Chapter 1
Ponies, Why Did it Have to be Ponies?
Talon Swift awoke to a pounding in her skull.
This wasn’t anything new, she was a college student and a friend of Diane’s after all, but the weird thing was that she clearly remembered being in her Economics class only moments ago, and on a Monday no less. Wow, she thought, Diane’s rave must have been wild to have made me forget an entire week.
After a few seconds, her common sense finally woke up. Wait a minute, there’s no way that a party could wipe an entire week of memory, no matter how much booze I drank! Oh no, did I doze off in class? That would explain why my pillow is so hard. But, wait, then why am I lying down? Did I fall out of my chair?
By this time, her sense of curiosity and drive to solve a problem had replaced the pain in her head. No, that doesn’t make sense either. If I had fallen asleep and fallen out of my chair, my whole side would hurt. Not to mention I would be able to hear the others trying to wake me up.
After a few more moments of thought, she mentally sighed in defeat. Well, I guess I can’t figure it out without opening my eyes. You win this round unknown, mysterious scenario. She opened her eyes.
She hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t this. She saw a wall: a black, carved, stone wall. There were no black carved stone walls at the University of Southern California. This puzzled her to no end, and she spent a few minutes trying to think of where she could possibly be before her musings were interrupted by a groan coming from her other side. “Man,” complained a high pitched voice, “this is worse than my usual Monday hangover.” Talon turned her head quickly to see who had spoken.
She could only stare. Lying on the ground near her side was a horse: a small, bright pink horse. It had a slightly darker pink mane and tail, both of which hung straight down, and there was a weird tattoo on its flank, one that depicted two blue balloons with a yellow one in the middle. It also wore a necklace with a jewel in the shape of a balloon. Strangest of all was the fact that the speech seemed to have come from it. This was confirmed when it rubbed a hoof against its head and gave another high pitched moan.
“Who- who are you?” asked Talon quietly, half hoping the horse wouldn’t hear her.
These hopes were dashed upon the proverbial rocks when the horse’s blue eyes flashed open and over to her. They stared at each other for a few seconds before the horse spoke. “Di- did you just… talk? You can TALK?”
Talon couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in annoyance. “Of course I can talk. Why wouldn’t I be able to talk?”
The horse jumped a bit at her response and it turned its head to stare at the ground. “Wow, a talking purple unicorn. That must have been some good booze.”
“Wait, purple unicorn? What are you talking abou-” She stopped speaking when she noticed something at the top of her vision. She turned her head up to look at it, but it flew up as she moved, following the motion of her head. “What the heck is that?” she asked. She reached up with her hoof to try to grab it and-
Talon froze. Her eyes moved slowly to the hoof in front of her, down a purple furred arm, to the purple shoulder that was currently supporting her body’s weight. “Wha- what is, why is, what is…” Her gaze moved back to the hoof, my hoof she corrected herself, and she raised it slowly to the thing at the top of her vision. She felt something long and hard there and followed it down with her hoof to her forehead. She then turned her head to examine the rest of her body. Just as she’d feared, she saw a purple furred equine figure where her human body should be. She also saw a dark purple tail with a pink stripe running through it and a tattoo of a six pointed purple star surrounded by five smaller white stars. She looked over to the pink horse to see it giving itself a similar once-over. “Who are you?” she asked again.
“Y-you’re not a hallucination, are you?” it asked nervously. Talon shook her head slowly. It gulped loudly. “M-my name is Diane, Diane Pierce. Who are you?”
Talon’s jaw dropped. No way, there was no way that this was Diane. This couldn’t be the party girl who made sure that none of them had a quiet Friday night, the girl who was always hung over on Mondays, the girl who hated the color pink so much that she burned every pink piece of clothing she was ever given. Talon shook her head, hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t just a coincidence. “My name is Talon Swift. Are you really…”
The horse’s eyes widened and she stumbled to her hooves, obviously unsteady on unfamiliar appendages. She stared slack-jawed for a few seconds before whispering “T- Talon?”
Talon rose shakily to her hooves before tackling her friend with a hug. She buried her face in Diane’s shoulder and started crying with relief. “Diane! Diane, it is you! Oh, thank goodness I’m not alone here.”
Diane awkwardly patted Talon back, never having been one for “touchy feely sappy stuff” as she called it. “Um, there there? It’ll, uh, be all right, I guess.”
Talon recovered quickly and pulled back, wiping her eyes hastily. “Sorry, Diane. I’m just so happy that I’m not alone here. Where is here anyway?’
Diane was about to respond that she didn’t know when she was interrupted by a loud shout. “What in tarnation? What did that crazy Diane slip int’ my drink last night? Last I checked, I weren’t orange, and I didn’t have no hooves!”
