Noi displayed a very intense focus in learning how to speak. Too intense, even. She was fighting herself every inch of the way, like she was trying to be someone that she couldn’t be. At least, not any more. Apple Bloom tried to stick with her, but was getting so tired of just drill, drill, drill. Noi was getting good at speaking, but she just didn’t trust herself anymore. Whatever she wanted, she refused to do or say. So Apple Bloom may have gotten a little... creative in getting the sergeant to loosen up. Not to say she was conspiring with Scootaloo to criminally distract her or anything, but Apple Bloom was conspiring with Scootaloo to criminally distract her.
“Alright,” Apple Bloom whispered, “So ah go back to working on her zees, and you start makin’ cookies with Sweetie Belle. You don’t have to get ‘em in the oven, just make her feel all left out from making them.”
“Are you sure this will work, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo said skeptically.
“Ah been drilling her for three hours!” Apple Bloom whispered harshly, “Ah’m desperate!”
“Just tell her you need a break!”
“She needs to speak, how can ah deny her that?” Apple Bloom said in frustration, “Could you say no to that face?”
“Better hurry or you’re gonna miss the bathroom, uh...” Scootaloo said loudly, glancing over at the couch where Noi had just emerged, staring over the back at them. “Yeah I’ll figure something out,” she whispered, “Now go.”
Scootaloo trotted off, presumably to find Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom used the facilities. Then she returned to the pony on the couch saying, “Alright Ms. Noi, you wanna work on your z’s?”
“Yesh,” Noi said noncommitally.
“You sure you don’t wanna take a break?” Apple Bloom pleaded.
“I neath to sthpeak I sthound shtupidz,” Noi tried to sound out, mostly succeeding. “Can’ you hthoo anyfing addall?” She looked at Apple Bloom so heart achingly, that Apple Bloom just climbed back onto the couch, and tried to once again teach a pony something she had hardly figured out herself, in a fraction of the time her friends managed to learn it. Sure Noi was working harder, but... even she was looking dazed and out of it, and weary from trying the same thing over and over again.
The sound of laughter began to drift in from outside. It looked like her friends were just out playing, and nothing Apple Bloom wanted more than just to run out and play with them. “Okay, you almost got the hard tee sound,” she said miserably, “Just say ‘to’ an’ don’t let your tongue hit your teeth.”
“Thoo,” Noi said. “Nowai’—thoo. true. No, thooth. No...”
Apple Bloom put her face in her hooves just trying to work it out how she was going to make this a diplomatic solution. Noi might look her age now, but she really was an older lady, and a police officer to boot. She wasn’t as easy to sway as some little kid. Apple Bloom just started describing all the ways to say ‘es’ she’d figured, and their varying levels of effectiveness, but now even Noi wasn’t paying attention. The buttercup colored pony’s ear kept turning towards the wall where Sweetie’s bright laughter rang out as she chased after something Scootaloo kicked to her.
“Listen,” Apple Bloom said flatly, “You’re gonna hafta pay... um...” she looked at the window again, where a football bounced past, two little ponies in hot pursuit. Wait...
“Alright,” Apple Bloom said quickly, “So suh is like zuh, except it ain’t vocalized, but ah think you’re vocalizin’ too soon, before your new mouth can catch up. So ah want you to say ‘so’ real slow, an’ make sure you don’t say like ‘szo’ with a zee in it. Just say ‘so’ slowly over an’ over again. I’ll tell ya when to stop.”
“Szo,” Noi said evenly. She looked frustrated then, and said more slowly “Sssss...zo.”
“Just ‘oh’ then,” Apple Bloom said, “Now try it with me, ohhh...”
“Ohhh...” Noi repeated obediently.
“Now ‘sssss’”
“Sssss...”
“Ohhhh...”
“Ohhhh...”
“Sssss...”
Noi’s head immediately turned at a surprised squeak outside, and the sound of the ball hitting the side of the farm house. Silence, and then more laughter. The buttercup pony, she sighed heavily, all the way deep down in her chest. Frustration, fear, and disappointment.
“Sure sounds like they’re havin’ fun out there,” Apple Bloom said only half insincerely.
“We coul’—” Noi started to say, then cut off, blushing, saying, “I–I can’ hwalk tho goord, so thereth no poin’...tuh.”
“But you can walk some?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully. “Come on, why don’t we give it a try? Ah bet you’ll have fun!”
“Y—ngo. No,” Noi bit out, her ears turning down as she forced her head away from the happy sounds outside. “I’m no’a litthle gurl any hmore. I can thake ith. Jus’ keep thrilling...duh-rilling me,”
“You sure?” Apple Bloom asked sadly.
“We can alwayth go ou’ layther,” she said noncomittally.
“Fine,” Apple Bloom said in exasperation. “Start again then, esssss...”
