//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Ch-ch-ch-changes! 
// Story: A New Life, or an Old Strife? 
// by Chrome Masquerade 
//------------------------------//

The next morning I went to shower, only to notice my eyes had changed colour. This wasn't unusual for me. My eye colour changed with everything I wore, so I said, “Hmm. Blue today.” and passed it off as nothing.

One shower later I went down, to the smell of breakfast. By the smell of it, a hearty one! Bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes, apple juice... wait, I could never smell apple juice from a distance like this before. Meh.

It turned out that Ashlyn, the ex-vegan, was cooking. When I asked she said, “It's the least I could do since you took the trouble to make supper.”

I was about to argue, but stopped. Ashlyn was one of 'those' women. You know, the kind that won't change their mind on matters. If you let her sit with an idea, she'd never let go of it. So I simply nodded and said, “Appreciated.”

“By the way, since when did you have blue eyes?”

“Since I put on this shirt? Why?”

“No real reason. I just noticed that mine seem to be cyan today.”

That stopped me. “That's... not a naturally occurring eye colour, Ash.”

She dropped the spatula she was holding. “What?”

“Blue yes, green yes, but not cyan!”
She was silent for a long moment.

“Uh... Ash? Pancakes?”
That snapped her out of it in time for the pancakes in the pan to avoid being burnt.

“Sorry Zenith. It's just... something seems... wrong here.”

As if on cue, Zack came down. “Okay, who dyed my hair?”

Sure enough, there he was, his usually blonde hair now mostly a light gold, slowly becoming blue with purplish highlights. 
Ashlyn and I looked at each other and checked ours. Sure enough, I had blue streaks in mine. Ashlyn's was now chestnut browns.
“Think it's a coincidence NOW, Z?” she sneered at me.

I defended myself, “Hey, I didn't hear a more logical explanation from any of you.”

Suddenly we noticed Aaron sitting in one chair, smiling smugly, his usually hazel eyes now a shade of hunter green. We just shrugged. That was Aaron for you. If he wanted you to see him he was as obvious as a tree in a townhouse. If not, you would never find him.

“If the over-reacting is done for now, shall we eat?”

He was also kind of a troll sometimes.

Either way, breakfast was served. When we were all eating we simultaneously heard a ripping sound. We paused in our eating, eyes wide. We excused ourselves and went to our respective rooms. I discovered that I had grown a tail and hadn't noticed! It was a two toned blue.

When we ran back out, we were all looking incredulous. (partially because our eyes were 30% larger than they were before, not that we noticed.) Aaron and Ralph had furry ears on top of their heads. Zack, Ashlyn, Laurel and I all had tails the same colour as our hair was quickly becoming.

Ashlyn most of all seemed like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. “This. Is. Not. RIIIIIIIGHT!!!” she shouted. On an impulse I hugged her and she noticeably calmed down.

“I'm okay. (pant) I'm okay.” she said, more calmly. I hugged her a little more, just in case.

“We're turnin' inta horses, man!” Ralph said, his hands on his head.

“Ponies.” I reflexively corrected, then put my hand on my mouth. I had just spoken in a girl's voice!

“Eek?” was all I could say, my friends staring at me.

Laurel, however, seemed overjoyed. “To quote a particular poly-chromatic pegasus, “Ooooohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” This is, like, every Brony's wet dream!” she exclaimed, proceeding to do the Caramelldansen around us.

Zack said, “To once again paraphrase the previously penned polychromatic pegasus, “I... don't know if it's EVERY Brony's dream.””

“Look.” I said reasonably, straining to keep to my regular voice, “We're gonna need to get outta here right quick! My grandparents left an estate for me in the will. We should pack up, leave and go on a shopping spree.” Suddenly we completed the inverse changes, Aaron and Zack's pants ripping. “Before it's too late!” I finished.

A quick packing up later, we had a list and some idea of what we wanted to get. I noted that something was missing.
“Protein.”

“Uh... dude, we're turning into equine creatures. You know, vegetarians?”

Without my bidding not one, but two video clips appeared beside me. 



With that the second clip closed. “Uh... well.... there you have it. As long as it's nothing that was sentient in Equestria, we should be fine.” I finished awkwardly as meat was added to the list, a couple of my buds gulping.
As I was walking out, I went over to Ashlyn and said, “Vegetarianism. Busted.” and went out the door.

A short drive later we were at the mall nearby. I gave directions. “Okay, accounts pooled we have a $5000 budget. Each group.” their eyes widened. “I'm not sure if you noticed but soon we won't even be able to show ourselves in public. We need to do this NOW, get as much as we can. NOW. Aaron, Ashlyn, you're on food. Laurel, Zack, you're on essentials. I'm talking hygiene, pony friendly tools, anything we could really use. Laurel and I will be looking for medicine and such.”

“Who put you in charge?” Ashlyn queried.

“Have any better ideas? Didn't think so. This is a race against the clock, as well as our own bodies, everypony!” I put a hand to my mouth. “I mean, everybody. We reconvene in one hour. Remember. Hoods up. Okay? Break!”