//------------------------------// // First Night in Equestria // Story: The Dovahkiin - An Equestrian Prophecy // by Rocky Runner //------------------------------// I can't say much happened after I met the tiny children. What would end up happening is that Yellow Rock suddenly had a 'oh' moment, and excused himself to go make us dinner. It was about right then that I hoped I hadn't been the primary cook around here, and he wasn't the type to burn orange juice. I know in my household, mom and grandma had been the primary chefs, while my dad and gramps would only cook every once in a while. My dad was excellent at making desserts, and my grandpa was a great maker of breakfast. Unfortunately, none of their cooking prowess rubbed off on me. In the meantime, the small children dragged me arou- I mean, I followed them around as they gave me an adorable 'tour' of their house. The house layout wasn't all that complicated. Would be hard to make complicated, given the relatively small side of the place. And if ponies were really about waist high, then it was even smaller. Speaking of size, I found it hard to wrap my head around the possibility that I had just lost nearly half of my height. I had proudly accepted the fact I was taller than most in my family, and I would constantly remind them of this, and would amaze them sometimes with how far I could reach. That part was thanks to my long arms. Height helps too. But now? I was no taller than any pony around, with the exception of the Princesses and Discord (and not to forget various other individuals who I don't really want to name right now). Back onto what I originally was going to explain. The kitchen and living room were downstairs, and you couldn't forget a bathroom as well. Upstairs was the kids room, Yellow Rock's (and apparently 'my') room upstairs, a spare bedroom, and lastly, another bathroom. The kids were about to show me what they had in their rooms when Yellow called from downstairs, something about dinner being ready. I swear the kids were secretly pegasi, since they almost literally flew downstairs. But me? I just walked. Sort of. Going up the stairs hadn't been too much of a problem. The kids had certainly seen to that. But going down them? That was a whole other story. A very short one, because no sooner had I taken a few steps down them that I lost my balance and painfully rolled down them. I let out a groan of pain after landing, which gained the attention of Yellow, who quickly came to see what happened. "Daisy, what are you doing on the ground?" "I fell down the stairs." "How did you manage that?" "I haven't... really mastered... walking yet." "Do you need help getting up?" I almost accepted, but then I realized he could use that to tease me later. I wasn't in the mood, nor ever would be, to be teased. "N-no, I'll be at the table sh-shortly." He nodded in response and then returned to the kitchen. I just laid there, briefly, thinking about how much my body would likely protest any movement. And my speculations were quite correct; it hurt like heck. After probably a minute of agonizing attempts at rising, I managed to get on all fours and limped over to the kitchen, grunting with each breath. Imagine trying to walk with an injured everything while not even having mastered walking quite yet. And you have four legs. And no hands to grab on to anything if you fell. It. Sucks! At that point I was just itching to get even five. Freaking. Seconds of being able to wiggle my fingers and toes. This no-fingers thing was finally beginning to drive me nuts. With divine luck or something like that, I hobbled into the kitchen and took several moments to get myself in a seat, then gave a tired look at what sat on the plate before me. "What's this?" I asked, pointing at what looked like a sandwich. I think. Yellow looked at me with a questioning look before shrugging off whatever was on his mind. "A hayburger." "A hayburger." I repeat, looking down at the thing and observing the contents. I could definitely see the hay... I think that yellowish stuff was the hay. Was that a bit of ketchup at the top? Lettuce at the bottom? That's all I could really make out... Everypony else ate on witho- I did again - without me, while I just stared at the strange thing. I know I was a pony and all now, and so I probably could eat hay... but what did hay even taste like? I couldn't help but think how I might taste it as a human, even though that was very unlikely to be the case as a pony. Or perhaps it would taste like I think it would, and instead of me vomiting as my body rejected it, I would actually enjoy the taste. I was more willing to bet that it wouldn't taste like it would if I ate it as a person. Wait... no, human. I'm sorta a person. I am a person. A... pony person. Whatever. I know what I am on the insi- ... yeah, I know what I am on the literal inside (unfortunately), but mentally I knew I was human-person me. "Are you going to eat the thing or not?" Yellow asked me, and a quick glance at him revealed he was already half finished with his hayburger. "Uh, y-yeah... just... nevermind." I took a gulp as I glanced back down at the food. Well, here goes nothing. I reached down with my neck (man it would take some getting used to, eating like a filthy animal) and reluctantly prepared to take a bite, inching closer every passing moment, until I was in biting distance. I gave a quick lick of my lips before taking a bite of the burger, munching on it seconds later and finding myself surprised... ... that it didn't taste awful. Actually, I hardly tasted it at all. The other ingredients (ketchup, lettuce, and something else) kind of masked whatever flavor the hay might have had. But one thing was certain about the hay; it was chewy. Not very chewy, but kind of as chewy as a perfectly cooked piece of hamburger meat. Probably helped with my herbivorous teeth... I'm sure I'd have plenty of fun times checking those out later. Don't get me wrong, the hayburger was actually good... it just... lacked that wonderful juiciness that is present in hamburgers. Damn, I was really going to miss eating meat. At least I had been able to taste buffalo meat in Michigan's upper peninsula near Whitefish Point before I... before I crashed. No, before Tyler crashed. I always had a bad feeling about that kid. Anyways, buffalo meat beats your run-of-the-mill hamburger meat anyday. And don't get me started on the delicacy that is Whitefish. "Savor your next bite while you're at it, will ya?" Yellow sarcastically said from his seat. I sent him an unamused look before continuing with the hayburger. So, dinner passed and after a while of nothing