Diane and Talon looked over to see an orange horse with a blonde mane and tail stumbling to her hooves. She had three apples on her rump, a necklace with an apple shaped jewel at her throat, and, strangest of all, a ten-gallon Stetson on her head. With the hat and the southern accent, there was no way to mistake her for anyone but Anne. Diane grinned happily before narrowing her eyes and smirking. “Oh, sure. You seem to be hallucinating vividly and it’s automatically my fault. Thanks a lot AJ!”
The horse that was apparently Anne Jewel Smith glared over, mouth open to retort, but she stopped when she saw the two horse-bodied girls laughing at her.
“Wha- how, wha-," she stuttered as the two girls laughed in relief at finding another of their friends. “D-Diane? Is that you? Wh-why d’ y’all look like a horse? An’ who are you?” she asked pointing a shaky hoof at Talon.
After calming down enough to stop laughing Talon replied, “AJ, it’s me Talon! And yeah, this is Diane. We’re not exactly sure what happened, but I’m glad to see that you’re all right.”
“W-wait,” said Anne worriedly, “Talon! You’re here too? This ain’t just some crazy hallucination?”
Talon and Diane shook their heads sadly. “I wish,” muttered Diane. “This would be one for the record books.”
Anne shook her head, confused. “How in tarnation did we get here? The last thing I remember was th’ professor talkin’ about supply an’ demand.”
“That’s interesting,” Talon replied. “Monday morning’s lecture is the last thing I can remember too.”
They both turned to the pink horse, who raised an eyebrow skeptically. “You’re kidding, right? You’re talking about a Monday morning and you expect me to remember anything but a headache?” Talon and Anne rolled their eyes. She had a point, though; Party Animal Diane went crazy all weekend and had a weekly hangover that usually lasted from Monday morning into Wednesday afternoon.
The three of them heard a few grunts and groans and turned to see that they were not alone in what they could now see was a vast stone cave. Lying in the cave with them were three more horses. There was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow striped mane and tail and a three-colored lightning bolt coming from a white cloud on her bum. She was looking around at everything with a look of surprise on her face. There was also a snow white unicorn with a well styled purple mane and tail and three diamonds on her rear. She was staring around in wide eyed fear, mouth opening and closing without making a sound. Finally, there was a yellow pegasus with a very long pink mane and tail. She had three butterflies on her derrière, and she was getting to her hooves and looking around frantically, as though searching for something. Each of them had a necklace matching the mark on their posterior.
Anne decided to take the initiative and walked over to the three. She cleared her throat nervously and they all turned to face her. “Howdy y’all. My name is Anne. This here,” she gestured over at Diane, not noticing the dropped jaws, “is Diane, and this,” she gestured to Talon as the white unicorn and the cyan pegasus stumbled to their hooves, “is Talon. Who might y’all-”
No sooner had the name “Talon” left her mouth than the yellow pegasus launched herself at said unicorn, pulling her into a tight hug and sobbing into her shoulder. “Oh Talon,” she exclaimed in a voice that was so soft that it was in a perpetual whisper, “I was so worried about you. I woke up in this cave in this weird pony body and I didn’t know what to do because I was so worried that something might have happened to you too and that even if it didn’t then I still wouldn’t be around to protect you and you might get hurt or worse and I wouldn’t be there for you but then I heard a voice mention your name and I stood up and started looking around and I saw these other ponies and then the orange one said that you were Talon, and I looked in your eyes and they were the same and oh Talon, I’m so glad that you’re all right!”
Talon didn’t know how to respond. On the one hand, (hoof, whatever) there was a strange yellow talking pegasus trying to crush her. On the other… “F-Faith? Is that you?”
Faith Swift, Talon’s older sister, pulled back and smiled happily, staring into Talon’s eyes. “Oh, thank goodness. I knew it was you.” She then put her head back on Talon’s shoulder and resumed crying.
During all of this, the other pegasus and the unicorn had approached Anne and Diane. The pegasus spoke first. “AJ? Diane? It’s me, Rebekkah.”
“A-and I,” said the unicorn, still obviously nervous, “Ruth. What happened? The last thing I remember was Professor Jones’ first period class.”
Anne and Diane looked at each other, stunned. They had suspected that this might be the case ever since they had realized who the other was, but to have the 6 closest friends on campus suddenly pulled from their Monday economics class was still weird. “I don’t rightly know what happened,” admitted Anne, turning back to them. “Talon and I were just sayin’ that that was th’ last thing we remember too. More importantly, why the heck’re we horses? That just don’t make no sense at-“
“Ponies.” Faith interrupted, finally calming down enough to look around but still clinging to Talon like she thought she might disappear at any moment. “We’re not horses, we’re too short and broad, our bodies too low to the ground. Despite our colors and extra anatomy, I think we’re ponies.”
