Her face felt funny. Although considering it always felt funny when waking up so it wasn’t too concerning. Groggy was a new word she had learned recently and she certainly felt it. She tested her ears for a second and they felt off, that was a new one though. It wasn’t as if she was in some form of discomfort up there, but they felt three sizes too big, like something was hanging on them. She cracked open one of her eyes and in a second all manner of senses came flooding back to her, but none was as powerful as sight.
“Ah!” She shielded her eyes but shutting them tight. Why is it so bright? She felt around for a second. Why do I feel dirt…? This time she carefully cracked open her eyes and found that she was lying on a dirt path, she couldn’t see much from where she lay so attempted to get up. This caused her to stumble back and smack her head into the ground. “Ow… what the… oh…”
She had dared to look back at her body, then she screamed. The scream lasted for around a minute before it slowly died down when something came to her, probably the most important thing all morning.
“I’m a pony…”
It was odd to say. Most girls would simply cry and call for their mommies. Most girls would freak and try to wake up from a nightmare they were having. Some may even think a prank had been played on them from a certain nuisance named Billy. While she almost did these things, she simply didn’t feel like it at the moment.
“This… is awesome!” It took the girl several minutes minutes to figure out how to walk again. It was agonizing, because it wasted precious time being a pony! Who knows how long it would last? She had to show off to Billy, or Mike, or someone she knew! They had always said that ponies we’re stupid, but a talking one might just change their minds!
“Now then… where the heck is my room?” It wasn’t as though she had hoped to find her room outside, near a bunch of wooden fences, dirt pathways, trees, grass and mother nature itself. But she did hope to find the building that contained her room, or people, or something. She walked for a bit, still feeling odd on four hooves, but found nothing of use. “Great…I turn into a pony and can’t even find people to show! This sucks.”
She started walking, feeling the sun warm over her coat. It felt good and did it helped wake her up which only increased her senses. “I’m hungry.” With hunger came annoyance, annoyance that she couldn’t simply walk downstairs and make a bowl of cereal. “This sucks…”
Eventually she got bored and started to drag her hooves into the dirt a bit. She couldn’t turn on the TV or go read a book or something, it was dull. “This suuuuu- woah!”
She had accidentally bumped into someone, not paying attention to where she was going at all. Her head felt dizzy for a moment before she shook it and sighed. “Sorry I...uh…”
“No problem. Say… are you new in town?”
It was a pony who was speaking, not a girl like her but a pony. This particular pony seemed to have something that she currently lacked, which we’re wings.
“I...yeah...wings…” She stammered.
The pony waved a hoof in front of her. The girl saw nothing but green for a moment and then snapped out of her stupor. The other pony smiled. “You alright there?’
She nodded. “I think so.” She pondered her situation for a split second then felt like she should ask something. “You’re,” she paused and gently prodded the pony in the shoulder with her own hoof, “real, right?”
The mint green pegasus pony blinked a few times before laughing just a bit, though mainly from nervousness if anything. “Of course I am, you sure you’re alright?” The pegasus watched the girl nod and tapped a hoof under her chin a few times. “Well, my name’s--” She paused and turned around to hear a few voices scream after her. “Oh, well this will have to wait.” The girl watched the ponies wings flap a few times and off she flew into the air. “I’ll see ya later!”
“She’s flying…” She trailed off and smiled. “A pony just talked to me, and she’s flying away… awesome!”
Feeling like there was new pep in her step, she found a way to skip her way forward. She wasn’t sure what she would find, but she hoped it was more ponies! She was disappointed when upon skipping up the next hill, she found a massive town filled with ponies. She took in the various colors of the four legged creatures and found, to her annoyance, that her coat seemed to be the most plain out of all of them. Her’s was mainly brown and spotted a bit, while most ponies in town seemed to be every mix and match with colors of the rainbow. She also noticed something else, something that caused her to simply pause and reconsider her awesome situation.
“Are those pony… kids? Other kids! Wait…” She couldn’t be sure, so she walked up closer to get a better look. She was twice their size. She watched the apparent school pony children playing in the street and could only laugh a bit in response. “I’m a grown up… pony.” It was the only explanation that made sense. “Could this day get anymore awesome?!”
Her voice had apparently been heard, but not by the children. “Of course it can, cause I am inviting you to a super fabulous exceptionally amazingly terrific Welcome to Ponyville party!”
