//------------------------------// // Drawing an Outline // Story: Stroke of a Digital Brush // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// “I hate mondays.” I grumbled as I sat in class, Bamboo Tablet in hand and pen at the ready. For the past couple of weeks now, I’d been working on a poster for competition. If I won this, I’d go for nationals and possibly score big bucks. That or a lot of high end software. Either worked for me, since they both would make drawing the ponies easier. But at the moment, my pony sketches all lay dormant in a notepad, and I was stuck making a poster describing Kansas. Which if you live here too, you know that it’s not as empty as people claim. Just.... really spread out. “I mean really, why does it have to be every monday that we have to get up for class?” I continued to complain to myself out loud. “Oh quit your whining.” I heard someone call from the other side of the class. “I thought you were a top animator, not a lazy bum!”          I turned in my seat and looked over to find that the culprit was my redheaded classmate, Crystina. “Oh shut it, you! I have every right to be lazy!” She just rolled her eyes and got up to leave the room after saying something to her neighbor. Probably to go to the restroom or something. I was right about having the right to be lazy today though. I hadn’t been able to get a decent night of sleep for the past couple of days. This kind of thing always had a tendency to happen around major events in my life, and the dreams I’d get would usually be related somewhat vaguely. What was it called again? Cleromancy or something? Ah screw it, I’ll google it later.          That being said, I have no idea why I keep dreaming of a gold pegasus in my bedroom mirror, staring at me with a shit eating grin. Like he knows it’s messing with me and it’s giving him a massive troll surge. Seriously, the heck is that supposed to relate to? I know I am a brony, so maybe a big reveal to everyone else that I am one? I mean, I don’t go publicizing it, but I’ll admit. Sure there were those few dozen times I denied everything... mainly in public... and private... okay, so I’m a massive closet Brony that has trouble admitting it to people close to me. Don’t judge me!          I shook my head and focused back on the real world as I looked over at the clock and smiled. Break, the time of getting snacks and talking with others, was almost upon us, and I could go and get an extremely caffeinated drink to keep myself awake. All I had to do was wait a few more minutes and- In that moment, I felt something wash over me and a flash of light cross my vision. I put a hand on my desk as I felt my head swim. My head ended up landing on my tablet, causing the screen to flicker a bit. The last thing I heard before passing out was my teacher saying it was time for break. Of the many ponies in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was the one who almost everyone in town knew. Well, aside from one pink mare in specific of course, but she’s a special case. She was also the friendliest pony that anypony could have the pleasure of meeting. She was the one of the greatest at her special talent, and could feel practically every wave of magic around her. So imagine her surprise when she felt a wave of magic that she found could only be described as, off. Her head looked up from the book she was reading in surprise as she looked around her bedroom, trying to find the source of the disturbance. “Spike, did you feel that?” A young dragon reading a comic book in the corner looked up at her, both curious and confused. “Feel what?” She looked over at the window with a frown. “It was like somepony was...” She stopped herself and shook her head. “Never mind, Spike. It was probably just a mana flux. Nothing to worry about.” The drake only shrugged before flipping a page in his comic. The lavender mare on the other hand, could not stop thinking about the magic she had felt. She looked over at the small dresser next to her bed before levitating a parchment and quill. “Maybe I’ll ask the Princesses about it. I mean, there’s no way they couldn’t have felt something like that.” She paused for a moment and looked out the window, towards the castle that could be seen in the distance. “Right?” Spike flipped through the comic some more. “I’m sure the princesses have everything handled Twilight.” All I could do was look around in confusion and wonder. Everywhere I looked, there would be a mirror floating in the air. Where one would end, another would start and it was to the point that they all formed a dome around me. While the placement would show a reflection to whoever was in the middle, each one’s reflection would be completely different from the rest. In one, I saw a Diamond Dog wearing a green vest, and another that was across the way had a brownish-tan Griffon instead, There was even a Changeling and a yellow Merpony in two of the other mirrors. Pretty much any fantasy creature you could pull from My Little Pony had a representative in the mess, and all of them looked to be male. Every time I moved, so would each one in a way that made sense for their species. It was kinda freaky. Like each one was supposed to be me, if I was suddenly thrown into their claws/hooves/fins/wings?