Ruth Johnson starred at Faith, a single eyebrow raised in annoyance. “Not to be rude dear, but what does it matter? And how do you even know that, anyway?”
It was Faith’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Hello, vet to be here. I would hardly be able to care for animals if I couldn’t even tell the difference between a horse and a pony.” She finally let go of Talon, dropping to her hooves. “As to why it’s important,” she gestured around the cave with her hoof, “ponies are much better built than horses for rugged terrain such as mountains and caves because of their lower center of gravity. If we were horses in a cave, then I would be hopelessly confused.” She glared around at the group. “Not that any of this makes sense anyway.”
Rebekkah Dare shook her head and turned to Ruth. “And that’s why you don’t ask Faith about animals. You’re sure to get a lecture.” She trotted over in front of Anne and smirked, holding up one hoof in front of her. “It’s nice to see you still in one piece. I know how fragile your little country mind can be.”
Anne’s eyes widened in surprise before she snorted and bumped her best friend’s hoof with her own. “Aw, come on now. You know I’m the strongest one here. I don’t break that easy.”
Ruth rolled her eyes and awkwardly trotted over to Diane. “I swear, those two. That’s just as emotional as they can get, isn’t it. I don’t understand why they feel the need to put on such a rough and tough exterior.”
Diane raised her eyebrow at Ruth. “Exterior? You think that that’s just a show? Trust me, I grew up with Rebekkah. I know her like the back of my…” she glanced down at the unfamiliar hoof, “well, I guess that that expression doesn’t exactly work anymore.” She shook her head and turned back to Ruth. “Anyway, I know her. That isn’t just a shell, Ruth, that’s the real deal. She just doesn’t really express her feelings much. She has them sure, but that doesn’t mean she has to break out into tears. I think AJ’s just built in the same mold.”
Ruth was about to retort when Talon spoke up, cutting her off. “Alright everyone, listen up.” The five girls turned to face her. “Here is the situation as far as I can tell. All of us but Diane remember being in Professor Jones’ Monday morning, first period economics class. That’s the last thing any of us remember about ourselves in our human bodies.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Faith whispered to Diane.
“A headache,” she muttered back. Faith nodded in understanding.
“After that,” Talon continued, “we all awoke in these strange candy-colored pony bodies. We don’t know where we are, what this cave is, or why the one of us that is afraid of heights is a pegasus.” The corner of Rebekkah’s mouth twitched slightly. “We do know that the six closest friends from USC have somehow been sucked into a strange and unexplainable situation. Due to my vast experience of fantasy literature,”
“Which is a kinder way to say that you always have your nose stuck in a book,” interrupted Ruth, a slight smirk on her face. The other four nodded; they were all very aware of their friend’s obsessive reading habits.
Talon glared at Ruth briefly before continuing, “I have been able to conclude that this is most likely some sort of alternate universe.” The other five turned to each other, their faces showing varying degrees of shock and disbelief. “From our transformation, I’m guessing that ponies are somehow the dominant species of this world. I suggest we find some sort of city and try to find a way back to our world. I think we should go with the classic “amnesia story”, saying that we know each other but not much else. That way, if we say something that doesn’t make sense to them, or ask strange questions that everyone and his dog knows the answer to, we can blame it on the amnesia.”
Diane raised an eyebrow. “Why does this sound like you’ve considered this kind of thing before? I think your obsession with reading is officially unhealthy.”
Talon blushed and cleared her throat. “Anyway, any questions?”
“Yeah, I’ve got one,” said Faith, turning back to Talon. “Who died and made you queen? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good plan and I’m 100 percent behind you on it, but when did you become our leader?”
Diane snickered and pointed at something above Talon’s head. “Must have been when she got that crown.”
“Crown?” Talon asked, confused. “What crown?” She reached above her head and sure enough, she felt something metal resting on top of her hai- mane.
“I wouldn’t call it a ‘crown’, really,” said Ruth. “It’s definitely more like a tiara or a diadem.”
“An’ look who’s completely missin’ the point,” Anne said, rolling her eyes and smirking at Ruth. “As usual.” Ruth shot a glare at her.
“Seriously, Ruth,” Diane chimed in, “what does it matter? Diadem, tiara, crown: same thing really. It’s a big impressive metal headpiece that shows authority. Speaking of which,” she turned back to Talon, “I agree with Faith; who gave YOU that authority? I mean, solid plan, I’m with you all the way, but why do you get to lead us?”
“Probably because she’s one of the only two who aren’t bickering like kids when we’re in a strange situation?”
All five of them turned to look at Rebekkah who shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Just sayin’.”