//------------------------------// // Kafka Only Pony-er // Story: The Tunes Are A-Changin' // by ShadeJak //------------------------------// My eyes snapped open and instinctively I flailed about on the couch I’d passed out on. What had been happening before I’d lost consciousness had been frightening beyond belief. That hideous thing appearing on our telly, and then the changes just… accelerated! The changes! I rolled myself over and tried to sit up, only to realize my arms didn’t move like they used to, rather they moved the opposite way like… I leaned myself against the side of the sofa and brought them up. “Oh god…” I muttered, discovering my arms had become forelegs, each ending with a hoof the same slate-gray color of my fur coat. I looked down and noticed how different my body now looked; a curvy, fur-covered barrel and waist, with two teats on my undercarriage. My skirt barely fit anymore, and my legs… no, my hind legs bent backward like any quadruped’s would, my long, black tail flicked about from under my skirt. Nervously, I brought my hooves up to my face, feeling soft, plush cheeks, and a short muzzle that replaced my nose and mouth. I needed a mirror, fast! Reaching my hind leg over the edge of the sofa to step down, the fact that I now walked on four legs had momentarily escaped me out of force of habit and as soon as I attempted to stand I swayed back and forth and fell flat on my face. My ears gave a slight twitch as I struggled to stand myself up again, wobbling on all fours. I’d most certainly lost a great deal of my original height and now stood about the size of a dog. I felt what remained of my underwear and hose underneath the skirt as I attempted to take a few steps. As much as I imagined I’d feel more comfortable if I took them off, I had my dignity, even like this. Looking back, I saw the lump I assumed to be the pony Vic had become laying there, sound asleep as ever with traces of electric-blue mane and tail hanging over the side of the couch. I suppose at the moment I didn’t need her awake… Her… I’m not rightly sure if it was stranger to use a female pronoun on her in my mind, or that it seemed so normal to as though I always had. Either way, I had other priorities. My first next few steps were wobbly at first, getting used to my new center of gravity and way my limbs bent. One wrong leg and I’d be on my side or on my face again. Looking down at my forehooves I closed my eyes a moment, and moved my right foreleg to take a step, followed by my left hind leg as I began moving my left foreleg, then my right hind leg. Somewhat like crawling on all fours, I suppose, yet different. It felt a little odd, not being able to feel the carpeting so much, I had to admit. Walking carefully, though still a little clumsily down the hallway, I made it to our bedroom and sought out my full-length in the corner of the room near the closet. Approaching, but not yet angled enough to see my reflection, I paused and took a deep breath. “You can do this,” I assured myself. “You’ve expected this, you can handle it. You’re a rational young woman, Octav—… Olivia Ravensdale. Be strong.” Besides, one of us needed to be calm and I was quite certain it wasn’t going to be Vic. Drawing another breath, I stepped in front of the mirror. All manner of self-reassurance immediately abandoned me in a most abrupt haste as I shuddered at my reflection. Looking back at me, with no doubt the same shocked expression I now wore, was a slate-colored mare. I was different from any equine found on Earth, in fact, it was as if someone had managed to translate the very appearance and features of the characters of that show into real life. Turning my head left and right I could see it had a more rounded shape, with a shorter, more dainty muzzle and significantly larger, almost bulbous eyes that were a deep purple with pronounced eyelashes; features that were more vaguely human then equine as though I were more some manner of creature evolved from a horse then simply a horse that could think like a human could. My ears instinctively drooped as I stepped away from the pony looking back at me, my raven-black tail that matched my long mane flicking out from under my skirt a few times from my anxiety. Were I less put off by what I saw, I may have found myself… cute. Maybe even… beautiful. My parents had horses and I knew signs of a healthy mare, and clearly I had them all. Some of my own qualities seemed to translate as well; my slender build and the style of my mane and the stance I found myself taking all carried a sort of refinement and elegance to it. Curious, I did a slow spin, my skirt doing nothing but hinder me more that I finally decided to remove it for now. I quickly found that without hands this became far more taxing, as undoing the zipper was something fingers were needed for. After several failed attempts, I tried laying on my back and just pushing as hard as I could with both forehooves, and with my decrease in size and this soft fur coat I now had it slid off easier then I’d expected, along with everything underneath. Laying on the floor and balancing up on my forehooves I looked at the mirror again and got a good look at myself. Completing my new, equine shape was a pair of rounded flanks that each sported the purple treble clef pictures that had appeared there the night this had all started; my long tail swished along the carpet like a fan of silken threads, all the more reminding me that the pony was indeed me. “L-Livvy?” I heard a female voice call from the hallway. It took me a moment to remember it to be Vic, or Vinyl as I suppose she was registering in my mind, now ~o~ “No… noooo, I hate beans!” I cried out in a slurred tone as I woke from a seriously messed up nightmare and rolled onto my side. Shaking my head I slowly opened my eyes and realized I was still lying on the couch. Sighing, I raised my hands to rub my eyes, only to find they were no longer there when a hard surface impacted with my face. Drawing them back, I saw two white, furry hooves attached to two equally white, furry… forelegs?! “Holy shit… holy SHIT!” I muttered, backing myself away from the offending limbs despite them being very much attached to me and I only succeeded in tumbling over onto my back. Craning my head, I quickly realized my neck was longer now, giving me a much better look at myself, from my slender barrel to my hind legs that now hung upwards in the air, and that long blue tail that swished up as if to remind me of its presence. My face… I could make out the rounded muzzle that had taken up where my nose had been. With some hesitation I brought one hoof to it, pushing against it a little and confirming it to be real. “Th-this… all this…” I shifted a little and my cargos and shorts quickly slid off my smaller form, revealing a pair of teats that I’d paid enough attention to animal biology to know the purpose of. Cringing, I felt a horrible chill run down my body at the mere thought of having a fully-functional equine womb capable of bearing foals, let alone the idea of being pregnant ever. The thoughts immediately drew my attention to between my hind legs, where a very unwelcome change had occurred yesterday. It then occurred to me that I was completely alone on the couch. “Livvy?” I asked softly, looking around and fearing for the worst. Ending up in this body was freaking me out, but finding my girlfriend missing easily overrode that. That monster that had been on the TV, did he do something to her? “Oh, God! Livvy!” I cried out, climbing down from the couch and falling on my face, my back end up in the air and propped against the couch and my tail now hanging in my face. Snorting, I blew it back and tried to crawl forward, a difficult task without hands to grip at the floor with and slowly my hind legs met ground. “C’mon, Vinyl, you can do this,” I said, flinching when I realized what I’d called myself and facepalmed, or maybe it was facehoofed, now. “No, no, no. Your name is Vincent Spencer. Keep it together, dude!” I told myself, not about to let some girly pony body from a girls show change that. I wobbled like I was having a seizure as I struggled to stand, not used to the way my legs bent, or the fact that I now had four legs. As embarrassing and awkward as this all felt, Olivia’s safety meant more to me then my dignity right now. I hoped she was okay, that she hadn’t left home. The thought of her having been found and captured by animal control or the cops from yesterday or creepy men-in-black types made a whole new wave of worry come over me, enough that I collapsed to my haunches, hanging my head low. If something happened to her… My ear twitched when I heard a shudder down the hall, in the direction of our bedroom. My head perked up as did my hopes. Standing myself up, I tried to walk in the direction of the sound I’d heard, stumbling several times trying to figure out how I was supposed to walk with four legs. It wasn’t quite like crawling as that involved one’s hands and knees, so no frequent bending of the legs in the back was needed there, in this case, however, I had a whole new center of balance and getting used to the way these limbs moved. “Great, some hero I’ll be…” I muttered dejectedly as I lay on the floor from the fourth fall, blowing my mane from my eyes. The mental image of me trying to act noble and heroic when I couldn’t even walk, let alone stand in a remotely competent manner would have made me laugh any other day but now it was just beyond embarrassing. Trying once more, I tried standing and pressing my forehooves on the nearest wall and walking sideways on my hind legs. I cringed at how uncomfortable and wrong this felt, and let myself drop back to all fours to try walking like a normal four-legged animal again. Reaching the door, I paused and called out to her. ~o~ “I’m in here, Vinyl— I-in here, Vic…” I stammered, not moving from my spot and not even looking away from the mirror as I heard her approaching, my ear twitching as I heard her cry out from stumbling a bit. “Hey, Liv… whoa!” she announced, prompting me to turn my head and there, staring at me was a white mare with an electric blue mane and tail, and a horn sticking out of her forehead like a unicorn. “:W-wow… babe… is that you in there?” she asked nervously, approaching as she cocked her head. “Yes, it is!” I protested, trying to hold back tears. “I could be asking the same of you,” I replied. “H-how… how different do I look?” she asked. “How much did I change? Am I… am I like you?” “Go take a look, gorgeous,” I said dryly, gesturing to the mirror and after a moment of hesitation, she complied, clumsily walking towards it so she could see herself. She froze a moment when she saw herself, then very, very slowly began to step closer, a stunned, dumbfounded look on her face much like the one I’d had earlier. Bringing her forehoof to her face and touching her muzzle, her horn, and then sitting on her haunches and running both hooves through her wild mane and along the sides of her face. “Vic, please calm down!” I cried out after the potentially thirtieth or so obscenity she screamed out seconds after. “How can I? Look at me! How am I supposed to live like this?!” she demanded. “You may have noticed I’m not any better off,” I replied, getting up