/whatever. The only ones I couldn’t find in the mess were the unicorns, pegasi, or earth ponies. There was even an Alicorn in the mix when I started to look hard enough and spotted the pristine bugger off to the right. It was just him and a lot of MLP species that I happened to know, and a few that I didn't recognize. I could tell that they were from Equestria though. Each one had the same cartoonish appearance as the next. “Where... am I?” I looked down and hummed as the Hippogriff below me mimicked my actions. “This is by far, the most vivid, lucid, and absolutely weird dream I’ve ever had. Of all time.” Or at least... I hope it’s a dream.... please? I looked back up and started to walk forward. Or at least I think I did. It was hard to tell if I was moving at all, what with the reflections moving with me no matter what direction I picked. I’m not sure what, but something was telling me that if I kept going forward, I would find something really important. The feeling proved right, as a final mirror shimmered through a pair of donkey and breezie reflections and drew closer to me. I groaned as I saw the same pegasus from the past week smirking at me again, not bothering to follow through with the mime runtime that he was supposed to be doing along with the others. “You again? Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Just copy my actions like the rest of the reflections darn it!” The pegasus did something unexpected though after I said that. He would have normally remained motionless, but this time, he raised a hoof and tapped the mirror, causing a small crack to form. I found myself unable to move an inch as the crack spread and split across the surface of the mirror. The mirror eventually had so many cracks that it simply shattered from the lack of stability, and instead of a reflection I was greeted with a moving picture. It was like I was looking through a window in reality that was hidden behind it the whole time. “What in the...?” I looked closer, and I could see a pony looking over more crystals and metal pieces than I could shake a stick at. Well, I probably could, but with that many I’d quit before too long cause I’m a lazy bum. As for the pony, I couldn’t really tell what kind of pony it was, but it was definitely from My Little Pony at least. It’s body was obscured by some kind of blackish stain on the image that kept following it. The stain making the pony more of a silhouette than a picture. Didn’t really help that wherever it was was already dark as all heck aside from the glowing crystals. I watched the pony move about the room for a moment, overlooking each and every crystal she could. From the largest to the smallest, not one gem was missed. The pony seemed desperate to find something in the mess. Something specific. I reached out briefly towards the pony, only to feel my hand impact against an unseen canvas. It looked like the dream was stubborn and wouldn’t let me go to Equestria it seems.... Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a dream that let me go there, let alone see it outside of a frame of some kind. Before I could look away, I saw something flash in the image, and I had to stagger back. “Gah! My eyes!” I briefly noted that the flash was similar to what I saw before I passed out and started to dream, but dream pain in my eyes distracted me from the thought rather quickly. My attention was drawn back to the canvas screen when I could barely hear a whisper from the pony as she, if the pitch of the voice was being interpreted right, looked at a small gem, holding onto it with tender care as something sparked within it. “I was right.” The world around me started to shatter after that. From the farthest reflections, I could see a rainbow of zeros and ones break away from the mirrors, before fading upward into oblivion. I looked around in shock and awe before looking back at the image and seeing it had returned to the reflection of the gold pegasus, only this time he was copying the looks of awe and shock that I was showing as he hovered in place. Once every mirror was gone, including the one in front of me that held the pegasus who met my gaze, I felt myself follow them upward into the abyss as my body fell apart into a miasmic code. My head was pounding like no other when I finally woke with a start. I couldn’t suppress a groan as I sat up in my chair and rubbed my face. “Oh god what was that?” I looked around and found the classroom empty of everyone besides me. “Where is...” I looked at the clock on my computer monitor and sighed at the 9:16 it showed. “Great... slept through break. I pass out and nobody gives enough of a darn to make sure I’m fine.” Though I could hardly blame them. It’s not like this was the first time I’d passed out in the middle of class. 