They continued along those lines just a few more minutes, and then Apple Bloom’s heart sank, because it must have been getting too late to play. Scootaloo and Sweetie came in with a burst of cold, Scootaloo in her own woody colored winter cloak, and Sweetie wrapped up in her fuzzy green dress. Sweetie trotted in behind Scootaloo, saying, “...and that’s how Rarity found out I like adventure movies.”
“Still say the books are better,” Scootaloo insisted, “You can really get into them then and...” she paused and shook her head sadly, exclaiming, “oh, but it’s a shame we can’t play outside anymore. It gets dark so early these days!”
If Apple Bloom was disappointed by that, boy howdy it looked like Noi had dropped her ice cream, after finding out that her puppy had died. “Ith dhark alrea’y?” Noi asked, with a tremble in her voice, a tremble that Apple Bloom had gotten familiar with in her own voice before.
“Ain’t nothing wrong with ya, miss Noi,” Apple Bloom reassured her hastily, “It’s just easier for ponies to—”
“What are you talking about, Scootaloo?” Sweetie then accused her friend critically. “It isn’t going to be dark for another hour! Why did we come inside anyway?”
“Oh, right!” Scootaloo responded with an unabashed smile. “I guess we can go outside and play more, then. It’s cold out there, but it’s really fun. You can go sledding, and make snowmen, and try to find where the ball got buried. And it’s so different as a pony! Don’t you think?”
“Yyyeah?” Sweetie answered cautiously. “I like how I can walk outside without shoes, I guess. It’d be hard if I couldn’t.”
“Totally,” Scootaloo agreed. “Now we don’t have much time left, so let’s make the most out of it!”
“I’ll go get the sled!” Sweetie said happily, carefully walking in a circle, and then running back outside.
“Can—er...” Noi said, staring after her as Scootaloo easily trotted outside. “Can—uhm...”
“Here, c’mon, let me help you get down,” Apple Bloom said, jumping down from the couch and holding out her hoof. “Y’cain’t just be all serious all the time, even if you are a big old police lady. Just give it a shot. You need to learn how to walk just as much as speak, an’ every one of us all talked funny at first, so nobody’s gonna look down on you for it.”
Noi didn’t say anything, didn’t look like she could say anything. Lip trembling somewhere between gratitude and self loathing, Noi reached out one smooth creamy hoof, and Apple Bloom hooked it in hers, pulling the new pony girl hoof by hoof off the couch cushions and down to the ground. Carefully releasing her hoof, Apple Bloom looked critically as Noi brought that hoof under her and stood uncertainly but steadily on her four hooves.
“Well you’re standing,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully. “How much walking have you done?”
“I—a lithle,” Noi said, blushing as she took a few shaky steps forward. “I changthed on Thaturday... stuchk in my houth for two dayth. Didn’ thalk becauth... alone, buth... walkedh.”
“W–why didn’t you come here on Saturday, then?” Apple Bloom exclaimed in worried confusion.
“Didn’ have ‘nnyone look for me, unthil th’ worgk... day,” Noi grumbled, looking aside at imagined workmates and memories of the morning.
Apple Bloom’s ears went a bit down, as she suggested, “Nobody to check on you, on the weekend?”
“Why woul’ anybohy check on me?” Noi asked, looking at Apple Bloom in heartbreaking sincerity.
“Well, you don’t got family?” Apple Bloom suggested uneasily.
Noi blinked at her.
“You rearry don’ hwannah know ‘bout my fhamirly,” Noi declared in a decisive confidence, rolling her oversized eyes and turning her head to look at the door, “Now shuttuf an’ le’ me fink.”
The light yellow pony awkwardly kind of scooted around, and faced the right direction, blushing at her clumsiness, as Apple Bloom couldn’t help but be there watching. She seemed confident on four hooves then, and had clearly gotten over the weirdness of standing up straight with your butt behind you. With a wobble, Noi started a sort of awkward waddle, that swiftly translated into what you’d expect for a pony walking, or a cat, or something between that which didn’t fit either animal.
“S’eashy once y’ge’ vhe hang ohf ith,” Noi mumbled unconvincingly.
Her excitement earlier nonwithstanding, Noi was understandingly hesitant at the first touch of frozen ground on her front hooves. But Apple Bloom didn’t want to lose more of the house’s heat, so she butted Noi from behind, and slid her out into the tenuous chill of the late afternoon, shutting the door securely (and confidently) behind them.
And then it occurred to her that Noi might not be used to getting butted around by a forehead against her butt when she’s a buck naked pony. A sentiment Noi expressed sarcastically, feeling like her whole face was blushing. “Coul’ you kinly stop tushing my bu’?”
