middle of school, and everybody in my classes gets to watch me go through a rapid transformation into a cartoon equine. Can things get better? I submit that they cannot; Not at this rate! But something else came to mind, "Wait... Angela? Didn't you say you were using the ritual last night to transform two people at once?" She shuffled in place, obviously nervous about something, "Uh... hehe, about that... I was using it to try and make your date more fun tonight., okay? Everything's more fun with ponies, right?" "It's true." Ben commented from the side. I deadpanned at Angela as what she said clicked in my head, "Don't tell me... you didn't..." Angela giggled sheepishly, "I sort of used it on Emily, too." I groaned, facepalming yet again, "That's just great. Angela, didn't you ever stop to consider how she'd react to the transformations?" Angela nodded defiantly, "Yes, I did. She didn't freak out when she saw you as a pony, so I thought her turning into one wouldn't scare her. But now that her transformation is running double time as well, she might freak out a bit." "A bit?" I rolled my eyes, "Angela, she probably woke up this morning to find she had extra long hair and a new pair of furry ears on top of her head, not to mention she has no clue what's going on. I think she's freaking out big time right now. Where is she anyways?" "I heard from a few of her friends that she didn't come to school today." Angela shrugged, "I bet she stayed home after finding the first of the transformations, like any sane human would do." I rolled my eyes. Like Angela had any room to call me insane. "Look, fine. I can't risk staying here at the school anyways, so I'll run down to her house and explain what's going on to her, and probably find somewhere to hide until the transformation's over. After all, she's probably scared out of her mind and doubt she'd want anyone to know-" *Scritch* I felt a familiar itch and a sudden tightness in my jeans as my backside seemed to bulge. I groaned to myself, not needing to even look at the back of my pants to know what happened. "Angela? You said you activated the transformation for me and Emily at the same time, right?" She nodded, and I sighed, "Well, she just grew a tail, and now she's probably losing her mind." Unsurprisingly, Angela giggled at that, "The tail came already? What time is it now?" She checked her pink, Hello Kitty watch, "7:30, three and a half hours since the transformation began. Usually the tail comes at the seven hour mark." She grinned in satisfaction, "Looks like my double time theory was right." I rolled my eyes, "Whatever. But the only problem with leaving for Emily's house is my Mom. She's gonna kill me if she peeps into my class and finds that I sluffed school." BRRRIIIINNG! Angela glanced down at her watch again, "Oh, looks like that's the bell. Class already started." "Wait! What about me? What am I supposed to do?" I asked. Ben turned towards me, "Hey, dude, what's your first class today?" "Physics." "Good. Here, swap hoodies with me." I was hesitant at first, but once I saw that everyone else had left for class, I took off my hoodie, letting my ears feel a breeze in the hall. "Why are we doing this?" I asked, as I exchanged jackets with Ben. Ben smirked at me, "I don't mind skipping my own classes once in a while, and you don't want to be caught outside of class do you?" _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Twenty Minutes Later... Mrs. Anderson walked down the school's empty hallways, like she usually did at the beginning of each day. Granted she was a teacher, and that all of her students were waiting in her classroom for her, the law technically allows every teacher to be out of their classroom for fifteen minutes before the students are permitted to leave themselves. Usually for Mrs. Anderson, she only took five minutes, which was more than enough time to peek into Lyle's classes to see if he sluffed or not. One of the fears she had for her son was that he would continue to indulge in apathetic teenage behavior, such as cutting classes and sluffing school. He had already gotten in trouble for being involved in the spontaneous combustion of a trash can, and his record couldn't risk any other bad marks, lest he be expelled from Lone Peak. From her memory, Mrs. Anderson recalled that Lyle's first class today was Mr. Hawthorn's Physics class, so she quickly made her way down to the appropriate door. Once there, she peered in through the small window in the door, the kind that almost all classroom doors had on them. Inside the class, Mrs. Anderson could see a familiar bunch of teenagers in their seats, a few of whom were her own students. But near the back, she spotted Lyle sitting there, hunched over with his hood over his head. Mrs. Anderson sighed, both in mild relief and annoyance. At least her son wasn't skipping school, but she just wished he didn't wear his hood inside class. It was bad enough he did it at home, though the mother happened to notice he'd been wearing his hood much more frequently as of late. Mrs. Anderson sighed, wondering when this hipster trend of wearing hoods would go out of style, as she made her way back to her classroom. Meanwhile, back in the physics classroom, Ben sat in a random desk in the back of the room, wearing Lyle's hoodie. He was hunched over his phone, reading a random pony fan fiction. Ben muttered under his breath, shivering slightly as he scrolled to a new story on FIMFiction, "Okay... Note to self: Never read Cheerilee's Garden in class again." _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Okay, I'm glad that I got out of the school alright, but I was still worried if Ben's plan would work or not. