//------------------------------// // Different // Story: A Three Foal Wish // by Seeking Dusk //------------------------------// Bird songs drifted over the clearing, cheerful and a trace bit daring. A soft wind ruffled the leaves on the tree, and shuffled the grass. It didn't do much to bother the figures curled at the base of a large tree. A single leaf, probably knocked from its place on a branch by some forest dwelling critter, rode the air currents with as much ease as a relaxed pegasus would. Spinning and flipping as it encountered an eddy in the currents here and there, fate led it to fall on the nose of one of the sleepers. ~James~ Something tickled his nose, and his head jerked up, the urge to sneeze pushing him into wakefulness. His motion knocked the leaf away, and it drifted off again, once more caught up in the grip of the wind and being ushered off to the next appointment destiny had for it. James' nose still tickled, but the urge to sneeze faded, replaced with a yawn. Squinting against the bright light, he muttered about them not drawing the curtains during the marathon. To be honest, he wasn't sure what time it was when he had finally turned in the night before. Only that it was something of a blur. He did know one thing though; he wasn't supposed to be outside. Yet here he was. “What the hay..?” he muttered, trying to get to his feet. His voiced sounded a bit off. It wasn’t until he was standing that he realized something was wrong. He was on all fours. And it felt strange. Rather, it felt normal, which made it strange. He looked down at himself. For a moment, his mind supplied light skinned hands at the end of relatively hairless arms before reality swept that image away. He stood on short red furred legs, four of them, ending in equally red hooves. He felt something snap outwards on his back, odd tugging of muscles and skin as he panicked, backing away as if he could escape the sight. His retreat was cut short when he crashed into and tumbled over another lump, bringing him down to the ground again. He didn’t get a chance to get his bearings before the second lump shoved him aside with an irritated and muffled cry. “Dude! That was totes uncalled for!” the new voice said. It sounded young, and had that somewhat gender neutral tone kids tended towards. “Meep!” James couldn’t figure out how to coordinate his limbs enough to get himself upright, but his tumble left him in a position that he could see what he ran into. It pushed itself up on four hooved feet, green eyes angry, grey coat, a somewhat messy head of hair, an oddly pale and washed out red with a large white spot, a pattern the same on its tail, though the white was underneath. A short horn poked out from its hair. Not it, James’ mind corrected. He. The expression of anger quickly melted away, replaced with shock. The grey creature slowly raised a hoof shaky hoof. “You’re a pony…” A grin cut through the shock. “You’re a pegasus pony! This is so awesome! And impossible! But awesome!” James was totally confused by that reaction. He finally managed to flop himself upright, though still sprawled on the ground. He was a pegasus pony? Of course. That explained the wings that reacted early. Obviously. Wait. No. There was nothing ‘of course’ or ‘obviously’ about that. His irises shrank to pinpricks. “NO! I’m a human! James Smith! Human guy! Not a pony or anything like that!” James declared. He felt his wing splaying out again, but that was just the start of unfamiliar anatomy. Ears, far more motile that he remembered, folded back and pressed against his skull, and a tail twitched behind him. The unicorn, a foal, his brain amended again, didn’t take the outburst well, his own ears folding back as he stepped away from James. “No way. You’re jossing me… James? Why the hay are you a pegasus? And red?” “… Daine?” It was the use of ‘jossing’ that tipped James off. Daine had discovered the Tvtropes page on the topic and incorporated it into his common speech recently. James got to his feet, which was remarkably easier than rolling over was moments before. “Daine?” “Er… who else?” the unicorn claiming to be his friend said. His tail flicked behind him, apparently a response going unnoticed. “I… I think I’m going to assume you are a figment of my well spring, cool? That hair’s pretty crazy…” James was convinced; that was definitely Daine. He started the ‘well spring’ thing. But… he didn’t seem to realize he changed. That fact was currently battling it out with ‘sudden ponyfication’ for top spot on