“Well, we’re outside alright,” Apple Bloom said loudly, throwing a scarf over the shocked Noi’s neck and wrapping it around with her teeth. “Your hooves can stand up plenty good against cold, and sorry let’s just gofindtheothers,” Apple Bloom mumbled embarassedly, trotting off around the farm house, where Scootaloo and Sweetie were using snowballs to take shots at the side of the house, apparantly trying to hit each other’s previous strike as exactly as possible. Noi just shook her head at the pink bow diminishing away from her. It hadn’t been that embarassing.
“Come over here, Noi!” Apple Bloom called out, attracting all three of their attentions.
“Oka—” Noi said starting to waddle forward, but stepping on her scarf and falling face first into the snow. “Hmpmph!” she protested in alarm, rear hooves pedalling frantically trying and failing to right herself. Apple Bloom gallopped back, and pulled Noi up, and... Noi felt a lot more confident on her hooves, now that someone was there to help her out.
“No’ one worb” Noi told her dangerously, brushing the snow off her face with a hoof, and more carefully walking forward to meet with the others.
Noi perked right up, after she started moving around. She had turned into a pony like Apple Bloom, so Apple Bloom had a better idea what she was going through than either Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo. Scoots was always so hyper and forward focused, and Sweetie just... really understood the value of a quiet moment’s peace, but if there’s one thing Apple Bloom had to characterize of her own experience as a pony, it was that it was just so much dang fun to move around. Just moving, not doing anything special. Feeling your body responding to your footfalls, or, hooffalls she supposed. Turning and shifting, and gallopping around. It just felt great to move, in a way that she couldn’t really share with the other two.
Noi, once she got started, it was like the sun opened up in the clouds, even though the sky stayed steadily grey. She went from grumpy, to surprised, to downright cheerful. It was sort of adorably gratifying, how eager Noi became to copy the motions of the more experienced ponies. She fell over and it didn’t even bother her, just sat there making a game of figuring out how to wiggle around back to her hooves again. Apple Bloom got caught up in that enthusiasm, and they weren’t even pretending to practice anymore. Apple Bloom was running around her and Noi was um... jumping after her, and they were both just laughing themselves silly in bright voices that made the evening less of a dreary time and place.
Not that it was all that huge of a difference. Sweetie was really friendly with Noi, and seemed to enjoy watching her enjoy herself just as much as Noi was enjoying herself. Scootaloo was really challenging in her sort of style, not trying to put yourself above someone else, but as a means of encouragement and excitement. Really she was way better at staying on task than Apple Bloom, who’d been sitting around so long she just wanted to go nuts.
The daylight waned all too quickly, and the four of them made their way back to the farm house. There, Cheerilee poked her head out from behind the doorway to the kitchen, saying, “Oh hello girls, we’re—there’s another one?!” she belted out in surprise.
Noi shrank back.
“You ain’t heard?” Apple Bloom said to the very tall, from her perspective, plum colored lady. Apple Bloom stepped between Cheerilee and Noi, saying, “Golly lady, you shoulda seen it this morning. We were all running around like chickens when Noi here showed up. She just randomly turns into a pony! Only reason she knew to come here is because the police—oh she’s a police sergeant by the way—the police sorta knew about me, from when they thought maybe the farm was a secret ponifying kidnapping operation, and so she came right here!”
Cheerilee blinked at Apple Bloom, gave a weak smile, and then looked at Noi and said, “Oh, well, pleased to meet you miss...Ms... Sergeant Noi.”
“Mish isz ...” Noi started to say quietly, but trailed off into red faced mumbling. She couldn’t meet the much larger woman’s gaze evenly.
Noi didn’t talk much at all beyond that point. The presence of a grownup lady must have been a lot of pressure, so with Cheerilee there towering over the three, now four of them, Noi seemed like she would rather just vanish into the background. It was plain and clear. She didn’t want to be here, not seen like this, in such a vulnerable and alien position. Noi just followed along neutrally when Apple Bloom suggested maybe they should work on hay before dinner, making not much eye contact with even the ponies she saw eye-to-eye with. It was Cheerilee and Big Mac doing the cooking today, so Apple Bloom was sure to know it was gonna be tasty... and well balanced. Not that exciting, but it was always a treat when Cheerilee came over; her presence in a room just seemed to brighten it like day.
The hay was simple enough to teach Noi, though Apple Bloom was starting to get worried. With so many of them little ponies, they were actually almost making it through one entire bale of hay. And they had plenty, for the horses and cows and stuff, but plenty didn’t mean it would replenish itself, not until the grass started growing next year, and shipments started to come in. It was just a stroke of luck that ponies were all so gosh darn little, because the hesitant and squeamish Noi barely added an impact to the pile at all.