3:00 to 2:00 in the morning gaming sessions. Totally worth it. That was one strange as heck dream though... Rather than leave the room and spend what little time remained getting a Root Beer or anything, I just went back to work on the poster I was making for competition. My face-planting episode had triggered the tablet I was using into going spastic, and now I had lines, upon lines, upon lines of rainbow barf covering everything I had been working on for the past hour. “Welp, now I know what was causing the mirror nonsense in dreamland. Let’s see here, Undo... Undo... Undo again... Jesus just how long was I passed out?” Sighing in agitation, I reached over to the side and grabbed my class provided headset. At least they let us listen to music in class, otherwise I’d have gone insane from how quiet it could get. I held the headset off to the side as I opened up Pandora and started flicking through channels. As I pondered through what to listen to, I could have sworn I felt something twitching on my head.  “Hmm... Country, no... Rock, no... Eh, I’ll just find some of The Living Tombstone’s work off of Spotify.” Taking a moment to switch music providers, I brought my headphones up to, well, my head. “And now, to-” I swear, even as I heard the music start up. I did not feel the familiar sensation of having the cushy headphones touching my ear lobes. In fact, all I felt was the headphones pressing against the sides of my skull. “Wut...” Taking the headphones off I brought my hands up to the sides of my head and felt around for what should have been there. I was sorely disappointed. “Where the buck are my ears?” I said as I continued to fully search the sides of my head in the most frantic way possible. I mean, It just shouldn’t have been possible. Ears don’t just disappear any time in the year. They stay on the head, where they are supposed to be! Wait... did I say “buck?” Out of nervousness, I started trying to run my hands through my hair. I flinched though when it felt like one of my fingers dug into my brain. “Ow! What the-” I stopped and gently grabbed at the thin, somewhat furry extensions I had just found coming from my head. After getting feeling from them and being utterly disturbed, I began to blindly rummage for my phone. I quickly brought up the camera app and switched it to self photo mode. As I looked at my picture, my jaw dropped. Barely noticable, were a pair of pointy ears sticking out of my head that looked like they belonged in a cartoon more than my hair. The only reason they were just barely noticeable, was the fact they were the same dirty blonde as the rest of my hair and blended in rather nicely. It was almost to the point that they looked to be made of gold. Cartoony gold, sure, but gold none-the-less. The pain I had felt was apparently me shoving a finger down a newly formed ear canal. “What....” I felt one of them swivel off to the side as I heard the door click open. “Oh sh-!” I quickly threw the headphones on and pulled up my hoodie. As the rest of my class came into the room, I pretended to be at work. Okay, I was working, but not as much as normal. Having a minor panic attack tends to distract you. Damien, my ‘neighbor’ in the seating arrangement, looked over at me when he noticed I had my hood up. “Yo Grent, when did you sew fake ears on your hoody? Looks a little weird on you dude. Was it your sister again, or are you finally coming out about liking ponies?” I paused and reached up to feel the top of my hood, finding small pockets that my new, uh, ears, had fit into perfectly. In that instant a groan of annoyance dragged itself from my throat. It seemed that my sister had made ‘modifications’ to my hoodie. Ones that made it harder to hide what was now on my head. “Dang it Emi...” Damien leaned back and blinked in surprise. “Woah, your sister did a good job man. They actually moved.” All of his chatter was starting to draw the attention of the rest of the class. I silently cursed at myself before rolling my eyes. It was best to keep up the charade at this point. “She probably mangled one of those swerving cat-ear headphones from some anime con or something for the parts. It’d be like her to prank me like this.” Damien shrugged. “Hey, no need to get defensive. Still, even if that’s the case, those are pretty impressive hoodie ears. She’d probably make a fortune selling them online.” I gave him a forced smile. “That’s good to know.” I paused for a moment what I did look at him though. Something seemed off about how he looked. Since when were his eyes blue?... I thought they were brown. I shook off the thought and turned back to my work. Just focus on your work Grent. Everything will be fine.... hopefully. After that, everyone seemed to lose interest and went back to whatever that they were doing. Which was good for me, because that meant they weren’t looking at me anymore. The quiet lasted a little longer, probably about half an hour or so, when my newly relocated ears picked up some chatter from across the room. “Hey, where did Crystina go?” “I think she said she was going to the bathroom. She couldn’t still be in there, could she?” “No, I had to go earlier. She wasn’t in there.” “Then where the heck