Brush and Face the Mane

by Kaas

You can call me LD

3. You can call me LD

I was in a dark library filled with endless rows of bookcases. In the distance I could see a faint light glowing. I walked a little further towards the light and a desk became visible. There was a dusty book on the desk and as I approached it, the book flipped open by itself. I could read a few words on the pages, even though there was only a dim light. “Five score, mind, chaos, human” were the only words I could recognize, the rest of the lines were gibberish. Here were only a few words but they still made me very nervous. Suddenly I got the feeling that something bad could happen any moment and I looked anxiously around me. The darkness made it seem like the shelves were leaning towards me. I needed to leave this building now! Everything in the room seemed harmful. I sprinted out of the room paying no attention to the book that was floating behind me.

It was only slightly brighter outside. There were no streetlights, but the moon and stars shone brightly enough. It was a big difference from the dusty library but my anxious feeling remained. What did I have to do to put my mind to rest? I didn’t know what the source was of this unpleasant feeling, only that it was related to those words.

In the distance, a flash of light became visible. It looked like it was shot at me. I tried to outrun it, but it was much faster than me. Just before it was about to hit me, a green and yellowish aura reflected it. The aura gave me a feeling that I was safe instead of the nervous feeling I was experiencing. I slowed my pace and looked behind me. The anxious feeling returned as soon as I saw that the aura had faded away with another shot of that beam. Suddenly I heard a maniacal laughter close by. My mind told me to run, but it was no use. No matter how far I ran in any direction, the laughter seemed to be everywhere, surrounding me. The bright light came again – but it didn’t hit me, it enveloped me, making me dizzy and sleepy. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth. I couldn’t fight the sleepiness and my eyes were slowly forced shut.

I woke up with a start, breathing heavily. I sat a few seconds upright in bed before I realized I was laying in my bed. This was one of the scariest nightmares I ever had. The whole dream seemed so real. My mind was still filled with feelings of fear. I looked around my room. There was nothing out of ordinary about it, just the messy ponified room as always. There was no creepy light that was chasing me, only a little sunshine that was shining through the curtains.

The only thing that was off was the empty sleeping pad next to my bed. Lucy wasn’t the person to awaken early. If she didn’t set an alarm she could easily sleep for ten hours per night. I looked at my phone to see it was only half past nine. She should have laid there on the pad snoring, considering that we went to bed somewhat after midnight. I wondered where she would be.

Almost on cue, she walked into the room with two plates of pancakes. I only now noticed that it smelled very nice in the room. The sweet scent drove the feelings of the nightmare back to the crypts of my mind. Lucy was wearing one of my hoodies which was odd, considering it was too big for her. On top of that, it was May and it was appropriate weather to wear shirts. It didn’t do a very good job hiding her hair as her saffron hairs were still visible.

“Hey, good morning Nate. I knew I heard something,” she said while she offered me one of the plates on which three pancakes were piled.

“Uhm… good morning.” I gave her a strange look. “Did I make that much noise?” I moved to the edge of my bed. I had only been awake for several minutes and I was still in my pajamas, but I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth in these pancakes. They looked delicious and I was quite hungry. I didn’t bother to dress up first; I wanted to take a shower anyway.

“Well I think I heard it because of, how should I put it, without you freaking out? Well there is no use in hiding this.”
She slowly removed the hood of the sweatshirt, revealing two greenish ears poking out of her mane which was messy because of the hood. “I think this is why I hear so well.”

I stared at them with my jaw dropped while I slowly moved my hand to the top of my head behind my temples. My fork fell out of my other hand when I touched a fluffy thing poking out of my head. From what I felt it could be fluffy brain slug, but I still thought rationally. It had to be the same thing as Lucy had, but this one was probably blue.

“Oh you’ve got to be KIDDING me!” I let out in an angry shout. My panic made me angry as I demanded an answer to the question how all of this was possible? Getting a tattoo of a cutie mark: possible, changing hair color: unlikely but possible, changing eye-color: very strange but still possible, getting pony ears: just impossible! All of the changes until now could be explained with dye and a couple of colored contacts. It didn’t matter how the prank could have been carried out, it had to be something with dyes. That was the only explainable theory until now. But now my ears had moved to the top of my head. No trick existed to change someone’s anatomy. Even plastic surgery couldn’t give us these ears identical to the show’s. At least, that was what I thought. As far as I knew there were no bronies that had had an operation to give them pony features but there certainly were bronies that would like to.