There was something of a bathroom crisis going on though. The next day, Apple Bloom had to well, really had to go, and once again someone was using their bathroom. It was Rarity more often than not, but here it was Noi, and how could you complain about that? Apple Bloom really wished she could be human again, because she didn’t exactly know how to cross her legs as a pony!
Anyhow, she managed, with difficulty, but the strain was starting to show on their household. They just didn’t have the facilities with everyone who was coming and staying around these days. Cheerilee and... Rarity oddly enough were bringing in more food, but they couldn’t magically make a bathroom appear out of thin air. And, supernatural resilience aside, Apple Bloom still really didn’t like going outside on a winter night with the chill of frost in the air, to do her business.
Apple Bloom was worried about that, but she was more worried about Noi. Not for Noi’s well being, since that butter colored lady was stubbornly resilient as all get out, but for what Noi had become. Call it self reflection if you will, but Noi wasn’t exactly acting like some big grown up woman, far less a hardened police officer. Even Noi herself seemed confused and surprised by her emotional reactions to things. Apple Bloom had figured out that ponies were all just like that, and Noi was as grown up as any of the rest of them.
But when she looked over beyond the edge of her bed where Noi lay at night, Apple Bloom couldn’t convince herself of that. Noi wasn’t acting like a grown up police lady. She was acting like a kid trying to act like a grown up police lady. Noi stubbornly insisted on sleeping by herself, and none of them had any probem with it, but... Noi sort of did. It just broke Apple Bloom’s heart to hear those childlike whimpers, and even tears as Noi tried to sleep in the lonely, encompassing darkness of her improvised bed spread. Noi didn’t like being alone, at least not anymore. And Apple Bloom really... didn’t know how to make it better for her. Apple Bloom just didn’t know why ponies had to be this way.
It was like they weren’t prepared for any hardship worse than a boo boo or a bad dream. Like they all came out of some kid’s cartoon, where morals were tissue thin and the characters never faced any conflict or strife that couldn’t be fixed with a song. There’s that word again, kid. Apple Bloom... wasn’t supposed to be a little kid, but... neither was Noi. And that made Apple Bloom wonder as she lay there, and worry. She was a big pony, for a pony ...right?
In other news, Twilight Sparkle was panicking, again.
“Who are we going to tell?” she squeaked, “We have to come forward! We can’t make them stagger through this alone.”
Twilight paced back and forth past the dimly lit wall of their latest “unoccupied residence” that Sunset mysteriously knew about, where all the photographs of Apple Bloom, minus the motion capture sequences were hanging. Some had markings on them in red pen, attempting to guess at the magical nature of the time fracture back when it was still localized and measurable.
“This is our fault!” the purple girl declared throwing her arms over her head, “We started this! Our world is corrupting them one by one!”
Spike stood on four doggie paws in the doorway to the room Twilight was in, looking worriedly in her direction. “Twilight—” he started to bark out, but she just interrupted him declaring anxiously,
“Why would they even want our help? We’re just a couple of crazy and completely human girls, and the only thing they would give us is the criminal record that we totally and justifiably deserve!”
“Twilight—” Spike tried again.
“I don’t know why this is happening,” Twilight declared, looking at him yet not looking at him. “I can’t know why this is happening. Even I think I’m crazy!”
“You’re not crazy, Twilight!” Spike protested. But Twilight had already wheeled away from him again, making him whine in frustration.
“The police know?” Twilight asked, ticking off on her fingers, “The police turned into one? I mean, one of their members? Is she alright? Should we talk to her? Should we talk to her superior officer? Should we tell them everyone is going to change into a pony? Should we tell them no one is going to change into a pony? Should we tell them we don’t know how to stop whatever we’ve started? That we started it? About the spiral?”
Spike just shook his head and turned padding out the door that he came through. Twilight continued on unabated.
“They’ll need to severely adjust their food stores,” she pondered feverishly, “They’ll need to change their whole infrastructure. It could be a catastrophe of catastrophic proportions! How are they going to operate their motor vehicles? Can they survive if everypony needs to learn to write again? What about clothing? Humans love clothing so much, and how are they going to sew it before they learn to horn? How are they going to manage the flying issues?”
Sunset Shimmer walked into the room, the flame haired girl leaning on the doorjam, with Spike loping up right at her heels. While he continued to whine with worry, Sunset leaned there looking at Twilight with a lazy disapproval.
“Will the weather stop autoregulating?” Twilight continued heedless of those two, “Will the boundary destabilize? What if it stops autoreifying? We could all starve to death! What if it collapses into a singularity, with us in it? What if
“Twilight!” Sunset bellowed out. Twilight cut off, and looked at her fearfully over her shoulder. “You’re doing it again,” Sunset said in a more normal tone of voice. “Also, dinner’s ready. Instant noodles, your favorite.”
Twilight blinked at her, but Sunset was already turning away walking out of the room.