is she?” “I donno. She’ll show back up eventually though. I mean, it’s not like she can just up and leave the building. She’d have to walk across town to get back to her house... or something like that. I saw her getting dropped off by her mom.” “Alright then. Let’s get back to work. Did you ever figure out how the Clone Stamp works?” “Hold Alt before you click, then click normally after making a selection.” I managed to get the ears to swerve forward, a weird sensation to be made clear, and thought about what I had heard. Odd... but it’s probably not my problem. I’ve got my own issues to deal with. I got up and started heading for the door, stopping only to tell my teacher that I was headed for the restroom. When my classmates had mentioned it, the thought about examining my ears with a mirror sounded better than just that quick glance with the camera phone. It wasn’t all that long before I made it to the men’s room. It was only about thirty feet down the hall to begin with. As soon as I got in, I looked around to see if anyone else was inside. There was someone in a stall, so I’d have to be quick, or wait for them to leave. Ah screw it. I pulled off my hood and took a good long look at the ears, taking note at how they were twitching every now and again as they picked up as much sound as possible. They looked somewhat familiar now that I was getting a better look at them. They were almost identical to how the pony ears were drawn in Equestria Girls, but were made of actual flesh rather than being drawings. More so, they weren’t any color I recognized from a cast of the show, or even a background pony. Now that I think about it, they look almost identical to- My thoughts ground to a halt as I looked over the ears again. For a brief instant, I didn’t see me in the mirror anymore. I saw that damned pegasus again. I pressed a hand to my face and let out an exasperated and somewhat terror filled sigh. “Jees.... How am I going to explain this to everyone?” Yeah Grent. How are ya going to explain that you suddenly have pegasus ears? It’s not like the whole world suddenly has them to and you can go back to hiding in the crowd. Oh, and the whole bit about how you know they belong to a pegasus and not just any equine. I’m sure they would love to hear that too! Oh sod off brain! You’re not helping. I heard the stall dweller I had noticed earlier eep in a rather high pitched voice and I had to pause. “What was... ?” I quickly looked over, nearly jumping out of my skin when I saw Crystina equally frozen in shock as she stared at me. “Crystina!? What the heck are you doing in here!?” She blushed madly before jabbing a finger at me. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here!? This is the girl’s room!” Ladies and Gentlemen, behold the king of the awkward as he summons his most terrifying beast. Silence. “Um...” I awkwardly pointed over to a urinal that was on the wall. “No it ain’t.” She looked over at the receptacle for a moment before blushing furiously. “O-o-oh.... I’ll just... get go-” She slipped and yelped as she fell forward and landed on her face. “Owwwww.....” Now for what I saw next, I must state that while improper to look at the hindquarters of any female without express permission, there are some exceptions. One of which, is that it was hard not to look at the neon blue tail that was coming off of her rear end. Even if it was only down to the middle of her thighs, it held the same kind of cartoonish qualities that my ears did. “Um.... am I seeing things, or do you have a tail?” She clammered to her feet and turned away from me, putting her hands over her tail and attempting to stuff it down the back of her pants, wincing slightly as she did so. “N-no...” I looked away with a blush as she continued to stuff her tail down the back of her pants. I ended up biting my lip a bit before sighing and calming down enough that my new ears perked back up. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but I had been in enough of a panic for them to fold back onto my head. “It’s... not like I’m in a much better position. You can at least hide that better. Even with it being... neon blue.” Crystina glared at me and pointed at my hoodie. “You have a hood to hide those under!” She paused for a moment, before continuing her rant. “And why do you have pony ears anyways!?” I glared back and pointed up. “Yeah. A hood that my sister messed up this morning.” I pulled up the new ears on it to prove my point. “Oh...” She lowered her finger and we both fell into an awkward silence. I rubbed my arm as the silence lingered before sighing. “Well... it seems to me, we might be in the same boat. What with the pony parts and all... yeah...” Her lack of response was so assuring that I felt ecstatic. Well... damn. I just screwed this up grandly. Good going me. Oh screw you. Gladly. Go get us some porn. Or would you like clop instead? I said shut up brain! I’m trying to focus on the problem at hand! The fact that I got dang gum pony ears! You’re right. We wouldn’t even need to get porn anyways. After all, it’s not like you’re