“Unfortunately, this is not the worst thing,” she said stirring me out of my thoughts. These words got my attention; what could be worse than pony ears? But I knew what was coming as soon as she moved her hand to her rear-end. When she took the colorful and hairy appendage out of her jeans I felt lightheaded and my vision blurred.

***

I opened my eyes with a slight headache. I was lying in bed in a strange position like I suddenly had fallen asleep. The sun shone in my room giving it peaceful and warm ambience like nothing had happened. I saw Lucy was in front of my computer, still with my black hoodie on, but with the hood off. The turquoise ears that poked out of the mane remembered me of what had happened. I turned my head to look behind me. A big lump was in my pajama pants hiding the thing I was terrified by. It was painful to have it stashed away in my pants so with much hesitation I pulled the blue and periwinkle tail out of my pants. Although the hairs felt smooth, the thing filled me with disgust. I wished it wasn’t a part of me, but I had control over it and I could wag it like a dog. The realization that it all was real was too much for me. My spirit broke and my eyes welled with tears. I had resisted the panic from all these absurd changes, convinced that it all would become clear in the end. But now I got desperate: no explanation was tenable now. What evil magical force had decided to give us slowly all these pony features and what could we do to stop it? Was it my faith to live the rest of my life as some kind of mutant? My mind couldn’t handle all these uncertainties.

I lay there sobbing with my eyes closed when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Lucy. “So you’re finally awake, sleepyhead,” she said with a small friendly smile on her face. I didn’t say anything. How did she manage to cope so well with these changes? She behaved like she had lived her whole life with a tail and pony ears. Her initials weren’t LD the last time I checked.

“Look, I know you’re freaked out by this tail. Believe me, I was in the same situation when I woke up this morning. I think everyone would react this way.” She pulled me up, forcing me to sit. She sat down next to me with her eyes fixed on my eyes, still with her hand on my shoulder. Her friendly smile was gone. It was kind of intimidating but it also gave a protected feeling. “The problem is: we don’t know anything about it; when everything will be back to normal, supposing that everything is going to revert. We can’t do anything against it. You can sit and ponder about it resulting in nothing but more doubt or you can ignore it and try to live like it’s an ordinary day.”

I didn’t care what she had to say. I couldn’t just accept these new body parts. They felt alien and they shouldn’t be there. I was a realistic man of science and I had learned that humans have neither tails nor pony ears. I couldn’t throw an objection against the laws of biology and act like getting a fucking tail was a normal, thing like it was some change from puberty.
“We even don’t know how far these changes continue,” she continued, “I doubt the possibility but maybe we will even become full…” she stopped mid-sentence.

“We become what? You don’t really think we’ll turn into full ponies, do you?” A new wave of anxiety overwhelmed me. The thought that the transformation wouldn’t stop certainly had passed me, but I had ignored it, although a theory had nagged me. Now that Lucy had brought it up, I couldn’t stop think about what would happen if we were full ponies. What would become of us when we were ponies? Humans that had turned into animals surely didn’t have a place in society. On top of that, we would stand out with our pastel colored fur. I shuddered at the thoughts and new tears filled my eyes with all these questions.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up. But I don’t rule out any possibility after these bizarre events. Now that it has turned to this point, everything seems possible, don’t you think?”

I said nothing, incapable to speak properly. I knew she was trying to reassure me, but she only made it worse. Maybe she could handle this situation with her confidence, but I couldn’t. I stood up and walked to the bathroom, leaving Lucy alone on the bed.

“Colgate, wait-,“ she said, but I closed the door and locked it. I didn’t know why she called me by that name, but it was most likely another part of the change, and food for a lot of new anxious thoughts. I could hear her curse herself. She had good intentions and I shouldn’t have just walked away, but I needed time to think. A lot of time.