It was certainly a girl pony who had spoken, she very much doubted any boy would be caught dead with so much pink on them. Pink mane, tail, coat from head to hooves she was certainly pink… and she was staring directly at her with a wide eyed and very creepy looking grin.
“So?! Will you go? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
“UH…”
“Oh! Well, only if you want to…” She saw the pony dig her hooves into the dirt, looking almost ashamed. “Sorry, Twilight says I should be more careful when visiting new ponies to my parties. In case they don’t want to go. Uh, do you?”
Party… It echoed in her head and the girl couldn’t help herself. Well, almost couldn’t help herself. “Wait a minute! You’re a stranger… uh, I don’t think I should be going to a strangers party.”
“Oh, duh! Silly me, my name is Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet ya!” She held out a hoof and the girl gently tried to shake it, but ended up with only a bump in the end.
“Okay… why are you throwing me a party? You don’t even know my name?”
“Well duh! My Tail Twitched and my ear twitched and that means somepony new is coming here! That’s why.” THe mare exclaimed, as if it made perfect sense. “Will you go? I’ll have candy… and--”
“Candy?!” All rationally went directly down the drain. “Where? I want it!”
Pinkie watched the mare jump up and down in glee and couldn’t help but jump in response. “Well, just follow me sill--” Pinkie watched the mare dash off without her. “--y.”
“C’mon! Candy!” The girl exclaimed, waiting eagerly for the pink pony to catch up and get with the program. There was candy to be had! “Can we go now?!” She impatiently asked.
“Uh, sure. P-party time!” Pinkie was caught off guard for a moment, I mean who gets that excited over candy? Still, there was a party to throw and maybe this new girl just really liked candy.
“Is that for me?” The girl couldn't believe her eyes, there was a massive banner that read ‘Welcome to Ponyville’. It was hanging up inside of a massive tree of some kind, though from the looks of things it may as well be a library. The banner did lack her name, but the part was for her, ergo it may as well have her name!
“Of course silly! C’mon everypony, let’s get this party started!”
The girl did a double take and watched in awe as practically the whole town of ponies was quite literally herded inside by the pink devil herself. She worked so fast that the girl could hardly believe her eyes, that and she was witnessing a herd of talking colorful ponies all gathered around inside of a massive tree. It was just too awesome! Pinkie was just about to flip a record onto a player when a lavender colored unicorn… a unicorn! Walked up to her and stopped her.
“Pinkie! The town’s all for parties, but we don’t even know who this is for!”
Pinkie blinked and smacked a hoof to her head. “Of course! Oh, sorry, Twilight. I guess this is why you said to slow down with surprise parties huh! At least I didn’t spring this on her like I did you.” She whispered the last part and the mare known as Twilight simply rolled her eyes.
“What’s your name anyway?”
Every single pony in the room was now staring at her. “Uh, Samantha.” She felt uncomfortable with the continuing stares and constant blinking, but did her best to ignore it.
“Everypony welcome--” The pink mare stopped herself and ran all the way up to Samantha to whisper something. “Seriously? Your name is Samantha?” She asked rudely.
“Yes…”
Pinkie blinked again but then cracked the same smile as before. “Alright everypony, welcome Samantha!”
With that the entire crowd of ponies stomped their hooves in unison and cheered. It was exhilarating, going from nervous and scared to completely happy and excited in a single second. From that very moment the entire town (or what looked like it) seemed quite happy to simply dance, party , scream and laugh with each other. Some tried to walk up to Samantha and say hello, but they were ignored for something else, something greater than talking.
“Candy!” She made a beeline for the table that held up all manner of confectionery treats, punch and of course candy. The ponies who had attempted to get near her now found themselves knocked over on the floor, being helped up by the lavender unicorn from before.
“Pinkie! I…” Twilight trailed off when she realized that it wasn’t her pink friend that had rushed to the table, it was Samantha. She turned to the other ponies to apologize though they simply walked away from the party. She watched the new pony guzzle down sweets with disgust, until she felt a familiar feeling to her right.
Her friend had laid a wing on her side. “Oh, Twilight… it’s possible she’s nervous. Ponies don’t get parties like this thrown for them all the time, eating can help calm anypony down. Give her a chance.”
She smiled at her and nodded. “You’re right, Fluttershy. You’re right… I… Oh, Pinkie.” They both watched their friend match the new ponies in terms of how many things they could eat at once. The two shared a small giggle and Twilight walked up to Samantha and then hesitantly tapped her on the shoulder.