currently alone in the men’s room with a girl you’ve had a crush on since classes started. That’s not anything important now, is it? .....God I hate myself sometimes... While I had been in my own mental self-demoralizing rant, Crystina hadn’t said a word and seemed content to just stand there. The silence eventually got to be too much for me and I coughed to clear my throat and get her attention. “I... think it’d be a good idea to, uh, take this conversation outside.” I started to walk to the bathroom’s exit. “I’ll just... make sure the coast it clear.” I peaked out of the room and when I saw that everyone was still in the classrooms, I waved a hand. Once we were both out of the room, we just stood in the hall, not really sure what to do. I ended up just scuffing my foot on the ground a bit while Crystina started fiddling with her hair. “So uh...” “Yep...” And back to silence. Wonderful. I got tired of it once again rather fast this time around and sighed. “Hey... do you have any ideas as to what’s going on?” She shook her head. “N-not really no.” I pursed my lips and looked away. “Well... I have one, but it’s a little crazy.” She looked over at me in both unamusement, and hope. “Er... right. We’ve gone past crazy. So um... did you see a flash of light and feel a push, by any chance? Followed by crazy dreams?” Her eyes widened in surprise before she nodded. “Y-yeah, I did see a flash and almost got knocked over... no dreams though.” She looked behind herself for a moment and grimaced. “It was when I was about to leave the restroom. I had just started to walk away when it knocked me back and I landed on...” She didn’t need to finish that. I had a pretty good idea of what she landed on. I cleared my throat and got her attention away from her hidden tail. “Well, anyways. Uh, since we both seem to have experienced the same, “flashy push” I guess, and suddenly have pony parts sticking out of us...” Her eyes widened with fear and I found myself mentally wincing from the sheer volume of emotion coming from her. If I didn’t know better, it was like she lost all of her shine and just got... duller. Like a gem turning into a rock. “Y-you’re not saying what I think you are... are you?” I looked away from her gaze after that. It was probably the wrong thing to do, but I just couldn’t hold it anymore. I mean, how do you look someone in the eye and tell them that there was a good chance they were loosing their humanity and turning into a pony? A glance at my phone’s clock let me see the time before I ended up sighing again. “Let’s get back to class and... afterwards, maybe I’ll be able to find something out on my computer.” She nodded a bit as her hair drooped over her face. “Yeah... sounds like a plan.” I also gave her a nod and clicked my tongue out of habit. “Welp... alright then, lets head back to class and... I guess I’ll text you if I find out anything?” Crystina nodded again in agreement. Wow, the situation was only getting more depressing by the moment. “Er... can I have your number so I can text you?” I asked with an embarrassed smile, hoping to at least alleviate the mood that hung over the two of us. “It’d uh... be a little hard to send you a message without it.” “I’ll give it to you after class.” She started to walk off to the classroom and I looked after her for a moment before sighing. It’d look weird if I came into the classroom not moments after she did, especially after having been out of class for as long as she had been and looking like she’d been told her parents died. She was already going to get enough crap from our teacher for being out longer than we’re supposed to, and she really didn’t need more on top of that. I sighed and walked in the opposite direction, with the concessions as my destination. “Might as well get something to drink and think with.” As I headed down the halls, I couldn’t help but think about what was going on. I mean, pony ears on my head, Crystina has a pony’s tail, and I actually remember most of that mirror madness dream. Mostly the pegasus and the mystery mare. I pulled my hoodie strings and tightened down the hood around my face. Something down right messed up is going on, that’s for sure.  I briefly checked my phone yet again and saw that the time was 9:56. But first. I need caffeine. Badly. Today is going to be a very long day, and I’ve only been up for 3 hours... As I walked down the halls, I browsed the internet through my phone. I searched for anything that might have related to what was going on, but all I found were ponification stories and what not. While I admit most of them were good reads that I’d already completed or was in the process of reading, they weren’t really helpful when it’s happening to you and not to some random story character. It’s a good thing I got paid last wednesday. I’m going to need a LOT of caffeine. After buying about three bottles of Mountain Dew, stuffing two into my hoodie’s pockets, and browsing through the interwebs on the way back to class, I’d managed to come up with nothing and give myself a massive sugar high. “Great.... I swear if it