The Little Metamorphosis

by Haliton

Chapter 1

When Jonathan Smith awoke one morning after a night of unsettling dreams, he found himself changed into what was surely among the strangest of creatures.

In his morning stupor, the first thing he noticed was that his arms were significantly stiffer and heavier than they used to be, even the worst of morning aches could not make them feel like this. Either way, he needed his glasses if he was to function, but just as he realised his vision was perfect he noticed that he no longer had fingers, but odd rounded ends that were strangely supple, despite being shaped like hooves.

"How about I just forget this travesty of a dream and go back to sleep," he thought, but then he realised his bed was not beneath him, nor was he even in his cramped bedroom. He was in a large field, with a settlement of some kind visible in the distance, basked in the rays of the rising sun. He tried getting up, but his legs no longer had the strength to support him, forcing him on all fours which he found remarkably comfortable in this state, as if it were meant to be so.

Still, the morning sun left him quite depressed. "How am I ever going to go to work today?" he thought. Ignoring the fact that he was probably late already, Jonathan did not think he could handle paperwork without digits on his limbs. He thought about how difficult it would be to even use his desk as he was, until finally he stopped thinking and decided it would be best to find some way out of this mess as quickly as possible.

Walking on all fours as he set off for the settlement in the distance proved to be a difficult task for him. Fighting his urge to stand on his two hind legs and suffer a fall, he allowed the comfort of quadrupedal motion to overcome him, slowly accepting that this was how he had to walk now, at least until he figured a way to resolve this disaster. Hopefully, the inhabitants would be able to cure whatever blight had made him like this, send him home and back to his comfortable routine of work, home and perhaps on special days the occasional ice-cream, whenever had had saved up enough for some.

Of course, much of his hopes were crushed when the first thing he noticed about the inhabitants was that they all appeared similar to himself, he found out just as he got close to the settlement. He thought again, perhaps they might be able to help him after all, but how they'd react was something he could not predict. With all the time he spent fretting over just what to do, he gave one of them time enough to notice and head towards him.

Jonathan had a few seconds to react, to either flee or stand his ground. As he was, he could not really make a decision of that magnitude, and all he could do was hope that someone would write him a good epitaph while he remained rooted where he was, still quite ensure what he should do. The thing bounding towards him was pink almost entirely, save for its blue eyes and a image of blue and yellow balloons on either side of its hind legs, and just as he was regretting never having tried skydiving before his end it stopped, and asked "Hi there! What's your name?"

Jonathan, trying to make sense of the situation, decided that even despite his disdain for advertisement mascots, he needed whatever help he could get. "I'm, ah, Jonathan Smith", he managed to speak. "But where am I?"

"Ponyville, silly! And my name's Pinkie Pie!" exclaimed the pink thing, while bounding around him. Jonathan wondered how he had come across such an amusement park in the middle of nowhere, and tried to explain that he would very much like to go home, but the pink thing was insistent on a party being the "best way to introduce you to Ponyville!" Jonathan tried to assert that he was uninterested in what it was marketing and that he would like a directory of some kind, but it was an exercise in futility.

He never really liked parties, but here there was nothing much Jonathan could do but follow Pinkie Pie as she handed out invitations and prepared, all the while exchanging strange looks with the other 'ponies', as he soon learned they were called. Though there were varying degrees of enthusiasm to being handed their invitations, the large majority of them were unified in their apprehension of him, as though he were lacking something despite being identical in appearance. Before he knew it, he was in the middle of booming party, quite unsure what to even do or how much he would be charged for it. But no, as he was assured, it was done entirely out of goodwill and he would not need to pay a cent.

"So, anyway, we're all here to celebrate our newcomer to Ponyville! Everyone, give it up for Jonathan!" announced Pinkie as she dragged him to the center of the room, with no regard for his bewilderment as many eyes fell upon him. Some of his surveyors were welcoming and cheered, but others were more reserved, scanning him thoroughly as if he were an exhibit to be critiqued. Just as Jonathan had quite enough of this and moved to back away, a viewer had the decency to exclaim "Where's his cutie mark?" which allowed the excruciating anxiety of the crowd to mature into, at least, murmurs. Johnathan had no idea what a cutie mark was, but at least he had some idea as to what exactly it was about him that aroused so much suspicion.

“Oh my gosh! That’s right, you don’t have a cutie mark!” cried Pinkie, after a few moments of examining his back sides. Only now did Jonathan notice that while every other creature here had some kind of branding upon their flanks, he alone had one absolutely spotless. He was no expert on culture of any sort, but he did wonder for a bit if it were akin to being a black Klansman, until yet another gracious onlooker called out “Maybe he just hasn’t found his special talent yet?” which seemed to satisfy the crowd that had been inching towards panic.