The last time she had seen a grown pony with that much frosting on their muzzle was at Pinkie Pie’s birthday the year before. It was pretty extreme. “Oh, uh, hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
Samantha blinked and mentally smacked herself. I’m supposed to be a grown up! She licked her lips as quickly as possible, cleaning anything off her muzzle and then laughed a bit. “H-hi, Samantha.”
Twilight watched the mare raise her hoof, though she saw it shaking a bit. Fluttershy was definitely right about the nervousness. Twilight thought, but pushed it aside and smiled. “Nice to meet you!”
“You too! Have you tried this stuff? It’s great!” She almost dug back in, but kept her composure and figured she had enough candy for once in her life.
“Sure have, Pinkie Pie makes the best cupcakes in all of Equestria!”
The grin and happy attitude in the air made Samantha as relaxed as she had ever been in ages. “What’s--” She stopped herself, figuring it was probably a bad idea to ask what it was. She figured Equestria was probably a country or something. A country filled with talking ponies! So awesome! “Um, never mind. So… does everyone new here get a party?”
“Ah reckon’ they do.” Both mares turned around to face a pony wearing a stencil hat, the other mare walked up to get some punch. “Name’s Applejack by the way.”
Samantha’s eyes widened in surprise, and she instantly forgot about Twilight. “Are you a cow pony?!”
“Cow pony? Uh… can’t say I’ve heard that phrase before. Ah’m a farmer though. Grow the best darn apples in all of Equestria.”
Samantha nodded. “That’s cool! I’ve been to a farm once, though it was kind of smelly and not all that exciting.” She finished with a smile, confident it was something an adult might say, but unaware of what she had implied to an actual farmer.
“Uh huh, is that right?” The mare muttered something under her breath and then put on a fake smile. “Well, enjoy the party.”
“Thanks, I will!” Samantha called back sincerely meaning what she said. The mare pause,d muttered something else and then walked away. “That was weird…”
“Hey, I’m--”
Samantha spotted three smaller ponies playing one of her favorite games at parties and dashed off, screaming in her absence. “Pin the Tail on the.. Pony? Awesome!”
“--Rainbow Dash. Uh…” The mare tried to get out, but she was sure nopony had even heard her speak.
Samantha rushed over to the fillies with an eager grin on her face. Two of the three fillies quickly noticed her, with the remaining one blindfolded attempting to pin a tail and doing a poor job of it.
“Uh, hi?” An orange colored one said to her, it had wings and Samantha had to bite her lip as to not to scream. She looked too adorable for words.
“Hello! Uh, who’s turn is it?!” She knew that she should be acting like an adult, but who could pass up the opportunity to play such an amazing game?
“Uh, heh, Sweetie Belle’s. She’ll be done in a minute.”
“Cool!”
Applejack joined her Rainbow themed friend near the punch table. “I tried to say hey, that mare moves quicker than Pinkie…. Quicker than me!”
“Yeah… ah don’t get it. Darn mare’s acting like a child.”
Twilight joined them and had to agree. “I’ve never seen somepony so quick to ignore everypony. Or to eat candy.”
“I win! Again!”
They heard the mare in question scream out loud and giggle, they watched the spectacle of a grown mare giggle while three fillies stood off to the side joining in, though perhaps more from confusion. They had never seen a grown up act like them.
Fluttershy joined their friends and did a quick check to make sure the punch she was drinking was in fact punch, you could never be too careful with Rainbow. “Oh, well when I’m a party I try to ignore strangers and stay close to friends. Maybe because she doesn’t know anyone here, she feels like, um, distracting herself?”
The mares featured softened hearing this.
“Ah suppose I’ve said my fair share of stupid things at parties. Maybe she just need some friends?”
“I was trying to be one…” Rainbow muttered.
“Okay, maybe if we all talk to her together and let her know she has nothing to fear in our town she’ll open up!” Twilight’s plan, they figured, was as good as any.
As it turns out Samantha saw the group coming and figured it was time to act more ‘grown up’, no more games or candy. It was time to have some fun!
“Hey!” Samantha quickly joined the four, and before they could say anything she had roped them in for another game that was set up. “Wanna play some games?”