***

Before I got dressed I looked at my body to see whether there were any new changes. Whilst I was showering I noticed my toes looked different. My middle toe looked like my big toe and vica versa. It was also much more comfortable to stand on my toes. I guessed that it wouldn’t be long until I had to walk on the nail of my middle toe. It was also kind of hard to stand upright with the extra weight of the tail constantly bringing me out of balance. I couldn’t find any further changes during the inspection so I put my clothes on. It was quite a struggle to fit my half equine feet in my shoes. My heels didn’t want to make the ninety degree bend. I forced my feet in my shoes, but I couldn’t say it was comfortable to walk.

I left the bathroom and saw Lucy once again in front of my computer. I was wondering what she was doing all these times on the internet. She noticed me and turned around. I could see that she was very wobbly. For the second time in twenty-four hours, her wall of confidence had opened; showing a girl who had a lot of trouble with social situations that she had handled wrong. In the past she would just shrug them off, but recently she really cared about them. Her behaviour reminded me of a certain pony.

“Are- are you feeling better?” she said with a insecure soft voice.

“A little. I’ve thought about our situation. I have given up my attempts at finding a logical explanation for all of this. It is impossible and I have accepted that.” I answered indifferently. I felt depressed, but the panic of these changes had faded away. Lucy was correct, though she had brought her advice clumsily. It was no use in whining about these changes if we didn’t know what had caused them.

“So… you’re okay with the changes?”

“I say I have accepted it, not that I like it. I just have to endure this process and hope that everything will return to normal as soon as possible, although I doubt that will happen.”

“How so? Being a pessimist won’t help in anyway,” she said with a much stronger voice than just moments ago.

“No, I’m not trying to be a pessimist, but I have an idea that would link the dots, although you have to make some very idiotic assumptions.” I sat down and I grabbed my unfinished plate of pancakes. They weren’t warm anymore, but they were still tasty and I was even hungrier than earlier this morning. “This is going to sound very crazy and farfetched, but listen to the whole story okay? This would explain everything.”

She nodded, “We have a tail, nothing is farfetched at the moment.”

“And the newest addition: we walk on our toes, but that’s a problem for later.” I saw her quickly glance at her feet. Apparently she hadn’t discovered the half-hooves yet. “First let me ask you a question. Does the sentence ‘For five square both for this pair’ ring a bell?”

“I can’t say that I remember ever hearing that, but it sounds familiar. Is it some famous line from a speech or song or something?”

“I don’t know where it comes from, but I woke up with that line in my head this morning. The fact that you also remember it vaguely is some proof for my theory. I’m almost afraid to say it, because it sounds so stupid, but it may be possible that the show is…” I paused for a moment. This thing had bugged me since the nightmare of last night, but it was such afoolish thought. Although I had some arguments, I couldn’t believe it myself. “Well I think the show may be real in some kind of alternative universe.” I saw Lucy’s face change into an expression of pure confusion.

“Nate, please.” She facepalmed. “I know you’re a fan of the show, but can you leave your obsessions out of this and think serious about this?”

“Listen, you promised me to listen to the whole story right? I’m not saying this because I’m a brony, besides, do I need to remind you that I hate these changes?” She quickly withdrew her facepalm and continued listening. I saw in her expression that she was taking this with a grain of salt. “It is a very big assumption, but I think somehow the character personalities are slipping into our minds. First, you’re showing traits of Lightning Dust; you are feeling a lot of sympathy for Lightning during a sentimental scene while you normally laugh about those scenes. You not only act like you were there at the Wonderbolt Academy, but it’s like you’ve experienced that situation yourself. You also act totally different in social awkward situations, but let’s forget that. It isn’t really easy talking about our quarrel, is it? Second, recently I’ve had a lot of dreams of the series finale. I have forgotten what those exactly were about but I had a nightmare this night and I remember some parts of it. It felt like I was in Equestria and moreover, it felt natural like I have lived my whole live there. I can hardly believe that these changes and those dreams are a coincidence. Furthermore, you just called me Colgate. Considering the situation we were in, I suppose that wasn’t a joke.