“In that case, why don’t you try out all sorts of things while you stay in Ponyville? Once you find somewhere to stay, we can work out where your special talent might be!” Pinkie’s anxiety quickly resolved itself as she spoke, whereupon she proceeded to bound around Jonathan, leaving him confused as ever but at least assured that he was not, after all, a Klansman whose negro identity had been uncovered. The general atmosphere of the party lightened up once more, and he was now beset by offers of work to discover exactly what his ‘special talent’ was, though he did not think his previous and possibly future affairs as a paper-pusher needed any particular talent. An innkeeper creature offered him board as well, which would be free for a week, after which his earnings from intern work would need to pay. Soon, his week’s schedule had been filled up with offers, though he was still quite disappointed that no one offered to revert him to a human and take him home.

The party itself ended on a fine note, with Pinkie bidding him farewell while a purple friend of hers gave him some guides to this particular locale, ‘Ponyville’, which upon inspection had him realise that it was not, after all, a theme park of any sort. The innkeeper lead him to his lodgings through town, while insisting that she had no idea what a telephone was - it would only occur to Jonathan then that a telephone would be quite difficult to manipulate without digits. Through quaintly idyllic architecture and roadwork, he eventually arrived at the “Daffodil House”, an inn following the idyllic architectural style that many of the buildings here displayed. Johnathan, mind filled only with thoughts of getting to his room and having some time to himself, paid it no mind other than a comment on how unique it was.

In truth, he was quite afraid about obtaining his ‘cutie mark’ once whatever his special talent would be was discovered, Johnathan thought as he collapsed to the floor of his room and let the day sink in, for he had both a fear of branding irons and needles - he always found cattle branding rather gruesome, and he had refused tattoos for this. Still, he needed to work if he ended up staying here longer than he wanted, and he needed that brand to stop the quite disconcerting stares. Once he was done letting his fatigue seep into the carpeting, he surveyed his surroundings - the room was of a good size, enough for a bed, desk, wardrobe and a few other pieces of furniture and ornaments here and there - all making his room quite cozy.

Among the furniture was a mirror, allowing Jonathan to take a good look at his new form for the first time. His hair and eyes no longer had the dark colours they used to be, his hair was now a light blue, his eyes bright yellow, and the rest of his body a shade of white, the only colour he could be comfortable with. His other features were quite similar to the male specimens he had seen earlier - sharper and more defined than what were apparently females in general.

"How ridiculous I shall look," he thought "If I were to be seen like this!" Even if the form he held now seemed to give him some strange sense of familiarity, it would simply not do if he wanted to go home and live as he was, nothing would be accommodating. It was very simple what he had to do, then - go along with the plans laid out for him, settle down in some way and hope there would be a way back, that was all there was to it. He wouldn't stay a second longer than necessary.

Satisfied, with surprising ease he got onto the bed, having only seconds to marvel in its comfort before he fell asleep.

Comments

[Suomibrony]

Hmm, I shall keep an eye on where this goes...

[shira]

Not quite as good as your usual stuff. The whole thing felt disjointed, like there was very little rhyme or reason to the chapter.

I'm kind of surprised BDNF, I usually love your work.

[Haliton]

This is no waifufic, so don't expect the same. It's a pretty experimental piece.

[shira]

207652

Fair enough. At the same time though I admit I've been wanting you to do a proper OC + Twilight romance for a while. No one ever does Twilight justice like you do . I absolutely hate 2nd person but I love your stories (I always replace the "you" parts with random nameless protagonist A).

If I had to really try and pick out some criticisms for the first chapter I would probably pick flow and characterization as the sticking points. John is pretty much a piece of cardboard for all I can relate to him. He got turned into a pony! Every person would react differently but I was extremely put off by his almost completely ignoring that fact. If I woke up as a talking pony tomorrow you can bet I'd have more of a reaction than "meh."

Then he follows around as she hands out invitations...that just seems so weird to me.

I'm going to need to think about more why this turns me off it after one chapter. Maybe "why" is the right question. I don't...feel anything after the first part, I know nothing about John, I don't understand his reactions, really I could care less about him as a character. Maybe the question is "Why is he even here?"

Trying to give something constructive for you to use

[Haliton]

Proper OC + Twi? Considering the ideas I have for future fics, the current one will eventually become one, if it isn't already.

As for your comments, I'm sure the next few chapters might address them.