The mares smiled at each other and figured some games would help break the ice. Soon the others saw how much fun the new pony was and figured that certain ponies were just going to be quirky and weird, but nice and fun in the end. It started to get late and Samantha realized that she was, for the most part, not the least bit tired. I can stay up late like the grown ups! This is so… awesome!
“Well, that was pretty fun. It was nice meeting you, Samantha.” The butter creamed colored pegasus yawned. “Excuse me, I’ll see you later!”
The other ponies waved and said their goodbyes. Samantha felt great, having made new friends and had one of the best parties of her entire life. Dancing, games, singing, food and so much more. It was all so awesome! She found herself skipping away from the library, bumming a song that Pinkie had taught her. She noticed other ponies were heading off into their homes and it wasn’t long before she found a quiet pathway with no other living creatures about. It was dark out and that’s when she noticed the issue.
“Uh oh…” The girl turned pony shivered in fear of the unknown darkness. Thing’s were certainly not awesome.
The quieter and darker things got, including houses turning off lights and ponies going to bed, the worse off she felt. She hated night time, it meant stopping play and going off to sleep in a dark room. Sure, others were there with her, but it sure didn't feel like that ever.
“W-well at-atlea-least the stars look pretty…” She tried talking in hopes that it would make her feel better, but no such luck as the last of the houses shut off their lights. The entire town was dark and she had nowhere to go.
“Whoo, whoo.”
“Ahh!” She screamed from the noise of what could only be described as the scariest monster in the universe, and bolted. She wasn’t sure where she was going, she just didn’t want to be scared anymore. After a while she slowed down to a crawl and eventually stopped, she had stopped on top of a small bridge that lead to a cottage in the distance.
She flopped down onto her belly and sighed. “This sucks… I miss my room.”
She was still scared, but looking up at the stars gave her an odd sense of calmness. “That’s a lot of stars…” She trailed off and felt okay to simply stare and watch them sparkle in the night sky, like a painting that was always moving.
Eventually she heard a few chirps from some birds and looked back. Animals were gathering around the cottage, moving about, around the cottage or even under it. It intrigued her enough to stand up and slowly walk over to them. Some of them noticed her and frozen in a synchronized motion, before calming down when they realized she meant no harm. Samantha smiled after laying down in the grass.
“This isn’t so bad…” She had never bothered to go outside in the dark, why would she? But she was a pony now… she knew they had homes, but she figured it would be natural to sleep outside as well. Like regular horses. Eventually she let out a pretty quiet yawn and within a few minutes, she was off to a peaceful sleep.
She felt a nudge to her side, so she brushed it away and turned over. It happened again only a bit more strongly so she cracked an eye open and found Fluttershy staring down at her.
“Samantha? Um, are you okay?”
She yawned and nodded, then smiled slightly. “Yeah.”
“Oh…” The mare trailed off and looked away. Then she turned back with a frown. “It’s just I found you sleeping in my yard and all… I didn’t want to disturb you, and I’m sorry, but could you please tell me why you’re here? Please?”
She blinked a few times and shrugged. “Uh, I was sleepy.”
“Well…I-I can see that. Do you think, if it’s not too much trouble, that you could go… home?”
Samantha didn’t have an immediate answer for that one. She would love to go home, she was hungry after all and she was starting to wonder when she would turn back. It wasn’t as if being a pony was unpleasant, but she missed having hands. She missed her room, but she really missed having food.
“Uh, well, um…”
Fluttershy normally didn’t come into contact with ponies that stammered out responses, she was taken aback but only for a moment. She simply sighed and nodded. “You can stay if you’d like… I suppose. I need to go feed my animals though right now, so please be quiet for a while. Please?”
Samantha, no stranger to adult commands nodded slightly. The mare gave her a quick smile and then cantered off, leaving the girl alone. Again Samantha felt happy to just roll in the grass a bit, pushing her back into it in order to relax. After a while her stomach started to rumble loud enough to notify Fluttershy, the mare panicked and quickly set a bowl of cereal near her then dashed off to feed more of her friends. She figured with food in her, she would quiet down. Fluttershy was wrong. The “mare” quickly devoured her bowl in under twenty seconds flat, she hadn’t even needed to use her hooves, just a now very messy muzzle. Fluttershy sighed in relief when it was all over, though she cringed when the girl spoke from across the yard.
“That was awesome! Can I have more?!”
“Shhh!” Fluttershy called out.
“Oh…Sorry!”
To Fluttershy, it was most certainly going to be a long day.