“They are not my favorite!” Twilight whined angrily, stalking after Sunset Shimmer. “I don’t even like them! They’re just so convenient!”
Being a cop isn’t easy. You had to see some awful things from the rock bottom of society, and from the top? With your responsibility to take care of everyone, and fight crime, there was more misguided bureacracy to keep you in check than there were criminals! Noi thought she was moving up in the world when she got the rank of sergeant, but she spent less time leading her squad and more time taking the heat for them and fighting with paperwork and her superiors to justify the use of force.
Being a cop wasn’t easy, but this year at least had been pretty uneventful. No murders, no major burglary outside of some photo place’s camera equipment. Some domestic violence, but you always had that. Long as parents aren’t accountable, you’ll have that sort of thing. Noi hated it on a personal level, maybe more than other crimes, but after enough times of seeing some hollow eyed kid, or a girl who can’t tell the police anything because she doesn’t want to hurt him, you start accepting it as inevitable.
Noi never meant to be a cop. It was just what she was good at, all she’d ever known really. By the time she figured out you actually had a choice in life, she was already at the top of her class in junior officer’s training, and it was way too late to back out. Not too late to skip town on her parents though, and work the beat in Canterlot instead, heh. She’d send a letter with a return address one of these days. Noi never meant to be a cop, but she was damn good at it, and Canterlot was one of the cleanest cities in the state, so it could have been a lot worse.
Well, now it was a lot worse! After getting home from her desk job disguised as defending justice, Noi had stalked into her crummy apartment, alone as usual. She didn’t really mind being alone. It meant she didn’t have to deal with other people. Compared to keeping those idiots in line back at the station, a little alone time was a welcome relief. Not like she had a choice about it anyway. Her squad were the only people she interacted with, and they saw her more as a taskmaster than a friend.
Plus with her unbearable family, cutting ties with them left Noi with very few options. Sure she made a token effort to go out to a cafe once and a while, but she never could rouse much interest in the men (always men) who paid attention to her. She wasn’t a prude or anything, but... you see enough in the world, and you start getting tired of playing the game. You start wishing for someone you can really connect with, who understands you and accepts you for who you are, not for who you’re dolled up to be. Noi probably should have had her bout of terrible relationships before hitting this point, but she always was ahead of the curve and skipped right to lonely cynicism.
So she walked in the house, heated up a TV dinner and used it the way God intended it to be used. Nothing good was on, so Noi kept watching. Didn’t have anything better to do. She ended up staying up late before she finally decided to head for bed. Noi was up at odd hours during her job, so she rarely slept before midnight even on the weekends. It wasn’t until late that morning, when she pulled her pajamas off her head, that Noi noticed anything was off. It wasn’t until she went to wash her face, that she saw a stern yet confused looking lady there in the bathroom mirror, with the ears of a horse.
“This a... joke?” she said, reaching up to touch one with her hand and ”oh god they’re real!” She snatched her hand away, and stared at her reflection fearfully. There was no sort of joke or prank, or advanced technology, or random circumstance, that could give you movable, conical ears of lightly furred flesh that you could feel being touched. This was... an ear moved. This was impossible!
Noi went for a walk. She... should’ve got in her car and just gone for some isolated location in the hills, but the experience had shaken her, and she didn’t have anywhere picked out to go. Better to be discovered as some half animal mutant at your legal residence, than trespassing on someone’s farm, right? She went for a walk, and the winter weather made it easy to wear a hood, but her animated ears did not like being covered. She had to jam her hands in her pockets and hold them down to stop her own ears from pushing the hood up above her head. She went to the local grocery, with the vague thought of buying survival supplies should she have to hide out for a long period of time. Lots of people were on the city streets, not all of them with thick hoods tight against their head, and none of them with horse ears.
She got like, cereal and stuff, and like... animal stuff, and got back to her apartment with her arms full of shopping bags. She walked in, pushed the door closed behind her, and then proceeded to break down, dropping everything on the floor, and crumpling to her knees, then tearing off her hood and lurching toward the mirror to see if... yep, they were still there. And her ears were even higher on her head, like they were moving somehow. She swore and punched the sink counter, but Noi just didn’t know what to do about any of this. She looked herself over, and that’s when she noticed the tail, and that’s when she noticed it was getting worse.
Who was she gonna call? She didn’t even have her parent’s number. No friends to speak of. She was gonna call her squad and they were going to see her like this? They’d laugh at her! They’d freak! Any credit she had as a superior officer and a human being would go right out the window. They’d lock her up in a facility! Or a zoo! So Noi didn’t call anyone. She just lay there in bed wishing she could cry. And, surprisingly later in the evening, Noi did manage to cry! She was thinking about the worse years she’d seen as a cop in the past, and the one officer who she was close with, who died in the line of duty. Noi would never forget the look on O’Fizzy’s face when his life bled away. It wasn’t angry or serene, just... scared.