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now. It didn't take long for me to hop back into my car and drive down to Emily's house. I knew exactly where it was.... No! Not like that! I-I'm not a stalker or anything like that! It's just that I visited Emily here the last few times I became a pony. When I reached the house, and parked my car right outside on the street, I found it sort of strange that I was coming here as a human for a change... er, mostly human anyways. Making sure my hood was secure on my head, I walked up to the front door. When I reached it, I lifted a hand to knock on the door, but I stopped before I actually did. You all know that I'm terrible with girls, so you can imagine I never expected myself to come knocking on the front door of the girl I'm crushing on.... albeit I wasn't actually there for a date, but rather to help calm Emily down from growing pony ears and a tail. But hey, they're basically the same thing, right? Heh heh... right... Once I pulled myself together, I knocked on the front door. For a moment, it was completely silent. Although, the silence extended for quite a while, so much that I almost thought that no one was home. Maybe Emily ran off and found somewhere else to hide? My guess was probably not. I don't think anyone's first reaction to becoming a pony-human hybrid would be to show yourself off to anyone if you can help it. I knocked again, louder this time... Again, nothing. It was then that I realized she wouldn't come to the door in her current state. If she was still here, she'd want to lay low, not matter who came to the door. So how was I supposed to get her to open up? ... OH! Urgh, I'm so stupid. I forgot, I have her cell phone number on me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed her up. Immediately, I was faced with a little problem: My ears weren't quite in a good position for me to easily use my phone. I had to resort to holding the phone up on top of my head, placed against my furry ear. My phone rang for a bit, but thankfully Emily picked up on her end. "H-hello?" Emily's voice rang out through the phone, though I could hear it was a bit shaky. I guessed I was right that she'd be spooked by the transformation. "Um, hi Emily. This is Lyle. I'm, uh... standing right outside your door. Could you open up? I need to talk to you about something." Wow, I haven't even been on a date with her, and I tell her I'm right outside her door. In hindsight, not the best move on my part. Cree-ee-eeper. "Oh..." There was a pause on her end, "Look, Lyle, I can't talk right now. I'm, uh, really sick." I could tell Emily wasn't a great liar, both cause her voice was shaking, and the way she said it just shouted 'I don't want to talk to you right now! Just hang up!' I sighed, "Emily, you're not really sick, are you?" "Yes, I am." Emily retorted quickly, "And why are you even in front of my house? Shouldn't you be in school? If you don't leave now, I'll call the poli- "What color is your tail?" Yes, I know it's a bit rude to interrupt somebody, but this instance called for it. Firstly, she wasn't working with me. Secondly, the longer I stayed out on her front steps, the more likely I could've been seen by somebody else. Oh well, as the internet says, I regret nothing! I heard Emily give a small gasp, as well as a small pause, "... It's pink." "Mine's blue. Can you please open the door?" A few seconds passed before I realized that she had hung up her phone. I was about to redial her number, but I stopped when I saw the front door to her house swing open a crack. Emily peered through the ajar opening, eyes wide and face pale. She definitely looked like she had seen better days. On top of her head, she wore a blanket like a shawl, covering her ears and mane, no doubt. Emily looked at me with disbelieving eyes, "H-how did you..." I winced. I was definitely going to have to get over my inability to talk to girls right now, otherwise I wouldn't be much use to Emily at the moment. I sighed, "Can I come in? I'll explain everything, I promise." She hesitated, but eventually Emily nodded and opened the door more for me enter. I walked inside, and she closed the door behind me, locking it as well. Once we were safe inside, I looked at her, grimacing a bit, "Can you take off the blanket?" Emily didn't say anything. She just clutched her blanket tightly, as if she were worried that I'd call her a freak or something like that. She didn't look like she trusted me just yet, so... I needed to convince her. Sighing, I took off my hood, letting my mane flow freely in the air and my ears stretch skywards. As soon as my blue hair and yellow ears were visible, Emily's eyes widened and the color drained from her face even more. But to remove any other doubts (though they be unlikely), I reached behind and pulled my out my tail as well... well, as much as I could. Trying to pull a tail all the way out while wearing jeans was actually really uncomfortable. Emily clamped a hand over her mouth in shock as she saw my blue tail in my grasp. I had to admit, I probably looked like some guy cosplaying a pony for a convention (Don't ask me how I know. Angela was tempted to use the transformation as an impromptu costume for Bronycon). I tried to give her a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, I'm in the same boat as you are." Emily paused for a moment, before regaining her composure. Quietly, she replied, "Okay. Just don't..." What? Just don't freak out? Believe me, I'm well beyond that point, Emily... Unless she had meant to say 'just don't laugh'... oof, that almost seemed like a Fluttershy line. Either way, Emily pulled the blanket off of her head. It dropped to the floor, and I got a good look at the rest of her appearance that had been covered under it. She wore some scruffy pajama pants and a T-shirt. Her appearance made a clear statement that she hadn't been planing to leave the house that day. And looking at her hair held good reason for it. Her hair, though it had been brown and cut down to her neck just yesterday, now reached down past her shoulders, colored in a bright pink color that would've made Angela jealous. On top of her head, two bright cyan pony ears stuck up out of her mane. A bright pink tail, just about the same length as her mane, stuck out from the waist of her pants, trailing out behind her in the open. Emily looked back at me, unsure what to say. I grimaced to her, "Here, you might want to sit down. This explanation might take a while."