“So with these mental changes I think the pony personalities are slowly invading our minds and as a side effect we get the features of that pony. To be clear I haven’t got a clue why these ponies are trying to overtake our brains, but at least this explains why we are turning into ponies.”

A silence followed as Lucy tried to digest all of the aspects of this idea. She didn’t look like she was convinced. Finally she said, “Sorry Nate, I don’t mean to offend you, but I find those half-baked arguments. That nightmare you got is obvious. I got a similar one, –that’s the reason I awoke so early– where I had the feeling I was flying like a pegasus. It is probably because we had our minds full of these changes when we went to bed. These changes are also the reason why we behave so different. We both have gone through a lot of stress the past twenty-four hours. It is not strange that that stress affects our attitude. I have to agree that I don’t know why I called you Colgate, but a slip of the tongue is not a reason to think that a whole fictional universe is real. Maybe we will act more like the ponies we are becoming by some kind of magic, but that doesn’t mean that those made-up personalities are real in an alternative universe.”

She had a point. I had tried to convince her, but her counter explanation did make more sense. My theory was based on some random thought that had made me look with a tunnel vision. “I guess you’re right, but I will store this theory in my back mind. It still could be possible and like you said, with these bizarre changes everything could be possible.”

“Well suit yourself.” She rolled her eyes. “In the meantime, we have to think of some kind of plan to decide what we will do when these changes continue. I think we need to stay as long as possible out of the spotlight, but at a certain time we will be forced to go outside. I have a job, you have college, we both have a monthly rent to pay and I think close people will get worried and search for us if we lose contact with them for a long time. Frankly, I have no idea for a solution for this, so do you have any idea what we should do now?”

I hadn’t an idea what to do either. Should we just wait for these transformations to happen? We could still go outside without standing out too much as long as we wore enough covering clothes, but I didn’t know how long that would last. I couldn’t think of anything to cover my hands if they would become hooves or how I should cover a horn if that would grow out of my skull. It would be best to make some preparations as long as we could do it, but where did we have to start? My room was not suitable to lock ourselves up for a long time. It was only a small room and more importantly it would only be a matter of time before Ben would see us. Even if we didn’t use the kitchen, he would make sure whether I was okay if he didn’t see me for days but still hearing things coming out of my room.

My eyes drifted off to inspect the room even though I knew what it contained. I had lived here for five years now. My vision focused on the plushie that Lucy gave me yesterday. I hadn’t had the time to look at it properly, let alone give it a proper hug. My eyes grew wide when I picked it up.

“Of course!” I let out with a loud shout out of nowhere “Lucy, do you still have that photo you showed me yesterday? With that girl in Farm & Fleet.”

“Eh, sure, where do you want to use it for?” she said with a startled face.

I ignored her question and grabbed her phone. I quickly scrolled down through her gallery of photos. There it was, the photo of the girl with the perfect Rainbow Dash cosplay. I had wondered how it could have looked so real, but now I knew it: it was because it was actually real. “Here take a look, does she remind you of someone?”

“Uhm, no? I have no friends that are interested in cosplay. How should I know her? I barely know anyone in Muscatine; I only live there for a year now.” She gave me a confused look, she got a little annoyed because I was so vague.
“Let me rephrase it, does she remind you of something? The ears, the hair or I should call it mane and the color of her eyes. She isn’t cosplaying; she goes through the same thing as we do!”

Now it was Lucy’s turn for her eyes to grow wide. She was astonished by my induction. “But- but that would mean we are not alone! We have to find this girl, assuming she is still a girl and not a mare. She most likely knows more of this whole case! If we find her, she could tell us what is happening to us.” Her ears perked up comically giving away she was full of energy for this new plan.

I had to agree that I also was enthusiastic to have something to do in preparation of the coming days, but there was a slight problem. “But, that would mean we have to move to Muscatine the next days. I can’t leave this place with that deadline for the report coming closer with every passing hour.”

She blinked several times. She was probably dumbfounded by my sentence and confirmed that with a facepalm. “Geez, get your priorities right, Nate! Do you want to hand in a report called ‘The rise of communism in Equestria’ written by M. Colgate?”