Noi hadn’t cried over O’Fizzy in years, but tonight she just couldn’t deal with it. A harbinger of what was to come perhaps. It was... strangely relieving and worrying. She couldn’t cry over what was happening to her, or of how afraid she was about what was going to happen when people noticed she was missing, but that scared face, far in her past? It just broke the dam, and Noi was clutching the pillow with a death grip, crying into it to muffle her wails, not because anyone in nearby apartments would say anything or even care, but just because of the ghosts from her past, the ones who looked down on her with such disgust, whenever she was caught crying.
Sometime after she’d calmed down, Noi realized the pillow was like twice as big as it should have been. And in fact, she was twice as small as she should have been. Wiping her eyes, and looking at her body in fascination, she was barely fitting inside her loosely rumpled clothing, so Noi just took it all off. Not like anyone was going to see her like this, which was a relief because it must have been pretty grotesque. Her fingers were sort of fusing or something, and her legs were ...weird, and her body was all patchy looking. Some of it felt weird and fuzzy. She hobbled off to the bathroom mirror again and good lord but did she ever look like some kind of weird human colored animal now. She had a snout now, not just a nose!
Noi had a ...hard time, but she managed to write a note, barely legible. Basically telling anyone who finds her what happened, if she stopped being able to communicate for some reason. She didn’t really know how these weird horror stories went, more of a classic fantasy fan herself. Knights and princesses and daring rescues and stuff. But there was nothing royal about this at all. Just, inexplicably turning into a ...thing with a muzzle, conical ears, and a short little scruff of a tail.
Noi would think some kind of terrier, if she hadn’t just literally lost her canines. And there was this weird thing with her limbs... well, she just had no idea what she was becoming, or what consequences it would bring. After writing the note, she basically crawled to her bed, and just lay there whimpering morosely, less from what was happening to her, more from the sheer ennui of being able to do literally nothing but hide in her apartment for most of the day. But also for turning into this thing... whatever she was.
It was very clear what situation Noi was in, once she awoke from an uncharacteristically long slumber. Her fingers were all gone! Not just like, stuck together, or paws, but she couldn’t even feel them anymore, just the one! She spent a greater part of Sunday morning trying to figure out how to stand up on her new limbs, before finally figuring out that 1) she has to stand on all fours, 2) she has to stand on her toes, not the heels, not even the balls of her feet, and 3) don’t try to move both feet on one side of your body at the same time, or you’ll fall over sideways. Or, was it feet and arms? Handfeet? Noi’s self image was very confused to say the least.
She made it out of her room finally, and didn’t crawl so much as toddle like some kind of creature on stilts into the bathroom. There, she realized that 4) the bathroom sink is way, way too high, and 5) her nails were clopping against the bathroom tile, like hooves!
...Noi was a bit slow to the draw there. But she got it finally. Some kind of horse thing! She couldn’t get up to the sink to see herself, outside of a brief glimpse of a struggling pony’s face edging up over the counter and then slipping back down with a squeak. Her apartment really didn’t have much in terms of amenities. It was a place for one person to live alone, and didn’t have anything more than that. But now she wished for like, a full length mirror on a door that reached the floor. Or at least a stool.
Speaking of doors, Noi was now trapped in her apartment. Thankfully, she never closed the door to her bedroom... or bathroom, but the front door remained an impassable barrier. What moron invented doorknobs anyway? There was a two story drop out of the window outside, and no balcony. Noi didn’t exactly have anywhere to go, but... it was so frustrating!! Stupid door!
Noi felt fine, as far as being herself, but she wasn’t sure whether she was going to die of boredom. She had literally nothing to do but eat ...things, and try to walk around in circles. She spent a lot of time walking around in circles, and climbing on furniture to get at high things. For a creature without fingers, it was surprisingly easy to climb on things.
At least that caramel chocolate bar she’d eaten yesterday wasn’t bothering her stomach at all. She didn’t even suspect that she’d turn into some kind of horse. What was she supposed to eat now, hay? And how long was she gonna have to be stuck in here? Noi even came at one point to the verge of breaking her window, just to get freaking out of her apartment, but then she saw people below on the street outside, and shrank back, peering out fearfully at the passerbys. No one seemed to see her.
Though she could use a pencil for the keyboard, the computer was completely unusable, since Noi couldn’t figure out how to get the stubborn power button to depress. So, she managed to pull out an old phone book instead, and spent some time just poring through it, trying to find something—anyone she could call to get help for this. But outside of the police, Noi couldn’t find anything, and Noi already wasn’t looking forward to dealing with them.
