“I’m not who you think I am.”
“Then who are you?”
“I'm a nobody trapped in a body with responsibility I never wanted.”
This was the exchange between me and Princess Luna in my dream. The only problem was, it wasn’t my voice. It was Celestia’s. Unfortunately, my inner alarm clock dispelled any chances of finding out just what was going on, so I tried to imagine the rest of the scene for the remaining ten minutes there were left before the actual alarm went off. Yet my misfortune streak continued, as I couldn’t settle on any direct lines of dialogue other than that already presented.
Not that it mattered. After all, it was just a dream, not some story I was writing. Either way, I still had to get out of bed, throw on my shoes, and get packed and ready for school. Fun fact: I go to a Robotics academy where they require you to have a laptop. Eeyup. I had to pack a laptop with me. As I survived another day at school, I found myself unable to think about much more than that dream. Eventually I started asking myself questions, like could it be real? Was there a hidden message there? It got to the point where I felt the need to share, but I never got the chance.
It was lunch time at school, and I was already done eating. I eat fast so I have more time to surf the net and manage my roleplay characters. Mostly ponies. Today, I wasn't doing much of that, having already apologized and delayed my roleplays because my head wasn't in the game.
"Hey, man. Is something wrong? You looked kinda out of it today." One of my friends Alec asked as he came up to me. He was more of an acquaintance than a friend, though. All of them were. I guess I never much felt the connection of friendship. Ironic, considering I watch a show all about it.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't want to burden you with my problems. Isn't there a girlfriend you promised one of those muffins to? She's more important than me." I said, pointing out the two treats he'd bought from the school store.
"It's fine. You're my friend. I'm sure she'll understand." He said. I smiled.
"Thanks. I had a dream last night, and it's been bugging me since I got up." I said. I felt the headache I'd accumulated earlier spike, and winced.
"What's wrong?" Alec asked, seeing my suddenly pained face. I brought a hand to my head to hold back the tide of pain and tried to answer.
"I don't kn- Agh!" I was cut off by a sudden spike of pain from my stomach. I doubled over, but Alec caught me.
"James? James, what's wrong?" He asked worriedly, but even more spikes of pain kept me from answering. When it was clear something was horribly wrong, Alec shouted down the halls. "Somebody get help!" He turned back to me to reassure me help would be here soon. At the rate the pain was growing, I wasn't so sure it would get here in time to stop whatever was going on. Alec put a hand on my shoulder to try and help, but he jerked it away with a hiss of pain for some reason. “Jezus! You’re freaking molten!” He hissed as he shook his hand from the pain.
I looked at my skin to find out what’d become of it, since it pretty much felt like my bones were snapping and reshaping with the pressure and heat of the earth’s core. I felt the rising urge to vomit, seeing that it was charring until it sloughed off, white fur slowly growing in its place. I could feel my blood boiling, as people began backing further away, and my body began undergoing more extreme changes, anything that hadn't already combusted beginning to sag as it started to melt. Even the tiles on the floor became nothing but a twisted, molten mess, and my body left a compression in them. What tiles weren’t already black became black as I felt my guts incinerating inside me.
A worse feeling blossomed from my back, and I heard the burning roar of something sprouting from my back in a molten plume of fire. I couldn’t look back to find out what it was though. My skin burned too much, and I was paralyzed by pain. I felt my hair combust, but rather than burning everything out of my skull, the flames seemed to glide down my back and leave entirely new and longer hair behind. A similar sensation extended my spine and left a length of tail hair on it. The feeling in my guts continued to make its way up my body, causing me to scream, as smoke belched from my mouth, before it petered out, along with my screams. I began clawing at my throat, struggling for air despite my lungs most likely being molten flesh, until the sensation passed them, allowing me to gasp, inhaling deeply, before screaming again. A whole new level of panic overtook me when I felt my heart stop. I rapidly felt a constricting feeling where it had once been, slowly growing stronger, as my vision begun to blur, before where my heart had once been, it felt like star had sparked to life, sending liquid fire running through my veins. The sensation continued upward, my screams cutting out as it reached my vocal chords, before the screaming resumed, sounding more feminine. When it finally reached my head, I almost immediately passed out as I felt it reach my brain.