I wanted to argue against it but I couldn’t find any good arguments. I grumbled somewhat under my breath but started to pick some stuff needed for some days away from home. I had worked so hard on my report and now all that effort would have been for nothing because I was changing into a character of a show I had already put so much time in. Fate had to be the biggest troll ever.

***

It was a one-hour drive to Muscatine from Iowa City, but it wasn’t a comfortable one. My tail reminded me constantly that it was a nuisance to find the right spot to sit. Lucy had less trouble with it. She had her tail out of her pants. It could move freely as long as she wouldn’t lean against the seatback. I however refused to show my tail so openly. The new part of my body still disgusted me, but the tail suited Lucy strangely well. The colors of the soft hairs matched her mane perfectly. It was like I had never seen her without it. The lustrous, fluffy appendage sometimes moved in a spasm, giving away that we didn’t have full control yet of our freshly formed muscles.

In the meantime my tail sent another shot of pain to my brain. I cursed the stupid ugly thing. It was already following me everywhere I went. It was like a stalker who never gave up his prey. Did it had to be literally a pain in the ass on top of that? I guessed it had won the war though. I capitulated and pulled the thing out of my pants. Physical torture seemed more agonizing than mental torture at that moment.

I noticed that we were steadily lowering speed and we weren’t driving in a straight line anymore. I turned to Lucy who had dreamy expression on her face. I didn’t know where she was with her thoughts but it certainly wasn’t on the road. “Lucy! I hate to pull you out of dreamland, but unless you want to cause an accident I recommend you focus on the road.”

“Hm? Oh sorry,” she shook her head coming back to real life. “Those horses at the side of the road are distracting me,” she said while she still turned her head again to the right, obviously ignoring my comment to focus on the road.

I looked at the horses that stood there in the pasture. There were quite a lot mares there in the field. I counted at least thirty of them. Some of them were grazing through the grass and others stared at us, looking what kind of evil thing disturbed the peaceful setting. I had to admit, they looked kind of attractive. I imagined myself standing there between the horses. It was a very serene setting: no worries, just enjoying a meal of grass with my fellow horses in the shade of a tree. There was enough space to run around if I wanted to; the pasture was at least forty acres big. There was probably a strong stallion nearby on top of all of this. Turning into a pony didn’t seem so bad anymo-

“Wait… what the HELL am I thinking?” I shivered at the thought I would stand there as Colgate. If I would become a pony I certainly wouldn’t end up as a part of a farmer’s livestock. That would be wrong on every level. I lived my life as a human for twenty-five years and I did not intend to dump my old life to become a farmer’s property or a little girl’s pet.

I blinked before I noticed we were drifting off the road. There were only a few feet between us and an incoming tree. In the fraction of a second I couldn’t shout anything to Lucy anymore before the crash. I only could close my eyes as a reflex and fear for the worst.

Luckily we were driving slowly and the impact was limited. Actually the shock of the realization that suddenly a tree blocked the way had made it look far worse. We were only driving at something around ten miles per hour. After the impact I immediately opened my eyes. Before us stood the big tree, which hadn’t moved an inch. Some leaves had fallen on the hood of the car. The engine was still running.

I turned my head to Lucy. Her head lay unconscious on the steering wheel. I quickly shook her at her shoulder, but she didn’t respond. I feared that something grave had happened so I rapidly took her wrist to take her radial pulse. Fortunately, nothing seemed off. I breathed a sigh of relieve. Such a hit couldn’t have knocked her out; she even was wearing her seatbelt. I figured out that it had to be a result of the fear of suddenly seeing a tree incoming. She must have come back to her senses in the last moment before the crash.

I was about to step out of the car to check the damage when I heard a groan coming from behind me. Immediately I sat back and looked at Lucy. “Ugh, where am I?” she said with a weak voice.

“Lucy! You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Wait, Discord! That stupid, cheap monster.” She ignored my question. I frowned; Discord was an unusual insult for a tree. “A real mare fights only with her hooves and wings; she does not rely on dirty magic. Now where has he teleported me to?” She hadn’t noticed me yet. Her head was not pointed at me and apparently she hadn’t heard my question.

