Tabitha strode forward with confidence. She knew without doubt that her true destiny lay just ahead. She would become a proper princess and prove all of life itself wrong. There was no forest around her, just a straight road that led her on. Her clothes glittered in the light, fit for royalty. Her hair was cleanly combed and her smile bright.
It was the best day ever, until she felt cold iron slide around her neck without anyone around to put it there. Confusion was the first to come to her. "What affront is this? A princess shouldn't wear something this clunky." Her fingers traced over it. It was no bejeweled collar, but a thick device with a ring for leading. It was more suited for a beast of burden, or a slave, than a princess, and that iron... "Fey princesses should not be wearing cold iron!"
She tried to work her fingers between it and her throat, but there seemed to be no space, and the more she tried, the harder it became to breathe. As she struggled, she began to hear her heart pounding in her ears, the collar pressing too tightly. Her vision swam and she fell to a knee. Her fingers slipped, but the pressure was still there, choking her. She fell to all fours as her fingers started pulling together, forming tough shells. Dirty brown fur swept up from them as her heart thumped in her ears.
A man emerged from the darkness, casually affixing a leash to her collar. "There you are. Stubborn ass, how did you get over here?"
Ass? She was a pony princess! She tried to argue the fact, but all that emerged was a long and hideous bray. The tone of it wore against her mind. It was terrible and ugly, not the charming noises a horse might make.
"Oh? Think you're not?" The man tugged her forward and she stumbled, moving on awkward new hooves as her body became more and more donkey and less woman. She could feel the tufted end of a new tail brushing against the backs of her legs. Where had her clothes gone? "I have it on good authority you're a real ass in all meanings of the word."
Her vision was partially obstructed by a big snout and her new ears twitched towards the man every time he spoke. She was really a donkey, a big ugly one with a big ugly iron collar! "Ah, getting the measure of it? Good. You'll serve me nicely." He tugged at her. "Come on."
She pulled back against him with an angry snort. She was not a donkey, certainly not his!
"Oh, you look like one. You smell like one. You act like one."
Glaring at him as best she could, she stomped at the ground as she saw her pony friends do. She did not act like a donkey!
"You forced them to save your house and get hurt for it. You forced them to take you along when you can't help them. You're stubborn and headstrong. How are you not a stubborn mule?" He pulled her, and they were on a farm instead of the middle of the road. She was in a pen, and the man stood outside the pen, watching her. She wasn't leashed anymore, simply trapped by the space.
"You barely let your husband's body cool before you ran off, and it wasn't much different for the other two, was it?" He crossed his arms. "You didn't even give any of them a child. What use are you? Ah well, donkeys can be useful even if they don't make little donkeys. You'll help pull things along for me, hmm. We'll get work out of you."
Angry and confused, she wanted to blast the man with her newfound power, but she couldn't take any properly princess poses as a donkey. Hell, she was supposed to be a pony princess! She brayed at him, almost honking with every inhale as donkeys are wont to do, but he just laughed at her fury. With every noise she made, his laughter became louder, until he suddenly pulled her forward. When had she become leashed again?
There was a large cart behind her, affixed to her sides, then the pain came. The man swatted her flank with a whip. "Go on, mule. Move!"
She let out a rough cry and tried to move away, but that's just what he wanted. He kept her moving down the path before them. "That's all you're good for, following orders and dumb labor."
A small part of her was ready to give in, if it meant being treated better, but most was not ready for that, and seethed with indignation. She had more to offer than tugging at a cart. She looked back at the man and tried to pull the cart into him. The whole thing tipped, and she ended up on her side as a deafening clatter announced all the goods she had been holding spilling out onto the street. The man raved and shouted with increasing fury. "Damn ass! Do you have any idea how much you've cost me! Maybe you aren't even good for that."
She was back in the pen, and it felt like weeks had gone by quietly. She was abandoned, useless for anything. She reared up and put her forehooves on the fence, trying to peer past it as she called for anyone to come help her be free.
A horse trotted towards her, with glistening mane and lustrous fur. It was larger than her, and pretty in the way horses could be. Where her donkey body was squat and hideous, it was tall and graceful. It snorted at her softly, looking her over. "You couldn't survive on your own," it said with a whicker. "You're too slow. You're too naive. You're too stupid."