When I awoke, I could see the sun, as well as feel something molten on my chest. The sunlight felt, energizing, as I begun to recall what had happened. Looking again, I realized I had a horn jutting from my forehead, and a muzzle. I tried to shake the cobwebs from my brain and the ringing from my ears, when it hit me. There was something molten on my chest. I began freaking out, expecting a searing pain, but only feeling warmth. looking up towards the sun, I was surprised by two things. I was looking straight at it without even squinting, and a hole had been melted in the ceiling. Slowly standing up, I found I was still on all fours, and looked down, discovering I had hooves. Whatever had been on my chest plopped onto the once molten floor, and as I looked around, I realized everything around me had melted. Panting from the near panic, I looked myself over. My clothes were nothing but ashes now. Thankfully my laptop bag had been left far enough away from the epicenter, that it was undamaged. Mom and Dad would kill me if I let anything happen to it.
Mom and Dad... They wouldn't recognise me at all. They didn't even know what MLP was, let alone that I was a fan of it. I was going to have to explain to them how I'd turned into a magical, talking pony princess. It wasn't going to be easy, but I had several lines of proof. I wouldn't give up if it came down to it.
I looked around at where Alec and the crowd used to be, but there was noone there. As well, the ringing in my ears hadn’t gone away. A flashing light brought my attention to the emergency evacuation sirens that were going off. Somebody must have tripped the Fire Alarm when I started burning up. Well, at least that explains the ringing in my ears…
I heard the distinct sounds of a chopper from the hole and looked up to find a news chopper flying about. How long was I out? I looked around at the smoldering wreckage, seeing the radiating heat beginning to calm down. It looked like a miniature sun had hit the place. Wait a minute, I pretty much am the sun. It’s no wonder everything burned like it did. A voice called from the hole in the ceiling.
“Okay, things are cooling off. Let’s move in and capture the objective.” the gruff voice said. I easily recognised the commanding tone of an officer. I facehoofed, and looked up to see coils of rope descending from the hole. Rather than run like a cowardly idiot, I just stood there, waiting for them to come down. I passed my gaze to each operative as they dropped down. They were in some kind of Pyro Suit, sensibly to protect them from the heat. Two of them had a net, probably meant to “capture” me.
“There’s no need for force, officers. I’ll put up no resistance.” I told them when the two with the net approached. They all froze at that, definitely unprepared for a sentient horse, and even more unprepared for a willing surrender. One of them reacted quicker than the rest and brought a hand to a button on his mask.
“Uh… Command? I think this might be bigger than we thought. This isn’t just some nuclear horse, she can talk, in english, and she’s agreed to come peacefully. She’s got a crown too, so she must be royalty.” He reported. I heard some radio chatter for a few minutes, not really able to make out what was said, but I remained calm. I knew Florida police were sensible if nothing else. I just hoped they wouldn’t blow this out of proportion.
As I waited, I went a grabbed my laptop bag. It was slightly difficult getting it on, but I managed. Soon enough, the guys with the net just packed it up, and nodded to me. They gestured for me to follow them, and they lead me through the school. Thankfully, I wasn’t radiating any more heat, so I didn’t torch any more of the school. Once we left the front doors, I was ushered into a large transport truck, and was joined by the police that had escorted me. There were chains in there, made in adjustable sizes, but seeing as I was coming willingly, they weren’t used. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the silence, but I wanted to know where they were taking me.
“So, may I ask where I’m being taken?” I asked. One of them removed his helmet and looked at me with a nervous smile.
“Command wants to see you. They’ve asked that we bring you to them so we can talk things out, your highness.” He replied. I frowned at that. He acknowledged me with a title that wasn’t mine to hold. And no doubt, if I couldn’t figure out magic, they’d find me out as a fake. I might as well be completely honest with them.
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not really royalty. The true owner of this body is, but not me. I’m really just a human like you guys.” I told them. At that news, all of them stared at me like I’d grown a third head.
“What happened then? What could possibly turn you into… that?” the maskless guy asked.