“Uhm, are you feeling okay?” I didn’t understand any of the drivel she was talking about. Her ears twitched in reaction to my voice. She finally seemed to notice me.

“Oh sorry, umh… creature? Can you understand me?” She said the last part of the sentence with a pause after each syllable, like talking to a three years old kid . It sounded very denigrating. I hadn’t a clue what she wanted to reach with this nonsense. If this was a joke then it was a horrible one.

“Lucy, can you at least try to make sense?”

“Lucy?” she said with much surprise. “I think you are confusing me with somepony else. My name is Lightning Dust, best flyer in Equestria! But you can call me Lightning, or LD if that’s easier for you. Now, do you know the way to Canterlot or Cloudsdale? I have some unfinished business with a foolish draconequus. So stupid thinking he can just beat a Wonderbolt. Sorry but I’m not giving any autographs.”

Did she really think she was Lightning Dust? Did she have some kind of amnesia because of the crash? This was ridiculous; she couldn’t have lost all her memories. Her twenty-five years of memories just up in thin air because of a crash; that was insane. I needed to get her back to real life. Let her remember she was a human and not a pastel colored pony.

“Lightning Dust”– It was really strange to say that to your lifetime friend, –“don’t you think that something is the matter with your body?” I didn’t think it was a good idea to confront an amnesia-patient with reality, but this way she had to remember that she was a human.

“Oh? Do you know me? Well I have to say I’m pretty famous as Wonderbolt. But what do you mean? Is there something off with my hooves, wings or mane?” She moved her hands to each body part she mentioned like it really existed for her. I couldn’t believe her; she acted like she was physically already a full pony. She hadn’t hooves or wings but yet she observed them.

There was a short silence. Lightning – darn, even I was starting to call her Lightning – didn’t say anything and I tried to come up with a new thing to let her remember she was a human. A voice broke the silence. It was a voice that released a stream of hope in my veins.

“Nate? What happened?” she blinked. “The last thing I remember was that we slammed into a tree,” she said, again with a weak voice like she had awoken just now.

“I-I think you just confirmed my theory,” I answered slowly after a pause. I was so happy that she was back, but I couldn’t believe it myself what had happened. But she was back, that’s what really mattered.

Author's Note:

This one took me way too much time. I was busy with school stuff and I got ill in the meantime. I don't know when the next chapter will come out. I hope at the end of July.

Many thanks to Hywel and Robertsolution for proofreading this chapter.

Comments

[sky_petal_blank_flank]

very interested!

[Pashoo]

I have to say, the dialogue, along with some of the phrases throughout the chapters, seem kind of awkward and stilted, like in the last chapter when Nate said, "I worked hard today so I have a little extra time to waste. Furthermore, I have a sleeping pad, spare blanket and most important a spare unused toothbrush.” Usually, you'd only use furthermore in a formal setting, not casual conversation. Also when he says, "I will store this theory in my back mind," it's weird because the expression is usually, "I'll keep it in the back of my mind," and when you store something in terms of information, it's either on a computer or in your memories; otherwise, you keep it on your mind. There are a few other weird ones like that, but the biggest thing that's affecting the dialogue is the lack of contractions. You sometimes use more contractions in Nate's narrative that in his and Lucy's speech, which makes them sound formal and robotic. Aside from that, there are just a few verb-tense agreement issues.

But anyways, this story has such an odd choice for main characters. I'd never have thought to pair Colgate and Lightning Dust. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

[Kaas]

2948350
Thanks for the feedback. I can always use it!
As your probably noted English isn't my native language. I have those times during writing in which I know what I want to write, but I don't know how. I hope I can avoid those weird sentences. One of my reasons for writing is to improve my English.
Contractions are a point I have focus on. I never paid much attention to it.

[TrixiesTale]

Mawr please

[Nonchalant]

Will there be an update? Don't wanna sound pushy, but it's been like, a year...

[Nanomachines]

I always find it ending when it starts to get interesting... Please finish this.