The hurtful words drove her back. She was supposed to be a princess of ponies. Why was this one so quick to hurl such loathsome words? "Let me go! I have important things to get done."
"Like? You're just going to make more of a mess for him. He works so hard to keep us all fed and happy, and you messed things up for him. Ungrateful ass, you're fortunate he keeps you in there instead of making a ratty coat out of you."
At least the horse could understand her noises, that was something. She took a step towards it. "Please, I won't make a mess for him. I'll just leave and not bother anyone ever again."
"No one?" The horse raised a brow at her, snorting softly.
Was there no one? There was someone... She looked at the horse again and realized it looked familiar. It was Fast Shadow, but larger, her lustrous pink mane wafting in the wind. "Fast? Please! I want to help the ponies, and be a proper princess, let me free of here."
Fast suddenly kicked at the fence. "Free yourself. Useless ass, always waiting for someone else to come rescue you." She turned away. "We'll be better off without you."
Tabitha was alone again, maybe forever? She stomped the ground. She couldn't accept it, and wouldn't. She looked around for the gate of the enclosure and trotted briskly to it. She could see the latch that held it shut, but it was on the other side of the fence, where a human could reach it easily, but a donkey, less so? Well, she was more or less of a donkey.
She reared up, then wobbled as she pushed off the fence, trying to stand as she had so long ago. How long had she been stuck there? It felt like months. She wobbled dangerously, but she remained upright until everything changed. She fell to all fours on a stage. The audience was clapping and gawking at her. The man was back, dressed as a showman. "Straight from the magical land beyond the Pontyd Forest, see how this equine beast can stand and even speak." He looked to her. "Go ahead, talk for the crowd."
What was going on? "Where am I? What am I doing here?"
The crowd erupted into cheers, clapping wildly. A man thrust a hand out of the crowd. "How much for it?"
"Oh, I wasn't planning to sell," said the showman, waving at Tabitha from head to tail. "Such a magnificent beast? I wouldn't imagine it."
"One hundred platinum coins."
"Sold!"
Tabitha was in a rich man's house, dressed rather well for a donkey. The man that purchased her was seated in a chair, and was petting her slowly. "Of course she wouldn't understand... You're a better wife anyway." Wait, wife?
Tabitha pulled away from the man, and landed on her hands and knees on the first road she had been on. Was she human? She rose to her feet, but almost fell over. She didn't have feet, she had hooves. She felt her ears twisting towards the whispers of others nearby, and a brush of her tail against her back. What was she?!
She broke into an awkward run. Every step made a clop against the stone, until there was no stone, just roots and branches. She was shoving through an unending maze of shrubbery, pulling at her, tearing her clothes, and pricking at her skin, until the pain stopped when she fell into a clearing. The man that had owned her sat there, watching her. "What have you learned?"
She fought back the angry tears that wanted to be free, and shoved her way to her alien-feeling hooves. "You're a real jerk. Stop toying with me!"
He put his hands together and rested his head on them. "I've done nothing but make you see. But just because your eyes are on it, does not mean you have truly witnessed. What have you learned?"
Tabitha put out a hand. "At least tell me you have a mirror."
Silently, he produced a hand mirror and held it to her. She took it with a little nod. "Thanks... How do I know you're not just... playing with me?" The idea that what she'd seen was some kind of trick returned to her as a possibility, as if the grip on her mind was lessening.
Looking at herself, she could see light-blue furred ears dancing on her head. She could twitch them if she tried. Looking behind herself, she had a blond tail. It was a horse's tail, not a donkey. Her legs had receded from their pony-ness, terminating in hooves, but otherwise human. Her clothes were torn and ragged and hideous, but that seemed the lest of her worries. "Turn me back."
"Don't prove me correct." He leaned forward towards her. "Tell me why, don't make me tell you."
It was a challenge, and she scowled at him. "Some... Some forefather of mine, that was the human in the crowd. He bought my foremother, who was... a pony?"
He clapped thrice, each time slow and echoing as he leaned back. "I knew you had it in you. I have not changed you, your blood is just stirred. It will not be put to rest so easily. Live with it." And he was gone, simply removed from the world.
On shaking knees, she re-entered the forest, looking for her friends. They would hopefully understand what was going on, and wouldn't find her too hideous.
At least it was a pony.