interesting happening, it was bed time. Of course, I wasn't going to get much needed sleep without something awkward happening, was I? We were all upstairs at that point, the tiny children tucked away by Yellow, something they initially wanted me to do but I weaseled my way out of that one. Then, of course, Yellow entered 'our' room, and quickly prepared it for us. Behold the uncomfortableness that began. He climbed into bed, while I watched from the doorway, and then patted the space next to him with a hoof, looking at me with a- Oh hell no! "You don't mean-" I started. "Come join me in bed, and perhaps we'll find ways to reclaim some of your memories." He said, grinning with a naughty look in his eyes. "Uh, yeah, I'll take the spare bed please." He stared at me blankly for a moment, as if surprised I rejected the offer. "Dude, I ain't sleeping with a stranger." I deadpanned. "Would you have married an utter stranger?" "Well unfortunately for you, I don't 'remember' anything, so you're a stranger right now, and as such I require a separate bed to sleep in." He gave me a cold look, to which I smiled, and quickly he lowered his head and sighed. "You just got out of the hospital too, so I guess you should get a few days to readjust..." Well, at least I wouldn't have to worry about... sleeping with... some guy... bleh! Done talking about that! "Well... goodnight, Yellow." "Goodnight, Daisy. I love ya." Internally, I broke down. Not in tears, but broke down as in DOES-NOT-COMPUTE!!!! That word... love... I knew he meant it nicely but... ack, it almost stings having a complete... stranger... "Yeah, I... I love you to." That there was a horribly forced 'I love you', and I'm surprised he didn't keel over at how forced it was. It was painfully obvious that I didn't think the same way about poor Yellow. I couldn't help but pity him. From what I've heard, Daisy Heart and Yellow Rock loved each other a ton. Obviously, because that's the child-friendly way of saying how they had kids. And then, one day, suddenly this... pony who he's loved for quite some time doesn't remember who he his, what they've done together, and just isn't the same... individual as he's used to. That... probably isn't as bad as being on my end of these troubling times, but I can imagine that he's going to be suffering through this whole ordeal right along with me. I had to keep that in mind; I wasn't the only one suffering through this. It was just a shame that... if I spilled the beans about what's really going on inside my head... I'd probably take a rainbow laser to the face. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating on that point. What's definitely sure to happen is it would traumatize Yellow and his family... and that's so much better than taking a rainbow laser to the face. ... That's sarcasm. I turned and left the room, carefully making my way to the spare bedroom (hooves are terrible things to attempt sneaking with) and making my way over to the bed... and proceeded to look at it with confusion. It was now my brain decided to get all logical and mathematical and calculated several variables together that basically resulted in 'you can not sleep in that bed.' I know that's exactly what position I had been in earlier this day... with my head on the pillow and everything else just... you know. But my brain then chose to tell me that due to the structure of my pony body, it should be physically impossible for me to sleep, let alone lay, in a bed like I had been earlier again. I probably should have broke something laying like that. Or... if not that, then it should at least be extremely unpleasant to sit like that. But then I thought... why do I even give a fuck? Clearly if I wasn't in pain while sitting like that, it's ok to sit like that. So basically I just shrugged off my brain's results, I hopped onto the bed and proceeded to pull the covers back, lay myself in like I normally did back home, then recover myself. After that, I stared aimlessly at the ceiling, finding myself with an inability to fall asleep. I had so much on my mind, then. My brain's always been like that, thinking the things I wish I would think earlier in the day at night, as I'm sure it's that way for most people. Among my thoughts was regret. Regret that I had gone first in that drive and let Tyler do his drive last. I could have avoided all of this. But instead, him and I chose to let a turn-based system determine who drives first and on what day. Regret that I had even gone to that drive that day. Regret I never got to... I never got to tell my mom I loved her because she was at work when I went on that drive. I'd never be in the comforting presence of my best friend, who was master of telling stories. There were a lot of things I would never do or see again, like go on a cruise or visit Hawaii, something my mom and I wanted to do when I got older. Eventually I reached a point where the list I had amassed had overwhelmed me, and I began crying. It was inevitable. I knew it would happen sooner or later. I had to let it all out now, when I could. Well... some of it out. The anger I couldn't release, because that would awaken everypony... and the greater extents of sadness I couldn't release, because then I'd be wailing. Right then, I just sobbed and damped my pillow with tears, curled in a fetal position on my right side... I ended up crying myself to sleep... "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!!" Two childish voices awoke me from slumber, then the air left my body as what must have been two heavy body landed on me. "Bloody hell!" I gasped, followed by the weights rolling off of me, and myself regaining my breath. "What's so important that it demanded I be awoken so abruptly?" I growled. "I don't know," Amber cried, turning and starting for the hallway, "But Daddy said we gotta go!" The two left the room, leaving me to fumble about the semi-damp bedsheets until I face-planted into the floor. Damn, I still had plenty to learn on walking with hooves. Several grumbles and curses later, I had risen to all fours and glanced curiously at the window. Strange, I know sometimes the morning light was somewhat orange, but the light coming in from the shades was... flickering. I mean, like, it was orange, then yellow-orange, then orange again, red-orange, and then the cycle repeated. Making sure not to trip over my... literal... two left... hooves... I made my way over to the shades and, with a tug with my mouth (window shades are quite nasty. I barely kept myself from barfing at the taste.), they came down. I had not expected to see what was outside. The house nearby, and several others, were on fire.