the Terror List in James’ head. “Daine! Focus! Look at yourself. You’re a unicorn.” “Please. What in the… world…” Daine’s protests died as the rolling of his eyes brought the lack of arms into view. He somehow managed to pale, despite his grey fur, and stiffened. James started to worry when the unicorn didn’t move, or even breath, for a few moments. “Um… Hello?” Daine suddenly inhaled sharply, causing James to jump. “I’m a pony…” Daine said. He looked over at James. “Why am I a pony?” “How the hay should I know?” James retorted. Did he look like he was any more informed about all this than anyone else? “Prove it then!” Daine said, focusing on James. “Twenty questions!” Oddly enough, it did devolve into something like that. Not twenty questions per say, but a rally of query and response, Daine shooting James a question, James answering and countering with a question of his own. They had been so caught up in their own shock and issues that they completely overlooked the third figure sleeping in the area. “What’s with the noise?” a sleepy voice asked with a whine. Both Daine and James started, and looked over at the yellow furred earth pony that was just waking up. He blinked his blue eyes at them and yawned. Daine and James stopped their bickering and stared at the third pony. If the unicorn was Daine, then only one person was missing. “Patrick?” “It’s too early for you and Silver to be fighting,” the earth pony stretched a little before slumping back to the grass, his head resting on his forelegs, curling his hindlegs beneath him and tugging his muzzle under his shoulder as much as he could, clearly getting back to sleep. “I don’t really want to know what you two are fighting about this time, Flare, just wake me up when you’re done,” he said sleepily. “Flare?” James said. Weirdly enough, the name seemed right, as if it were part of a whole. Daine was a bit more aggressive in his response. “Oi! Wake up!” He said, whacking his hoof on the earth foal’s head. “Gah! What did you do that for?” he wailed, glaring at Daine as his eyes watered. “Patrick!” Daine snapped. “What?” the earth foal, proven to be their friend, said, rubbing at his head before looking up. Then his jaw dropped. “It’s Daine! We got turned into ponies!” “No… no, no, no, no,” Patrick started. And didn’t stop. “I think I broke him…” Daine sighed. “Can we focus on the big issue?” James asked, waving his hoof awkwardly to get the unicorns attention. It was sometimes hard to keep Silver focused on a topic. James hesitated. Silver? Why was he calling Daine ‘Silver’? Why had Patrick called him Flare? What was going on here? “Earth to James, come in, James! Don’t make me slap you,” Silver’s, no, Daine’s voice cut into James’ thoughts. “I think something is wrong with our heads too,” James said slowly. “What do you mean?” Daine asked, expression instantly becoming sharp and serious as he thought about it. “You mean how we can walk around and stuff without issues?” James had to give it to him, he was always like that. It came from his DMing experience. He might not take a lot of things seriously, but he was good at coming up with conclusions. His fanciful thinking would come in handy right now. James nodded at him. Behind them, Patrick was still moaning. They kinda ignored him for now. "So... are we really in My Little Pony? Equestria?" James asked. "I'm not sure if I should be terrified or ecstatic..." "Terristatic," Daine offered, still looking distracted. Without warning, he posed a question. "How old are you?" "I'm..." James hesitated. One part of his brain was telling him twenty three, another was saying ten. He winced at the headache the conflicting facts caused. "Headache, right?" Daine said. James nodded, gently massaging his throbbing head with a hoof. “Yeah, I got one too when I tried to think about my name,” Daine admitted. He was looking rather worried. Rather than talk more on it, he turned and prodded, the still moaning earth foal, trying to snap him out of his funk with a few well placed hoof jabs to the ribs, looking to draw him into the conversation. “Patrick!” "Mah," The pony in question replied, still trying to process everything. James sighed and sat down, and tried to think of his life. At first, it was just human things coming to him, but slowly other things came to him. And the most startling one burst out. "We're brothers!" That got the attention of the other two. Patrick nearly went catatonic at the revelation, still and unblinking. Daine looked at Patrick, then back at James as it