“I don’t know. The only warning I had was a dream, in which I’m talking to the sister of this body’s owner. I doubt anyone else is gonna turn into a pony though. At least not in the future. Whatever happened to me, I suspect if it were going to happen to anyone else, it’d already have happened.” I told them. The maskless guy nodded in acknowledgement. I then grinned as I thought of a way to really freak them out. My inner troll just couldn’t help but whip it out and use it.
“Oh, and I used to be a guy.” Mr. Maskless dropped his jaw so hard, I swear, if this were a cartoon, he’d have made a hole in the floor of the transport.
“Was it painful?” One of the other soldiers asked. This one had a badge marking him as the captain of this group.
“Imagine being turned into a sun.” I answered. “Now compress that into the form of a little pony.” The captain took off his helmet and looked me over.
“You aren’t signed, or sweaty in any way… but you were in the epicenter of that heat blast. How’d you even survive that, let alone get out without a scratch?” He asked.
“I-” I cut off with my hoof in the air ready to explain when I realized I couldn’t explain it very well. “Um… Good question…” I brought the raised hoof to my chin and rubbed it in thought. “Well… Celestia, the princess I’ve become, is basically the sentient embodiment of the sun. She’s responsible for raising and lowering it in her world. It could be magic.”
“Magic…” He replied in a deadpan tone. I could tell they had no idea what I meant, so I elaborated.
“Yeah, magic. It’s actually an integral part of a pony’s biology, and has a huge science behind it. At least, integral in the world this body comes from. Uh… Let me try to get this thing working so I can show you.” I said, tapping my horn to show what I meant. I focused on happy memories knowing equestrian magic was based on emotions. I felt a spark, and opened my eyes to see a little wisp of golden magic in front of me. I took hold of it in my mind and moved it down to my bags to grab onto it. The golden aura spread over my bag and lifted it. Then, a moment later, my bag dropped as the small spark of magic slipped off of it. Well, at least I’d lifted it a little. I turned my attention back to the police guys to see their reaction.
“What the hell was that…?” The captain asked.
“Magic. Levitation, to be precise.” I answered simply. They stared for a moment longer at my bag. Then, I got a sinking feeling in my gut when their gaze slowly went to the horn on my head. “You guys are going to want to run tests, aren’t you?”
“Oh, that’s not our job. You’ll be referred to the Science guys so they can run the tests.” The captain said. “We’ll just be there to watch.” Oh boy. Maybe I should have kept my magic secret. Or better yet, I should have just shut up to begin with. Oh well. I’ll just have to accept the consequences of my actions and really hope they won’t treat me too badly.
Gee, everyone sure seems to be taking the whole "that guy just turned into an alicorn" thing pretty well. Also, is he still wearing his clothes?
Jason took the whole becoming a magic talking horse way too well. I mean he literally started cracking jokes and worried about his school work mere moments after the transformation.
4998705 As I will explain in the next chapter, He's not just brushing it off. He's keeping his emotions in check until such a time as he can properly deal with them in a private fashion. However, because future circumstances will disallow that, well, let's just say things aren't looking up.
4998966 I'm aware that it seems just a bit too easy, but I'm reflecting it in a not-so serious light. I'm not trying for perfect, as I'm sure as hell never going to get there, and I'm actually basing it off my own school. Those within the academy are aware of the things I'm into, and thus aren't shaken as badly as if they'd never heard of such a thing.
But then again, I guess I should explain that in the story. Also, it says he removed the tattered remains of his clothes as he got up.
5000041 That doesn't explain why everyone else is taking it so well, or why those who didn't witness the transformation believed it was him.
And I didn't notice the part about the tattered remains. I kinda started skimming the story for anyone expressing a sign of shock that I just didn't see it. Everyone was taking it too well for me to find it believable.
5000041
Ok, so it's going hit him later that could work...I guess. Though everyone else seems to take it well despite seeing a fellow classmate turn into a magical talking horse. Nor did anyone question Jason/Celestia when they said that it was still them.
It's like;
Jason: "Hey guys, it's still me. Don't worry."
Everyone: "Ok"
Also, I found it kind of odd that no one, other than the principal was familiar with the show. I mean sure, not everyone will admit liking the show in public. But there wasn't even a 'holly crap, it's Princess Celestia!' or 'You look like one of those talking ponies, from that show my sister likes' or something.
