My name is Wade Jallecks. Wierd name, I know. But its what I was born with. This all started on the second day of a convention I went to with my friend.
I shifted in my seat, eager to evacuate myself from this enclosed space of sweat and stink. I was sitting in row 5, seat 16 of hall B. Sitting amongst a sea of sweaty people who apparently had never heard of the concept of deodorant. Or bathing daily.
A new trailer for some new anime played up on the big screen, music and action packed sound effects making the floor rumble below me with the bass. Regardless of the surrounding "coolness", I was miserable. My previous complaints about everyone elses stink nonwithstanding, my own clothes were plastered against me, so friggin hot that it was inside the concert hall. I finally decided to end my torment, politely (save for that one jerk whose foot I stomped on-said excuse me and the asshat told me to "get out of the 'effing way"-) made my way to the outside of the row of seats, and exited the hall.
Now, its not completely true to say I suck in large crowds. A better description would be that I am a terrified introvert. I do okay with small groups, but anything larger than a group of 3 and I freeze up, cast my eyes downward and mumble incoherently. I'm not proud of that. Its easier when no ones paying attention to me, but even then large crowds make me indescribably nervous. To say that exiting the hall was a godsend was an understatement.
As I breathed in a delightfully clean breath of air, I noticed something. We had passed table after table of random merch, and most of it was stuff I didn't recognize. Some of it(Clouds sword, albeit a smaller version was on a table to my right) was instantly recognizable, but most of it I probably wouldn't have been able to recognize even if I had been an avid fan of...whatever it was. Walking past table after table of random junk, I found a table stacked high with something that made me sweat.
My little pony merch. My little sisters favorite show. I'd seen a couple of episodes, the show itself wasn't that bad persay. Considering I was a guy however, I felt I had no business becoming involved with such a...colorful series. That being said, apparently a large amount of guys were into the show(as evidenced by the large group of non prepubescent non girls that had just left the table, each having stuffed away their given purchases in multiple bags.), not only my sister. Speaking of, my sister had begged my parents to let her come with me and my friend to this convo, and having failed that had begged myself to bring her back a "Fluttershy" until she had started crying. I may not do to well with strangers, but my sister is my life. I'd brave anything to make her happy.
I walked over to the table, and the guy sitting behind it flashed me a brilliant white smile. I froze. Not good.
"Can I help you find anything?" he asked me, and to my credit I actually managed to get out what I was trying to say.
"I...er...c-c-c-can I g-get a Fluttershy plushy?" I asked, my face burning with shame. I'd get her "a Fluttershy" but she was going to have to owe me BIG time. I pointed to one in the pile, a yellow pony with pink hair and tail. According to my sister (who had given me explicit instructions on which one to look for,) this one was a variation of the original character, quite aptly named due to her exaggerated appearance-
"Ah, Flutterbat, good choice, that'll rack you up forty six dollars." I grimaced, but the thing was really well made. Elly would love it. I pulled out my wallet, and handed the guy two twenties and a ten. He handed me my change, then gestured to a pile of vinyl keychains. "Since your purchase was over thirty bucks, you get a free keychain too." He gave me another wide smile, and I could swear I saw a glint of light reflecting off of them. Since I was apparently getting something for free, but didn't want to spend any more time around this exuberant fellow, I pulled a random keychain from the pile.
"I guess I'll take this one. Thanks, bye." and with that I turned and walked away. I had apparently picked the rainbow haired one. Joy.I stuffed both my purchases in my backpack(a convention standby, or so I was told)and continued down the isle. There were a few people here and there, but all in all I didnt feel that uncomfortable. And then I saw a table that made my heart literally skip a beat.
Animorphs memorabilia. Little figures of all the characters, multiple copies of all the books in the series. The old transformers spin offs that hasbro had made. Ventricular spreads of all the morphs. I loved this friggin series back in the day, but I had never bought any merch of it. I had never even bought all the books, just checked them out from the library. You don't get youth books as deep as these ones were nowadays, nosiree. The guy at the table wasn't exactly...friendly looking. But at least he wasn't trying to make friends with me like the other guy.
And then I saw it. The Escafil Device.
A seemingly simple blue cube, glowing from within. It was this thing that the series was built on, giving the main characters their "morphing abilities". Once they first touched it, they could turn into any animal, provided the fact that they "acquired" the DNA beforehand. It wasn't in a display case, so I took this to mean that picking it up was fair game. The guy gave me a snide grin, and I braced myself for what was most likely going to be his sales pitch.
"Catch your eye? All my wares were made...specifically to order. Perhaps this was made just for you?" I snorted to myself, and started as the cube sent tingly feelings down my arm.
"Whoa, cool, this has a static thing in it? How longs the battery last," I turned the cube over, looking for a set of screws or a little tab door thing." Or...how do you charge it?"
"Don't worry, it should last longer than you would, plus I added a couple nifty features," he drawled, probably just meant the lights or something. "You wont even have to worry about the two hour time limit. My treat."
I laughed to myself, this guy was getting way too into it.
"Okay then, so how...much...is it." I said to the large barn wall before me.
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Gone was the line of tables and people hawking their wares. I was somehow outside, standing a few feet from a barn wall. I could tell it was a barn wall, because it was the stereotypical annoying red that they usually had in cartoons. I will admit I stood there for over a minute, looking back and forth between the cube in my hand and the barn in front of me. Finally I managed to express my emotions and thoughts into a comprehensive sentence worthy of the intellectual that I was.