takes any longer to find any clues to what’s going on, I’m going to have a major freak out, or become diabetic.” When I opened the classroom’s door, I was greeted with a rather unpleasant sound that made my whole body flinch. “Grent Isomeric, just where were you!?” As I nervously turned to face my teacher as she glared through my head and into the wall behind me with how intense it was. All I could do was rub the back of my head and give her a sheepish grin. “Um... getting a drink?” My teacher continued to give me a stern glare before sighing. “Grent, I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you, you need to get some sleep.” She turned back to her computer and looked over at me. “Why don’t you go home and get some rest? You look like you need it and class is almost over anyways.” I slumped a bit and rubbed the back of my head, even as I heard some of the class snickering. “Yeah, I guess.” I paused before pointing over to my computer. “Mind if I get something really fast before I go?” She gave me a nod and I walked over to my desk. I pulled out the keyboard’s shelf and grabbed some paper I had placed there for drawing by hand, before tearing off a piece and writing down my phone number and a message for Crystina to send me hers by text. I also grabbed my keys, considering that I had left the USB that I had attached to them plugged into my computer. As I walked to the front of the room again, I gave the paper to Crystina, who was sitting at her desk again and getting back to her own project. She looked a bit uncomfortable sitting in the chair, but I guess that’s expected when you sit on a tail. What had me more concerned was just how depressed she looked. And that is a weird thought in and of itself. But then again, I have to figure out how to explain pony ears to my mother, and four sisters, even if three of them moved out already. ... I think I just realized how much it can suck being the only guy in a family. Unless there’s a worse situation than pony ears, of course. The only thing I can think of would be getting turned into a full blown pony before finding a way to change back to normal! ... ... ... And I just jinxed myself, didn't’ I? The drive home took me about an hour and a half. It combined with my current pony ear problem really made me glad that I was 19 and out of High School. I don’t think I would have been able to hide these stupid ears for much longer. Sure, the hoodie was a good idea at first, but after driving for the good portion of an hour, the fabric was itching like crazy and I felt like something was eating me alive from the head down. Maybe this is how those chocolate rabbits and gummy bears feel. I got out of my truck and pulled my hood back up as I walked up to the house. If my family was being normal, this was going to be a headache. “Please be one of those off days.... please.” If that deranged little 16 year old is not working on her classes, I will flip my shist. I got up to the front door and quietly got inside as fast as I could. I peeked down one hall, spotting nobody, before looking in the other direction. A quick glance around our fireplace showed that the only occupant of the livingroom was our welsh corgi, Cricket, who was sleeping on the couch. “Huh... I wonder where they w-” “OH MY GOD I’M A UNICOOOOOOOORN!~” The shrill shriek of emotion that came from the bathroom made both me and Cricket jump in surprise. I looked over just as the bathroom door burst open and my sister Emi came rushing out giggling like mad. I wouldn’t have been as afraid of this on any normal occasion, because she would get overly excited about pretty much anything and it had eventually become routine to avoid her rampant charge. But considering the three inch, tomato red unicorn horn that was sticking out of her curly brown hair, it made the thought of her barreling into me very worrisome. Thankfully, she skid to a halt about a foot away from me, and not an inch further, sparing me from impalement. “Oh, hey Grent! Guess what?” You’re cutting it close with your rampant charge of death? “I... uh...” She stepped back and reached her arms up towards the ceiling with maniacal glee. “I HAVE THE POWER!” The two of us stood there for a moment before she straightened up and poked at her horn. “Now if only I could get it to work.... though I can cross off He-man tactics now!” She hummed and rubbed her chin, looking up at the horn crosseyed. “Maybe if I go with Jedi training instead.” I just pointed at her head dumbly before shakily asking. “Emi... why do you have a horn?” She paused for a moment before smiling. “Oh yeah! A couple of hours ago, I saw this big flash of light and was all like ‘Woah what was that’ before I felt something push me back into my chair and I rolled around my room for a bit with Cricket before getting back to my school work for a while than about five minutes ago I had to go to the bathroom so I did and I looked into the mirror when I was washing my hands and was all ‘LE GASP’ before shouting that I was a unicorn like my OC Maximato and I ran out here, found you and here we are!” I