processed before breaking out in laughter. James bristled, his wings fluffing out slightly. “What?” “Nothing, lil’bro,” Daine managed. "Hey!" James complained, realizing that he was the little brother in whatever this weird reality was. "Sorry, I guess I shouldn't be mean to my baby brother," Daine snickered. James glared at him as he continued. "You can't help being the wee little flapper, can you?" "Mom said you're not supposed to call me that!" James protested, rearing up on his hind legs in frustration, wings flapping to help keep himself upright. Both he and Daine were slipping into the patterns of relationship the memories their new bodies pressed on them. “Don’t start fighting again, you two,” Patrick pleaded. “It’s already bad enough that we’re ponies now. Don’t make it more confusing!” James flinched, realizing both he and Daine has somehow gotten caught up in the emotions and minds of the bodies they were in. He dropped back to all four. Now that he was focusing on things, he found it awkward, and the familiarity he had faded some. “This is getting creepy,” James admitted, shuddering slightly. He wasn’t some kid, yet here he was acting like he was one. “That was… weird,” Daine agreed. He looked bemused before he shook it off and looked around. “I guess we should figure out where we are and see if we can get some help.” “And how we got here,” James muttered. “The last thing I remember is…” He paused and thought about it. “Actually, I’m not sure. I know we did the marathon, but I can’t remember what we watched or did.” “Me neither,” Patrick admitted after a few moments of biting his lip and thinking. “I can’t remember any of it. I think we watched Avengers again.” “I just remember reading a book,” Daine admitted. He thought about it for a while. “Actually, I don’t remember anything much after we left the restaurant. We… we saw a meteor shower?” “Yeah, yeah!” Patrick added, the memory coming back to him as well. He scrambled to his feet and bounced slightly on his foreleg. “I was surprised at how clear it was despite being in the city when the lights and pollution would block it.” “Then there was the star we saw from the window,” James finished. Actually, the flash of light was the last thing he could really remember. The rest was hazy. “The star… did you guys wish on it?” “You don’t think..?” Daine said, cocking his head and raising an eyebrow. “I’m a little pegasus foal,” James said, flapping his wings for emphasis, his tone serious. “You’re a unicorn, and Patrick is a earth pony. Yes, I do think.” “Why so serious, lil’bro,” Daine muttered, his ears dropping. “Yeah, I wished on it.” “I did too,” Patrick admitted. “What did you guys wish for?” James asked. Daine looked at the ground and shifted his hooves awkwardly on the ground. Patrick, on the other hoof, didn’t really hesitate to respond. “I wanted to better connect to my friends. I wished that the three of us could stay close, and that I could meet all other friends the same way.” James grinned. Yep, that was Patrick. He was sentimental like that. Actually, he would be a good fit for an Equestria. “I wanted to have a better quality of life. Because of stuff… of how uncertain things can be.” “I can understand that,” Patrick said. He looked at Daine. “What did you wish for, Daine?” “Nothing,” Daine said. He looked away from them and started trotting off. “Come on, we need to find help, right?” Patrick snagged Daine’s tail with his teeth and pulled the unicorn back, earth pony strength making it easy. “Where are you running off to?” “Daine… what’s up?” James asked. Daine looked away from them. “Don’t make me pull big brother rank,” Patrick warned, only half serious. What he didn’t expect was for Daine to start crying. It was slow, silent tears, welling in his green eyes and spilling over, slow drops hitting the ground. Daine whipped at them, swearing softly to himself. “Daine, you okay? What happened?” James said, not sure what was wrong with Daine. In all the time he knew him, he never knew him to be one to just start crying. Unbidden, memories from his new equestrian side came to the forefront of his mind. Silver did that sometimes. When he got stressed, he’d just start crying silent tears, only sniffing when his nose got clogged up. And if Daine was Silver now… “It’s my fault.” Daine’s comment was quiet and unexpected. James almost missed it. “What’s that?” “It’s my fault!” Daine said loudly, causing James and Patrick to flinch and back away. “I… I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like