"What?"
"AAAAGH, MONSTER!!!!" The girlish high pitched scream came from my left , and as I turned I saw a small horse run around the corner out of sight. Maybe a pet? Didn't really explain why the girl yelled out "monster". Maybe she had just seen me pop outta midair? All in all, that little girl was probably my best chance to figuring out what had happened.
"Hey, wait, little girl wait!" I ran as quickly as I could after her, and was shocked by what I saw. Fields upon fields of apple trees, as far as I could tell with a glance. Good god, I wasn't in the city any more.
"There it is, get it brother!" The voice came from my right, and I was barely able to turn towards it till a giant...red thing barreled into me. I'd like to say that I was able to take the hit, and shrug it off, but I'm not so well built. I got knocked out cold.
Next thing I knew, I woke up inside the barn, tied to one of the posts. My hands were secured with a knot that I swear was made explicitly to remove all traces of feeling. I could hear muffled voices from beyond the door, along with the little girl that I had heard earlier. I couldn't think up any good reason for anyone to tie up a stranger in their barn, so I was getting respectably worried. I twisted my body till I was able to shove my hands in my pocket, fishing for my pocket knife. This knot, as good as it was, couldn't hope to stand up to a blade. Half a minute of frenzied sawing later and I managed to get my hands free, returning the circulation. They hadn't taken off my backpack, and thankfully I had managed to tuck my new toy into it before being assaulted by the "village people". Regardless of how badly I messed up that reference. I stalked my way closer to the barn door, picking out what sounded like a heated argument between brother and sister.
"'taint right Big Mac, an you know it! Attackin' random animals simply cause they wandered too close, then tying them up in the barn? The hey is wrong with you big brother?"
"It scared Applebloom, she came tearing around the barn like a pack of timberwolves was after her, I was only trying to protect her."
Big Mac? Applebloom? Random animal? Where the hell was I, that all this wackiness was just content to run around rampant? I sure as heck couldn't stay here, I had to get to a phone so I could call the cops or something. If I stayed here, who knows what these whackos would do to me?
I backed away from the door, letting the angry words beyond die down to a low buzz. Looking around, I tried to find another exit, with little success. In spite of that, I did manage to find a couple of loose boards along the back wall. Pulling them free, I shoved my backpack through. Then I managed to get stuck. I was never exactly the pinnacle of human fitness. But I never thought I was THIS chunky. I finally managed to squirm my way through, just as I hear the barn door squeal open on its hinges.
"Its getting away!" "no brother!" "stay there Applebloom!" I heard from the hole as I ran down the beaten dirt path. If there was a path, it could lead to civilization! I made it about twenty feet before I was tackled, rolling and landing on my back as this big...red horse thing placed a giant hoof on my chest. And following it to stand beside it was an orange horsie. It was then that my mind shut down for a few seconds. I recognized these two! They were characters from that my little pony show my sister loved. It was then everything became clear.
I was dreaming!
That made everything so much better, now that I was lucid I could shift the dream how I wanted! And I knew now just how to start it, seeing as this whole dream had obviously started when I found the animorphs stall. No way anyone besides me would actually have any interest in such an old series. And since I had started by touching the Escafil Device, I knew what to do to make this dream a bit more...fun.
With a wide smile, I reached out and grabbed both of them by the legs and concentrated. It was an odd feeling, but within the realm of dreams I guess everything is an odd feeling. I focused on acquiring both Applejack( I had remembered the name of the orange one) and Big Macintosh's at the same time, trying to copy an event I had read in the books. An alien by the name of Ax(trust me, you don't want to know his full name) had created a hybrid morph of all of his friends. During the process, both Applejack and Big Mac had stiffened, getting a glazed look in their eyes. This part of the dream fit the books well enough. Whenever one of the characters would "acquire" a new morph, it usually ended up with the target becoming lethargic for a limited time, easing the process along. Usually. Some times it resulted in the animal thrashing out of control.
Smiling up at the both of them, I concentrated and started to morph.
~--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~
Applebloom had heard a loud popping sound come from around the side of the barn. She had checked, and there was this weird diamond dog thing just staring at the barn wall. It kept looking back and forth from the glowing cube in its paw to the wall, as if it couldn't decide what it wanted to do.
Then it spoke.
Applebloom panicked, running to her brother. Big Macintosh had kinda gone overboard though, bashing the poor thing into unconsciousness. She had watched as her brother had tied it to a post in the barn "Can't be too careful". She had then watched as her sister came up, asking what was going on. Applejack had blown her top at them both, for overreacting against a creature that so far as she knew hadn't actually shown any aggression. She had actually convinced Big Mac to untie it, but as they opened the barn they saw it squirming out through a couple broken planks in the back wall. The ropes had been cut by something, but that didnt matter.
"Its getting away!" her brother called out, giving chase.
"No brother!" Applebloom yelled, trying to follow. She felt her tail being grasped by her sister, and was summarily dumped back on her flank back in front of the barn.
"Stay there Applebloom!" Applejack told her, rushing off their brother. Applebloom managed to stay put for a whole thirteen seconds, then followed. What she saw astounded her. The diamond dog thing had both her siblings by a leg, but it didn't seem to be hurting them. They were just blankly staring out into space. Then the really weird thing started. The diamond dog things body and clothes started...melting. Twisting. Shifting in color and shape, it started gruesomely changing into...a pony?
After several seconds, it finally stopped, and Applebloom stared in amazement.
It looked like...a female version of her brother?