clumsily and walking over beside her. “Look… we’re both in the same boat, aren’t we?” I asked, putting my forehoof on her shoulder and nuzzling her neck gently, which seemed to calm her slightly. “I-It’s important we keep calm about it… as difficult as that sounds. You think I’m not worried?” Vic had still made a point, however; how could we live like this? I doubt I’d be of much use at my job or in the orchestra in this body, and she wouldn’t be, either. As I turned and looked at our reflections in the mirror, it became more and more evident that our lives were very much essentially over if this was permanent. Thoughts of being in a lab that I once would have considered beyond absurd felt more possible, or us wasting away in this home that now felt more and more like a large cage every passing moment from our condition flooded my mind, and any attempt at control in the situation fell apart before I could stop it. Before I knew it, I wrapped my forehooves around the mare that had been the person I’d loved for five years and let my emotions go. “Why is this happening, Vin—…Vic? What did we do to deserve this?!” I demanded between sobs as I held her tight, crying into her soft chest. “We had something, didn’t we?” I asked, looking her in the eyes. “…a future… didn’t we?” Vic had a reason behind that birthday-anniversary celebration other then simply displaying approval we’d lived and lasted another year. I’d all but forgotten about it in the chaos that had interrupted it and remained with us ever since. Vinyl didn’t answer, but instead slowly embraced me with her forehooves, resting her head against mine. Then, without warning, I suddenly felt myself falling. Instinctively I held onto her for support, and landed on top of her as she lay on her back. “What in the bloody blazes was that for?” I demanded. “Made ya stop crying, didn’t I?” Vinyl asked as she gave me a smile, it was a playful tone and smirk but didn’t quite reach her eyes; a sadness and uncertainty was still there plain as day to me. She was worried about the same things I was, and there was nothing that could change that, I suppose. It didn’t stop her from at least trying what she’d done last night, an attempt to make me smile, to calm me, anything because… I felt my eyes water again. “Hm, guess I didn’t,” she muttered, sighing. “You still tried,” I said, managing a small smile, as good a smile as I could through all the emotional weight I was feeling now. ~o~ To say seeing what I now looked like in all its pony glory was a shocking experience was an understatement. It really did look like some… realistic depiction of those simplistic designs they gave them in the show. Even those gigantic eyes of theirs that made me willing to think I was actually pretty adorable, or maybe I’d have taken that to heart if it didn’t creep me out so much. Olivia wasn’t much better off. As I lay on my back, her atop me after I’d pulled her down in an attempt to break her panic, I could look into those eyes and still see her in there. I was in no mood for laughs, I really wasn’t, but I couldn’t take her hurting like this and I wanted to do anything I could to put a stop to that, even if it meant ignoring my own discomfort at this… thing I’d turned into. Slowly, I brought my forehoof up to her soft cheek and wiped away a tear; she tilted her head a little, closing her eyes as she nuzzled my hoof. The silence faded in my ears as my heart began to beat harder, a warmth came over me as I continued to look at her. Those soulful purple eyes, that full, silky black mane… that graceful build of a high-society mare… and I felt the same way I had the day I saw Olivia for the first time. It was odd, but I found her… “Vinyl?” a voice asked. “Vinyl?” it asked again, louder now. “Vinyl!” it shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts and seeing the slate-colored pony staring at me with concern in her eyes. “Wha-what?!” I asked, reality crashing back in. “Whoa, did I space out?” I asked, rubbing the side of my face with my hoof when I realized it now smarted a little. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” Olivia replied, “I think I underestimated how hard these are, you just… got all quiet and you didn’t answer me. Are you all right?” “Y-yeah… wait, you called me that name again?” I asked, sitting myself up as she scooted back to give me more room. “I did?” she immediately looked embarrassed. “It’s so maddening! I should know your name but this… it just… I know it sounds weird, but that name… whenever I think about you, that name “Vinyl Scratch” comes to mind first…” “That doesn’t make sense, babe! You know my name’s Vinyl!” I insisted, suddenly bringing a hoof to my mouth when I realized I’d not helped my case at all and said the name as well. Horror and realization was starting to hit… the name, being attracted to a mare without even thinking about the woman I knew, even if they were the same person it’d felt so normal for me for a second. Getting back up I made my way to the mirror again, my girlfriend right behind me. “I-is this us, now?” I asked. “Am I… becoming this Vinyl Scratch pony?” “Octavia…” my girlfriend muttered. “Huh?” I asked, confused. “Octavia… Octavia Melody… why does it feel like it was always my name?” she asked. That name, Octavia, or that nickname Tavi, it just seemed to come and go but yet whenever it did come it felt like I always knew her as such. “Because it is my little ponies!” a new, male voice announced from behind us, prompting the two of us to turn in alarm. There, seated comfortably in the air and laughing as he sneered down at us, was that horrible creature from our nightmares…