Samantha had been invited inside, though Fluttershy was reluctant to let her inside at all, she didn’t wish to be rude. They found themselves sitting together, sipping tea. Well, Fluttershy was sipping tea, Samantha was gagging at it though trying to conceal her disgust. Tea was nasty after all, it was for grownups.
“Um, so, did you move here because of a job?”
“Job?” Grownups have jobs, can I get one? A job actually sounded pretty fun! Though she didn’t have one so she shook her head. “No, that sounds like fun though!”
“Oh, well they certainly can be, though they are hard work of course…I didn’t want to say anything earlier, nopony did because we didn’t want to, um…” Fluttershy trailed off and sighed while trying to compose herself. “You don’t have a special talent, you don’t have a cutie mark. It’s just something I noticed, if that’s okay with you…”
“What’s a cutie mark?”
Fluttershy’s eyes shrunk to the size of pin pricks while she tried to figure out if the strange mare in front of her was being serious or not. So far Samantha hadn’t exactly been the definition of solemn. Still, she looked up at Fluttershy with curiosity in her eyes, the same look a child might give. She shook her head, she was a mare and had to be treated like one.
“A- a cutie mark defines somepony’s special talent. Look at mine.” She turned to her side and pointed to the trio of butterflies on her flank. “Mines signifies my affinity for animals, helping them out when they’re in need.”
“Ooooooh…those look pretty! How’d you get em’?”
“My cutie mark? Oh, well it’s a long story, though not too long!” She gave the girl the short version of her tale, how she had fallen from the clouds and was saved by a ton of butterflies and discovered the ground felt more natural to her, so she stayed. From then on it was her duty to help animals in need, which they helped back by helping her build her cottage. She didn’t major in any schooling, so she needed help with that.
“Wow! That was the best story ever!”
Samanatha was practically bouncing in her seat by that point, which was good that it was practically and not literally. Fluttershy didn’t think her chair could handle the abuse. Still, she blushed and smiled. “It was nothing, really…”
“But it was so amazing! How do I get a cutie mark?!”
Fluttershy found herself uncomfortably close to Samantha’s muzzle, not that the girl turned pony minded. It did remind her of a certain pink pony she knew, which would put her at ease had she been the same pony.
“You have to earn one… um, normally by now you would have figured out your talent and then you get your cutie mark. Have you really never thought about this before?”
“Uh, no. Should I… have?”
“It’s kind of important, yes…” Fluttershy was having a difficult time understand just how a pony like Samantha had gotten by for so long. Food wasn’t free, shelter wasn’t free and so many other things could not be easily obtained without some kind of job. Although she had never encountered an adult without a mark, was it possible to find work without one? She supposed non ponies did, so why not her?
“Oh… so, how do I get one?”
The pegasus smiled. “You just have to keep trying new things. You’ll get one, in time.”
That was always grownup talk for pretty much in a million years! “Oh… that sucks.” The would be mare pouted and looked away.
“I… uh… okay. W-well, maybe you should--”
She was interrupted by the mare standing up and turning to the door. “I’m gonna go check out the other ponies, bye!”
The door was slammed shut, leaving behind a confused Fluttershy. “Well, okay…”
Fluttershy was fun, but her usefulness as fun had ran its course. It was time to check out what the other ponies were doing! They could fly, they could do magic! Anything was possible… like a group of school children gathering around her before she could blink.
“You tell her…” She heard a harsh whisper from the pegasus.
“It was your idea…” Another whisper, of course it was pretty loud for a whisper.
“I’ll tell her!” The third one, a unicorn squeaked out. The two looked at each other and shrugged. The unicorn smiled up at Samantha. “WIll you join the Cutie Mark Crusaders?!”
Samantha had no idea what Crusaders meant, not really anyway. She didn’t know the fillies names and didn’t really care. She did know the name had Cutie Mark in it, which was good enough for her! But I’m supposed to be a grown up… She pondered this and spoke up. “Okay! On one condition!”
“What?!” They all asked in unison.
“We do grownup things to get a cutie mark!”
The three, not having anything against the idea all nodded. “Sure! That sounds awesome! Oh! I bet Rainbow Dash will notice me for sure then!”
The other two rolled their eyes, but secretly had ideas of their own.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Grownups, yay!” The three high hoofed and laughed.
Samantha blinked. “What’s a Crusader?” Then her stomach grumbled. “You got any food?”