Sigurd felt as if he were floating in a sea of nothingness, everywhere he looked he could see nothing, but an endless white fog.
‘How long have I been here?’ he asked himself as he floated in that fog, ‘I remember, nothing.’
He floated there for bit pondering this when out of the corner of his eye he saw a number of strange objects coming out of the empty whiteness towards him. Squinting his eyes he eventually made out the shapes of multiple miniature horse like creatures that oddly enough seemed to be flying towards him.
The flying horses rapidly flew further into view and Sigurd could see that they were indeed flying and each one sported a pair of wings on their backs.
‘Pegasi?’ questioned Sigurd as the lead pegasi reached his location. Sigurd watched as the creatures started to circle around him like they were predatory birds sizing up there prey.
Seeing them up close Sigurd could now marvel at how beautiful and majestic they were. He watched as they soared over, under, and around him in a carefully coordinated manner.
As he stood and marveled at this he suddenly heard a voice in his mind that seemed to echo all around him, ‘Join us human come and fly with us. Its a lot of fun!’
This startled Sigurd and he looked around frantically trying to find the source of the voice before realizing the pegasi were the ones speaking to him.
‘Fly! but I can’t fly!’ Sigurd thought as he continued to watch them circle him.
‘Yes you can human just follow us.’ ‘Yes follow us human,’ the others chimed in, ‘Follow us home. We’ll have even more fun there!’
Sigurd had to admit it did look kinda fun and he decided to give it a try. Closing his eyes and concentrating Sigurd attempted to will himself forward and much to his surprise he began to feel himself moving foreword. Opening his eyes he could see that he was indeed flying with them and looking up over his shoulder he could see to his astonishment that he had grown his own pair of wings which had sprouted out of his back.
‘That's it, your doing it’ the pegasi around him cheered in excitement, ‘Now come follow us home human, you’ll love it there.’ The pegasi in front of him beckoned him forward with there forehooves.
Sigurd followed the herd of pegasi as they soared through the sky. As he did he felt an overwhelming feeling of warmth from them as if they were welcoming and accepting him as one of their own.
This feeling built inside of him and he began to feel his body changing. Looking down at his hands he watched as the fingers on his hands begun to shrink and merge with the rest of his hands.
This caused Sigurd to panic at first, but the feeling of warmth from the nearby pegasi calmed him and as he changed a feeling of peace swept over him and he closed his eyes focusing on that feeling, ‘it's okay don’t be scared embrace the change. Feel the love we have for you.’
Sigurd’s body began to change swiftly at this point as did the warm peaceful feelings of love he was receiving from the other pegasi. Sigurd had never before felt like this in his entire life this feeling of love and belonging and he happily whinnied in happiness as the transformation finished.
Opening his eyes again he looked down in wonder at his now light green hooves. They felt good and strong hell he felt good all over. He had never felt this good before in his entire life. It was if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders that he never knew he was carrying.
“Welcome home my little pony!”
Sigurd turned his head to the right and saw a new pegasi had joined the group. This one was much larger than the other pegasi and had a horn on its head. Her coat was the purest white he had ever seen and seemed as if it glowed and her mane and tail seemed to ripple in an unseen wind and possessed hues of green, pink and blue.
The new pegasi? smiled warmly at him and motioned downward with her hoof, “Your new home is down there and I can’t wait to show you around.” Her voice sounded motherly and gave Sigurd an overwhelming sense of peace.
Looking down Sigurd saw the whiteness dissipate and below he could see a beautiful white castle with golden trim come into view. All around it beautiful emerald colored forests, crystal clear lakes, and flower covered meadows stretched to the horizon.
Squinting his eyes Sigurd could see other horse creatures some with wings like his, but others with horns on their heads and some with neither all playing together happily, or lounging about talking with each other.
“Isn’t it wonderful my little pony?”
Sigurd turn his attention back to the large white pegasus tears welling up in his eyes, “This is my new home?”
She smiled and nodded, “Yes my little pony I hope you like it.”
Sigurd smiled at her, “Why? why would you do all this for me?”
“Because I love you!”
As tears of joy ran down Sigurd’s face he flew towards the larger pegasus who instinctively pulled him into a hug. Sigurd melted into her embrace as he began to drift out of consciousness. A sense of love and safety overwhelmed him as his world faded to black.
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Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee... “Ahhhh!” <thud>
Sigurd opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on the floor of a hospital room after being awakened by the sound of an alarm.
Without thinking he scrunched his ears down against his head and raised his forehooves attempting to block out the horrible sound, “Too Loud Too LOUD!” It felt as if the sound was echoing in his head and pounding on the inside.
“Stop it please stop it!” The siren continued to bellow uncaring of his pleas. Shutting his eyes Sigurd tried to concentrate on anything besides the horrible sound. His mind drifted wondering how he had gotten here and how long he had been here. As he did he finally became aware of the fact he couldn’t feel his fingers, but before he could pursue this query the alarm finally shut off and the sound abated.
Opening his eyes he breathed a sigh of relief and looked around at his surroundings. The room was pretty unadorned and had a very spartan feel to it. The room consisted of a bed, a chair next to the bed, a full length mirror hanging on the wall opposite of the bed, and a bank of machines Sigurd reasoned must be for monitoring a patient’s vitals.
Turning his attention away from the unremarkable room Sigurd looked down and saw the same light green forehooves he had in his dream. Surprised by this Sigurd quickly wobbled onto his new hooves and with a stumbling gait managed to make his way to the full sized mirror. The reflection that greeted him made him fall onto his haunches in shock and to some extent awe.