Nor was any other attention drawn to the newly transformed Jason. Other than a few odd looks.
And one last thing, Celestia wouldn't fit on a school bus. She's too tall and/or too wide.
5001087 I didn't wirte the crowd's reaction to the Celestia TF because Jason couldn't hear it through his pain. As stated as well, I wrote that he ignored the other students, not even listening for remarks like "What the hell?! What's Celestia doing here?"
I'll get to explaining how Celestia could have fit in the bus, but If I continue to get more negative ratings, I'll be morraly forced to just remove this story and try to pick up my other one.
Tired of riding the bus, is your mom embarrassing when she drops you off? Why ride when you can fly?
5003876 Because when you fly, you cause traffic jams and crashes galore, not to mention all of the government might hunt you down for such a disturbance. Sometimes the more boring and humiliating option is the one without casualties.
You have week when it should be weak. Didn't notice any other errors.
An interesting start. IF my iPad wasn't about to die on me, I'd start reading the next chapter right now
5004035
I'm pretty sure if your a magical talking horse at all you'll cause a disturbance and have the government track you down. Plus, if you stay above the cloud layer, you'll be fine.
rp?
what is rp?
You probably shouldn't use abbreviations the first time you use a term.
Same with rps.
Do you mean 'Jesus Christ!'? And molten is about melting materials.
Add every 'Command' with 'er' at the end the title, like 'Commander'.
Alec is a baby name, please change it to Alex.
5984361 people talk like that you know not everybirdy is as literal you appear to be from one comment.also the name of the character is the authors choice. i once new pretty cool person named alec.[an adult] not everything is black and white
"the science guys"
I noticed a "signed" where it should be a "singed" instead.
5967692 RP refers to roleplaying. RPs refers to the various games.
5984361
I personally prefer to use jeezus instead of Jesus.
Author probably just has the habit of using jezus. Doesn't mean he is being religious.
This chapter is basically every Government in a nutshell. (Notice something strange happened because of a strange thing. send in troops to capture said strange thing. And run some experiments on it and then dissect it and while the stuff I said is happening they keep it a secret) #Governmentisevil
Things happened really fast here.
6814514 Well, when the U.S. Government wants to detain something to isolate it, keep it under wraps, and run an inordinate amount of tests on it, things do tend to move quickly.
(I know that your were referring to the pacing of the chapter, buy I thought that it was too good to pass up, even if there's no humor involved.)
Uh oh.
Bill Nye popped into my head instantly.
This is a good intro to this story. I feel he's accepting this rather well, however there are multiple reasons this could happen ranging from shock at the situation or harmonious magic forcing him into a sense of calm.
7061606 Your avatar matches this story well.
5984361
Famous People Named Alec
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/names/alec.html
So, there is no real need to change Alec to Alex.
7339381
I believe you meant singed.
Seems a little strange to have these guys if Alecstia is just going to pop over to Equestria in a week.
6629215
I prefer how The Finger Trap portrays it. You never see it in stories and it makes perfect sense that, no matter how crazy the U.S. congress may get, the military and related areas of government would have a plan in place to make sure that first contact doesn't get followed up with something like global orbital bombardment.
(Plus, I'm Canadian. We and the rest of the industrialized world constantly have trouble wrapping our minds around how broken the U.S. is.)
5095083 Ilike how I went to this from your story and found you here
c2.staticflickr.com/4/3567/3310998522_ddb92159a9.jpg
A form of evocation, I believe.
I think it would have been much better if the MC did not know what MLP was, or moreso it did not exist in the world, the surprise for their abilities, a panic about what the heck they were. I actually like those kinds of events.
10073479
Interesting idea. I think I'll try that take on my next story.
10073479
Even better if the guy's transported into a universe that was otherwise similar, but has no MLP in it.
I totally did not steal that from the movie YesterdayOh hey, I found my way back here
4998705
Yes it is quite the relief from the dark stories that I have seen, which were most of the stories that are like this, glad to see some light sides to this concept, not everybody takes it the wrong way