stared at her unblinking for a moment, trying to comprehend what she had just said... and find where the spaces were in that sentence. “Wait... so you’re telling me, that you didn’t notice a horn sticking out of your head for three whole hours!?” She just smiled widely. “Nope! More importantly though, I only said a couple hours. How did you know it was three?” I reached up to run my hands through my hair as I tried to come up with a logical excuse. She would be the only one who wasn’t panicking like crazy about this kind of thing and notice a slip like that. I mean, she’s more excitable than Pinkie and probably just as devious. Or at least I think she is just as excitable. Hard to compare. Oh man, this entire day has been nothing but a recipie for- “Hey, when did you get the new ears?” ... Disaster. “Um....” I pulled my hood back up after my hair ringing had knocked it down. Clever little sneak. You know I do that when nervous and used it against me. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Denial is best defence. She scrunched her face before going wide eyed and gasping. “Grent, how could you!” I blinked a bit in confusion as I reeled my head back to avoid getting poked in the eye. “Huh?” She started to glare at me and wagged her finger like a disapproving mother. “You made an OC without telling me!? I thought you Pinkie Promised you would tell me when you did!” ... “Wait, what?” Emi sighed as she rolled her eyes. “Well if I’m turning into my OC Maximato, as shown by my gloriously magical tomato horn, they by cross examination along with other forms of deduction and logic, that means you are turning into your OC as told by your golden ears of justice! An OC of justice which you didn’t tell me about even after I made you Pinkie Promise!” I stared at her for a moment before my face scrunched in confusion. “Wh....What kind of logic is that!? I don’t even have an OC!” She crossed her arms and cranked up the sass. “Then explain the ears, bub!” I groaned and finally snapped after all of the crap. “I would like to find that out myself! One moment I’m in class doing just fine, the next I’m having acid dreams and growing pony ears!” I stormed past her shocked face and towards my room. “Now if you'll excuse me, I need to research what the hell is going on!” The moment I got inside my room, I slammed the door shut and hopped onto my computer. Was it immature to do? Yes. Did I care at the moment? Not a damn bit. I opened up my internet browser and started my search again. Maybe this time I’d find something. I clicked on every link I found, going through stories, troll posts, and rampant YouTube threads in video comments. I spent untold hours just browsing through all of it, and I was getting a headache from it all. A knock on the door broke me from my single minded focus. “What.” The door creaked open and I could see Emi on the other side. “Grent? Is it alright if I come in?” I groaned a bit before waving a hand. “Fine, go ahead.” She stepped inside and shuffled nervously next to my seat. “What do you want.” Emi winced a bit before looking over at me. “I... I’m sorry for getting on your nerves earlier...” I was silent at first, but another trait that my sister and Pinkie seemed to share, was the inability to stay mad at them. “It’s alright sis. I’m sorry too, for snapping at you I mean.” Emi smiled a bit at that before leaning over my shoulder. “So, did you find anything?” I sighed and she must have noticed my disappointment. “Unfortunately, no. I’m still going through a lot of the results an-” I stopped mid sentence and looked at the link that came up on the forty third search page’s top result. “Hey, this one looks like it might be helpful.” I clicked on the link, and was greeted by a webpage dedicated to explaining what was going on apparently. According to the article it featured, this entire fiasco was caused by two idiots that were now hosting a convention for all who were affected somewhere in Chicago, Illinois. Halfway across the nation. “Welp.... That’s just great. How the heck are we getting to Chicago?” Emi pouted and slumped over my shoulders, resting her chin on my head and splaying my ears. “I have no idea. First we’d need to talk to Mom about this considering you’re still in sch-.” My train of thought stopped as I realized something right then. “Emi... Where’s mom?” Emi blinked a few times before facepalming. “Oh I can’t believe I forgot! Mom told me to tell you that she went to Sam’s to stock up on food.” Oh... that explains a lot. The closest Sam’s was over fifty miles away, and mom had a tendency to go on shopping sprees. “What time is it?” Emi squinted at the monitor, leaning further over my head and making it to where I couldn’t see anything. “It’s...two, thirty five.” I sighed a bit in relief. “Alright then, that gives us about another hour to figure out how to tell mom about the whole pony thing.” The two of us were silent after Emi got back into her own seat and had grabbed some paper. “So..... any ideas?” I thought about it for a moment before coming to a quick and decisive answer. “Nope.”