Staring back at him was a jungle green colored pony. On its head was a long and flowing mane of candy apple red hair which cascaded off the back of its head and spilled onto his back and seemed to shimmer in the light. This was complemented by a long flowing tail that dragged across the ground a bit. A pair of chocolate brown eyes stared back at him from the mirror and Sigurd felt as if he could lose himself in their gaze.
Looking at his new appearance Sigurd could not help but feel a sense of wonder and joy. He was not sure why he felt this way, but he felt the same sense of peace and happiness that he had experienced in his dream. “I...look amazing!” Giggling like a schoolgirl Sigurd began to twist and flex his new body exploring his new form eagerly.
It was then that Sigurd first noticed the wings on his back. Curious he opened and closed them a bit experimentally and marveled at how beautiful they were. His wings were the same jungle green as his coat but towards the tips of his primaries the color shifted to the candy apple red of his mane and tail.
“This... is... awesome!” he began to laugh happily as he examined his new wings. “I wonder if I’ll be able to fly with things? How cool would that be?”
Sigurd continued to admire himself in the mirror for a few more seconds before he was interrupted by the sound of voices coming from outside followed by footsteps coming in his direction.
“Hang on I think I heard one of them in there.” A split second later a blackmesh soldier wielding a pistol burst into the room and pointed it straight at Sigurd, “Freeze!”
Upon seeing the blackmesh brandish the gun at him Sigurd slipped off his hooves falling to the ground in surprise and tried to back away quickly. “Please don’t shoot me. I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t even know how I got here or why I look like this please don’t hurt me. Please!”
The blackmesh stood there dumbfounded by Sigurd’s behavior. He was clearly an adult pony, but was acting like a frightened child. After a few tense moments the blackmesh remembered that this room belonged to a coma patient and that the patient had been in a coma since age eight.
‘wait a minute is it possible that...it couldn’t be.’ The blackmesh looked down at the cowering pony who had curled up in a corner, “Sigurd...Sigurd Fiore?”
Trembling Sigurd looked up at the soldier and weakly responded, “Ye...yes?”
Then it hit the blackmesh this pony was the coma patient, the PER operatives must have converted him. Lowering his weapon the blackmesh looked down at Sigurd his hard expression softening into a smile, “Sorry about that kid.” He walked over and sat down in the chair putting his gun away, “I thought you were one of the intruders.”
Slowly Sigurd uncurled himself from his ball of terror and carefully got to his hooves, “Intruders?”
The old blackmesh chuckled a bit, “Yeah PER, Ponies for Earth’s Rebirth they attacked the hospital.”
Slowly Sigurd trotted over the the blackmesh, “I see so you you thought I was one of them? Mr. um...?”
“Oh sorry my names Sergeant Murphy blackmesh security detail for Capital Medical Center.” The blackmesh gave him a cheesy salute.
“Security detail you some kind of cop?”
‘Cop?’ it took Murphy a few minutes but eventually he remembered that cops were a sort of security entity that existed in the pre collapse days and that it was their job to enforce the rule of the old US government. “Well I guess you could say I am kinda like a cop, but there haven’t been any actual cops for a long time.”
Sigurd was about to ask him what he meant, but just as he opened his mouth a voice came from outside.
“Sergeant Murphy is everything alright in there?”
“Yeah everythings fine Vallery, however it would appear that our very own Rip Van Winkle has finally woken up and he’s traded his hands for hooves.”
Vallery entered the room and looked at down at the young pony sitting next to Sergeant Murphy and before Sigurd and Murphy could react she immediately squealed and rushed over to Sigurd pulling him into tight hug.
“Oh aren’t you the cutest pony I’ve ever seen! This is a miracle your family was just gonna let you die, but now; oh you can’t even imagine the wonderful life your gonna have!”
Sigurd struggled for air as he nurse held him in her vice like grip. He felt as if the nurse was trying to crush him.
“Vallery put the poor kid down your strangling him to death.”
Vallery quickly pulled Sigurd out of her vice like grip and set him back down, “Whoops sorry its just that...well I’m just so happy for you and your such a cute looking pony.
Sergeant Murphy chuckled, “You think all ponies are cute Vallery.”
Sigurd coughed a bit trying to catch his breath, “Its <cough> alright <cough> what are you guys talking about leave me to die? PER? What’s going on?”
Hearing this both of them fell silent and looked at each other both unsure of what to say. Finally after awkward moments Sergeant Murphy spoke up, “I think you better sit down for this one kid it's a long story.”
“Okay?” Sigurd sat down and nervously looked up at the two humans.
After a few more seconds Vallery finally spoke up, “Sigurd honey, I know this may be difficult for you to take, but you’ve actually been in a coma for the past 50 years.”
Sigurd eyes shot wide open and his pupils shrunk to a pin point, “I’ve what! I’ve been in a coma for 50 years!”
Vallery nodded, “Yes Sigurd I’m afraid so. You see about 50 years ago you were in a terrible accident. A car ran you over as you were crossing an intersection on your bike. Since then you’ve been in a comatose state interspersed by periods where it seemed as though you would regain consciousness, sadly you never did. The only reason you are even standing here now is because your family refused to allow us euthanize you, and since your family is part of the elites they had the power to keep you alive like that indefinitely.
Sigurd took a moment and let it all sink in “50 years! He had been in a coma for 50 years and only now woke up cause he had been turned into one of these “ponies”. ‘what does this all mean,’ Sigurd shook his head in confusion.
“Vallery I think we should hurry up and call the nearby bureau they should be able to help him.” Sergeant Murphy turned and smiled at Sigurd, “Don’t worry kid take your time I know that’s a lot to take in, but don’t worry you're gonna be okay.”
Sigurd looked up and nervously nodded at him, “Thank you.”