• Published 13th Sep 2013
  • 1,262 Views, 25 Comments

Fire and Earth, Bats and Hearth - lionaxel



Side Fic to Five Score, Divided by Four. Two people are going some changes. They've only got each other, or so they think. Another person and his pet crow are other going through some changes.

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The future sings, And memories ring

Mira excuses herself from the room and I am left with my thoughts. Perhaps I can somehow make my life better, but if I sprout wings and a horn, I swear my life will be over! My ‘special talent’ can’t be changed, so I guess I’ll have to look into starting my own farm. And that’s only if the special talent carries through the transformation. Actually, how would I even do that in the form of a small horse? Princess of Harmony? Not anymore. Looks like Twilight will have her hands full, not that any Princess of Harmony appeared in the show. I wonder what Mira is doing...

-----

I lift up my laptop screen. Hopefully, Iris doesn’t walk in on me. I pull up my last recording and hit the play button. “This is Mira checking in. Day 1 of the changes...”

It’s weird. It’s like listening to a younger version of yourself, but I know was only from yesterday. I don’t even need to record, I know my voice is different.

Something has been nagging at the back of my mind since this whole thing started. Are me and Iris alone in this or are others suffering? I type on into Google Turning into a pony and hit enter. The first thing that pops up is FIMfiction. Yep, cause that’s gonna help. I type in Cutie Mark appearing on thigh and yet, still nothing of importance comes up. Why don’t I have as good of luck as Iris who apparently found her pony’s entire backstory on the internet?

Something caught my attention, however, and I clicked a link titled “Horse with colorful hair and m...” and it takes me to a familiar site titled www.ponytheorist4life.com. I actually found that site shortly after I watched a couple of episodes.

I scan through the document and read it:

Recently, I came across a picture of a horse-like creature with fangs and bat wings. The coat color was gray, the mane was a greenish color and it had a picture of a yellow circle with a crown on its flank. I was wondering what it was, as I have never seen it before. The only thing that crosses my mind when I see it is ‘Five score divided by four’.

Five score divided by four? Why does that sound familiar... I read the first comment.

Are you an idiot? It’s a pony from My Little Pony. Do you live under a rock!?

Five... score... That’s it! Those are the words from my dreams! Discord always said them before the white light. That means... this guy is going through the same thing as me and Iris. I click his username, shadednocturn1995. If 1995 was his birthday, that would make him the same age as me... freaky.

I hit ‘Send Message’ and take a deep breath. Let’s hope shadednocturn doesn’t think I’m a psycho.

Hello shadednocturn1995,

I understand that you had some inquiries about a cartoon horse. Maybe not cartoon? More like physical and quite literally in the flesh? I wanted to ask if you maybe came across “Five score divided by four” in a dream. If so, I may be going through the same thing as you and we desperately need to get together. Please reply ASAP.

sunsetshimmer51

...and I hit send. I really hope that shadednocturn actually heeds this message and doesn’t chicken out. Regardless, it’s somehow relieving to know that me and Iris aren’t the only ones going through this. Maybe I’m not as alone as I originally thought.

-----

The first thing I do after finding the strange bumps is head to my room and get onto my desktop. I type into the search bar ‘horse with fangs’ and one of the results is actually one that also has leathery bat-like wings as well. Are those the things on my back? Just what is it? I go to a reliable website, www.ponytheorist4ever.com, and start up a new thread. I type in my plea and just a couple minutes later, I get the first reply.

Are you an idiot? It’s a pony from My Little Pony. Do you live under a rock!?

My Little Pony? Of course I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know much of anything about it. Especially not what the characters look like. Hang on, I have a message from someone named sunsetshimmer51.

I scan through the message. Shit. This isn’t good! How’d they know what was really going on? Unless they’re telling the truth and they really are going through the same thing as me. Maybe it would serve me well to get in touch with this person.

“Sun!” I call. Perhaps the overly intelligent bird will have her own opinion.

She flies in, and fire seems to be flying off her tail. I realise how her body shape has changed. It’s more defined; more resembling of a graceful bird.