She hadn’t just changed into a horse. She had changed into like, a little kiddie horse! She actually cried when falling off the doorknob to her apartment and banging her ...knee? It felt like a knee, but she actually cried, and there were actual tears running down her face. Noi didn’t know how to deal with this. She tried to keep her cool, but everything just seemed so much bigger and scarier, and for the first time in decades Noi had to go to sleep with a light on. Because she just... she knew there wasn’t anything in the darkness, but she couldn’t see it!
All things considered, Noi shouldn’t have been surprised when Officer Linky showed up at her door, asking if Noi was alright since she didn’t show up at the dispatch office today. Noi was always on time to work, never late, never absent unless she was desperately ill, and even then it was just to keep other officers from catching it. So when she was rolling a pencil back and forth idly with her new hooves, she shouldn’t have shot straight up in the air, every hair of fur on her spine standing up when there was a knock at the door.
“Sergeant, are you there?” Linky said through the door to her. “Dispatch said something about a shoplifter at the electronics store, and we really could use your input on this. Are you sick?”
“I’ fie, gho hway!” Noi shouted out nervously.
“What?”
She blinked and stared at her own muzzle. Noi realized belatedly that she hadn’t tried to talk yet. “Ugo hway!” she tried again. “Hway!” she said in frustration. Why couldn’t she say it?!
“You sound terrible!” Linky exclaimed sympathetically. “You better stay in if you’ve got that much congestion!”
“No!” Noi said desperately. She gave up trying to hide, at the sheer gripping terror that she might let this one chance to get out of her apartment slip away. “Jus’ hopemfhe gh.. gh... gdoor an’ then, ugo hway!”
“You can’t even open the door?” Linky said urgently. “Have you seen a doctor? I can call a doctor!”
“No!” Noi repeated urgently. “I’ fie! Jus’.... hopen. vhe. gdoor an’...” She fidgeted in place.
“...don’ hlaugh.”
Noi tried to stand there and take it, or... crawl there and take it, but when Linky gave the affirmative and clicked the door open, Noi panicked and zipped back around the doorway to her bedroom, too fast to even realize how she did it. She forced herself to look around the corner, staring in terror at the inconceivably large Linky walking into her inconceivably large apartment.
“Sergeant?” Linky called out, looking around. “Where are you?”
“Hover here,” Noi said, but her voice caught in her throat, and she could barely squeak it out.
“Was that you?” Linky asked unsurely, “I didn’t quite hear, could you—”
“H’over here!” Noi belted out, then clammed up tight. She tried and failed to not quiver as Linky approached. Her fellow officer turned the corner, looked down, and saw Noi looking up at him, eyes full of fear and shame. He regarded her silently, down there in all her tiny little pony glory.
...and then fell over laughing.
Noi wanted to yell at him, but really that kind of reaction wasn’t out of line. So she just blushed furiously and waited for him to calm down. Of the officers in her squad, Noi would have to say she was the closest with Linky. She figured it was all casual flirting on his part, just trying to get in her pants, but he was the one who was genuinely nicest to her, and he was really devoted in his field, having a passion for law enforcement that Noi never managed to summon in herself. Heck, he was the one who came to check on her. She didn’t see any of her other workmates here. Maybe he was kind of special, maybe? Maybe sort of a friend?
Now Noi felt bad for not calling him.
Not that bad though. So she just glared at him, until he calmed down and said,
“Is this some kind of joke? Sergeant, you got me good.” He wasn’t talking to her though, just about her, looking away from Noi around the room. “I know you’re sort of animal colored,” he went on, “But how’d you get a dog that looks exactly like you? And where are you, anyway?”
“I’ here!” Noi told him as best as she could. He glanced over at the pony, long enough that she had his attention, so she continued, slurring out, “I’s thnot a choke! I thurned intho this.” She stomped a hand—foot—hoof and added in tearful frustration, “I’s har’ thoo thalk li’e htis.”
Linky was staring full on at her now. “Ventriloquism?” he tried weakly.
“No!” she declared, looking right back at him, one of the few words she could say it appeared.
His eyes sparked in realization then, and he said, “Oh my god, it happened to you too!”
Noi blinked at him, then narrowed her eyes and said, “esplain.”
Well, a few months ago, there had been some cops from another department it turns out, who went to check out a possible violent incident at the local high school, and the story they came back with was... the stuff for office legend to say the least. Noi regretted not socializing with her fellow officers more, because apparantly they’d been all abuzz about some girl who somehow started changing into an animal. As difficult as it was to make herself understood, Noi immediately demanded to go see this girl, to see if the same thing had happened to them both. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Noi didn’t know how she got roped into staying with this farm family, but it’s not like she had anywhere else to go. Truly she was most surprised that they offered at all. It was the only decent thing to do, and should have been expected, but... it was a kindness Noi wasn’t used to receiving. She felt like she should compensate them somehow, but what could possibly be as valuable as saving her from that awful apartment?