my life. I was tired of just going to work and going back home every day, so I wished that something exciting would break the monotony, then I wake up a pony and dragged my best friends into it… I’m sorry…” James looked over at Patrick. Was it really that simple? He didn’t think so. It didn’t seem like Patrick thought so either. “Boop,” Patrick said, bumping Daine’s muzzle with his hoof. Daine looked up at him, confused. “It’s doesn’t matter Daine. I don’t think that wish of yours could have caused all this, and even if it did, I can’t blame you for wanting a change. Isn’t that why all three of us decided to meet up in person?” “But…” Daine started. “No buts!” Patrick said firmly, sounding a bit more like the big brother he was. James started to smile, but it instead turned into a yelp when Patrick hooked a hoof around his neck and dragged in into a group hug. “It doesn’t matter if we are brothers or best friends or cousins, and it doesn’t matter if you caused it or not. I love both of you.” “That’s cheesy and sappy,” Daine managed to chuckle before sniffing. “But it’s true,” Patrick said. “Right, James?” “Ugh… right,” James said, sighing but giving a weak smile. As he did, he could hear a chord starting in the background, and felt a pressure building in his chest. “Brothers Together, Friends Forever,” Patrick started singing, to the looks of horror on James’ and Daine’s faces. Through thick and thin, the strength true bonds bring, Carries us forward, no matter what goes wrong! James was stunned, and could only watch as Patrick released them from the hug and marched ahead, singing in his colt foal soprano. It doesn’t matter if it’s clear or not, If the road is rocky or smooth, We’ll persevere, even if we fear! Daine grinned, whipping the last of the tears away as he giggled and trotted to catch up with Patrick. He always did like the songs. The music gained a few more instruments as Daine joined in, just a slight bit lower pitched than Patrick, his voice not all that great, though strong. Even if we tumble and fall, Even if we go so wrong, It doesn’t matter after all. Because in the end, we’re still; Brothers Together, Friends Forever. They both stopped and looked back at James as the musical accompaniment built up to another verse. They even gave him wide pleading eyes. Completely underhanded. He groaned, but felt the tugging and gave in, walking over to them. It’s not really my thing, I don’t want or care to sing, But still it’s true, I’ll admit, Standing side by side; us and we, Supporting each other, No matter what we encounter, The music swelled and all three hit the last line. Brothers Together! Friends Forever! Their first experience with the magic of music faded away and left the three foals laughing about how strange it was. “Wow! So that was magic?” Daine said. “I can’t wait to try some on my own!” “I think I can pass on doing that again,” James winced with a grin. “It was weird in a cool way though.” Patrick was bouncing on his hooves. “Did you hear the music? We got a theme song!” “We should try and remember the lyrics and write it down,” Daine said, agreeing. He seemed like he got over his little depression from before. “Remember, we’re supposed to be looking for help,” James said, trying to get his brothers, and he would admit the concept had a weird feel to it, back on topic. “Um… right!” Daine said. “Help.” “Do you think you can fly, James?” Patrick asked. “You could check to see where the closest town is.” “I don’t think I’m going to risk flying right now,” James said, flapping his wings slightly. “I don’t really know how these work.” “Oh…” Patrick said, deflated. Daine watched James’ flapping and sighed. “I think we are close to Ponyville though,” James said. He put his pegasus eyes to work and pointed to the castle like structured clinging to the side of a mountain not too far away. “I’m pretty sure that is Canterlot.” “Wow…” Patrick said, shading his eyes from the sun. “Awesome, I guess,” Daine said, squinting. He had needed glasses before, when they were still human. Maybe he still needed them now? It didn’t look exactly like in the cartoon. It was bigger for one; sprawling over more of the mountain that it appeared to in the show. It was even more impressive, to be honest. While even his eyes couldn’t make out all the details from this distance, the tall towers and evidence of construction that climbed the cliff and mountain was remarkable. “So… to Ponyville, then?” Patrick asked. James looked at Daine, who nodded. “To Ponyville.”