“Turn off the fire before you burn down the house!” I mutter harshly, hoping that she does in fact have control over them. She whistles a tune and blinks. “Fine, whatever. I think I found someone going through these changes too. What do you think, should we seek them out? They knew I heard ‘five score’ in a dream and were hinting at the changes.”

She shakes her head and whistles. Somehow, I just know exactly what she means. Wait. Perhaps until the changes are complete? It will be less consequential if I leave when I’m a full pony. But I should at least message this person back.

I sit on the message screen, unknowing what to write. Then my hands seem to guide me.

For Five Score, Divided by Four
Your memories removed, your body confused
For your insolence you must pay
Cast off to a land far far away
To scatter the six, just the start of my tricks
Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak
Forgetting everything and living like a fool
You have all lost, now no one can stop my rule!

I read over what I had written. Where did this even come from? Something inside me tells me that I need to send this. Well, whatever. Maybe the person on the other side will know what it means. If they even take it seriously, that is.

-----

A Month in the Future

“Hey, cheer up.”

“You’ve been like this for weeks.”

Four dark equine shapes were dimly lit by the moonlight. The largest one put a hoof around one who sat on the ground, tears falling from his eyes. The light revealed three scars on the largest one’s right eye, one of which crossed his mouth. His small, leathery wings were extended and his light brown mane was messy and grimy.

A small mare groaned, face hoofing. “Get your act together and stop sulking over a mare you only knew for a couple of days! Seriously, you aren’t yourself!”

The mare’s light frame seemed to be a deception as she had powerful muscles hidden underneath her light fur. Her dark blue mane was tied into a ponytail and aggressiveness shown in her yellow eyes. At her words, the large stallion walked away from the one one the ground and sat on a log.

The first one who talked, a long-legged, thin stallion with light gray bangs that fell over his eyes, trotted up to the mare. “Let him be. He still needs time to recover.”

The mare furrowed her brow and looked down, “I guess. But it’s been so long! He can’t be that depressed still.”

“A broken heart takes time to heal.” The large stallion muttered. “And it might not feel love in that way ever again.”

The mare growled, “You expect me to idly sit by while Discord ruins our ONE chance at having a better life!?” Then her voice got lower. “Who knew you could be so sappy? For such a big guy, you’re pretty soft.”

“I just assumed you would’ve realised that by now.” The stallion murmured.

“I haven’t exactly known you that long, technically speaking.” The mare shot back, “And don’t come up with some clever retort about how we have. If I don’t remember, it didn’t happen.”

The large stallion began to craft a retort, "Just because I'm a different species doesn't mean I'm a different-"

The long-legged stallion approached the mare, cutting off the larger one, “It won’t do us well to argue. If you wanna have a debate about whether we’ve known each other for a while or not, we can do that after we have the present sorted out.”

The mare grimaced, “You mean after Mr. Crybaby has finished pouting? Or should I say Cryfilly?”

“Shut UP!” The long-legged stallion snapped, “This entire experience has been hard on us all! But we need to roll with the punches like we are meant to. We are full fledged pony guards now. Throw away your old life and face the present. ‘Out with the old, in with the new’ as they say. I hate to be the one to say this, but no one else will apparently. I didn’t want to go through a sex change, but I did. If anything, I had the hardest change. At least you all kept your fucking genders!”

Silence ensued. Then it was broken by the mare, “I-I’m sorry. I’ve been so riled up and it’s the only way I know of to relieve the tension that’s been built inside of my body. It always has been, in both my human life and my pony life. You of all ponies should know that.”

The pony who had been crying earlier got up, and to everyone’s surprise, spoke. “No, she right. I haven’t been myself. You’re ALL right. I probably won’t ever be the same again, but I need to cope with what is going on. Thanks guys. Especially you, Lancia.”

-----

Present Day

Perhaps if I lie low in the shadows, no one will ever know I exist! No, I’m already doing that. I really need to get my life together, don’t I? I can’t keep going on like this. One of the first things I told Mira was that we had to find a way to reverse this, and now I’m more sure than ever. There’s got to be a way, it can’t be that-

“It’s irreversible.”