The girl in question had changed, in just about exactly the same way as Noi it turns out. Which made no sense, as Noi never even had slight contact with her directly. Some disease that only certain individuals can contract, and the rest are carriers for? That’s the only explanation Noi could come up with. Not that Noi could explain anything very well, or like, at all. Nobody could understand a word that came out of her unpracticed lips. But this Apple girl was a godsend, because she already knew how to speak as a horse... pony thing, and she knew innumerable other things too.
What Noi, and the whole police department didn’t know, was that Noi wasn’t the second person to transform! Instead, the kid’s two best friends just went pony, like, hardly a month ago. And they didn’t call the police office because... seriously, what are the police supposed to do about this? Well, Noi learned how to talk alright, so she could solidly ream them from ear to ear on what the police can do to stop outbreaks of mysterious diseases, and that they may have endangered the whole city foolishly hiding what happened from law officers. Then Noi got really quiet, because she remembered that she did the same thing, technically. But she thought she got the point across.
It was... really weird being a pony. Noi found herself crying over the littlest thing, where before she’d been too burned out to cry over pretty much anything. It wasn’t just the act though. Her emotions were so confused now, and she felt an insecurity that she hadn’t felt since she was a little girl. She wasn’t as... decisive anymore. Kept looking to others for what to do. She couldn’t do her job anymore, not just for being four legged, because every time a tricky decision came up, she just... started looking for someone to tell her what she should do. Even if she knew the right answer, she just felt so unsure of herself!
The head kid horse herself said that ponies were just like that, and they were all fully grown, for ponies, but Noi had some serious doubts in that regard. She looked even younger than the other three ponies, and they looked pretty young! It was so unnerving how she had to look up to absolutely everyone now, even them, if only just slightly. Apple Bloom said a lot of things, and a lot of things she said were dead on. How to talk, for instance. Noi couldn’t express her gratitude enough for Apple Bloom helping her out there, once it started to stick at any rate. But some notions that kid came up with...
Apple Bloom may have had the best of intentions for all of them, but she had a bit of a big head, and she was awfully naive. Clearly this kid hadn’t been put through the grinder yet. She thought the world was still a sensible place, that nothing happens without a reason, and that on some level everyone truly cares for each other. Noi knew better, but...
It didn’t do her any good to know that anymore. Noi didn’t have any reason to be world weary and cynical anymore. All it did was upset her. Even when the only problem was that she wouldn’t be able to pay her rent check anymore, and would lose the apartment if things kept up like this, Noi ended up crying! Sure it was a crummy situation with no good solution, but it was nothing to cry over! It’s just... she didn’t want to lose her apartment!
So Noi got to be a complete basket case to them, or in a less critical light, a disturbed little girl, who’s seen too much not to be changed by it. But it was like... being the reverse of that little girl. Getting upset like that actually helped, and the more Noi was like this, the less... real her old life seemed. She actually enjoyed just horsing arou—playing around with the other ponies, to the point she was even laughing gleefully when they paid attention to her and encouraged her. She learned to eat hay, an easy skill to learn, but a really difficult one to get comfortable with. She took long walks with her friends—her—yes, her friends, walking all the way to the outskirts of the city, where the bus would have taken them back into Canterlot, if they were human.
Scootaloo seemed to sympathize most with what was going on with Noi, oddly enough. Noi wasn’t sure what it was that she understood, but when Noi had to cry over some silly slight in her past or future, that orange winged pony would come over to her and talk to her about it. Not like, ask her about it, but talk to her about it.
“You look like something’s bothering you. Wanna talk about it?” That’s all Scootaloo would ask. If Noi said no, she’d leave her alone. But when Noi told Scootaloo, that she didn’t even know her parent’s phone number anymore, and she’d been thinking of them and it just made her want to cry, from what they put her through, but also that they weren’t here, Scootaloo would say what she thought. Not asking for details, or interrogating her, but just trying to offer Noi some sort of insight. It was weird, but it worked, and more often than not Noi ended up walking—or—trotting away with a shy smile fighting its way onto her face.
Noi didn’t really connect with the other two quite as well. The Apple Bloom kid you already heard about, and that Sweetie Belle, well she was a delightful little girl, the sort of kid you would want to keep safe from harm. But, she didn’t really know how to deal with Noi, and she said as much. They had a sort of understanding after that. At the very least though, Sweetie Belle made sure all of them were well stocked for clothing, bothering her sister incessantly until Rarity went and cornered Noi to get her fittings, and tried to start making some sort of winter wear for her. Frankly, Noi would have been happy with just a scarf, but once she wrapped up in the fluffy thing that actually had pants sort of, she couldn’t help but feel a bit better about herself.
Heaven knows she could have used some of that feeling, even before she turned into a pony.