10: Confessions
Giovanni leaned against the door as he watched patiently. He idly checked his watch out of habit and looked down on the policewoman’s sleeping face. She had shrunk considerably in a matter of hours. Yuki had changed her into smaller clothes about an hour ago and already they no longer fit. At her side, the pegasus looked ready to pounce. The petite purple pony had eagerness written all over her features. He almost felt bad for the woman, but he supposed he was grateful that Yuki would have someone else to annoy.
For reasons he didn’t understand, d’Atlanta had left the task of “recruiting” the pony-to-be to the two of them. He honestly didn’t know how he was supposed to go about this. Would it be “Sorry for kidnapping you and all, but we need your help to fight some evil alien mutants and save the world.” When he put it like that it sounded stupid even to him. He supposed he would let Yuki do most of the talking—the mare could be very persuasive.
He shook his head at the thought.
The mare?
It was doubtlessly the right word for her, but the fact that he was dealing with an ex-human on a regular basis hadn’t fully sunken in.
Giovanni sighed as Yuki tried to shake the woman awake once more. Dr. Hansen had chewed them out, reemphasizing that head injuries were nothing to take lightly. On his last inspection of her, he had somberly confirmed that pony infection aside, she very well may never wake. The doctor was naturally fascinated by the rapid progression of the pony transformation, but for whatever reason, d’Atlanta didn’t want the doctor in the room when she woke.
Is it because the two of us are essentially mercenaries? Giovanni thought. Maybe he thinks we’ll be in the best position to sell her on this crazy proposition. I really don’t know. That old man is a hard nut to crack.
“She’s waking! She’s waking!” Yuki cheered.
Giovanni straightened his posture and put his hand over his gun.
“Ugggh… what happened?” the woman asked, lifting her upper body out of bed.
“Hiya!” Yuki shouted hovering her muzzle right into the woman’s face.
The woman gasped. It sounded like a cross between braying and a scream. Even Giovanni found it hard not to laugh at this.
“What?! What on earth?! A flying horse?”
She looked to the side and back at Yuki before lying back down and closing her eyes to compose herself.
Yuki was snickering.
As if hoping a second attempt would yield a different result, she once more lifted herself in bed and opened her eyes.
“Hiya!” Yuki said, her deep amusement shining through.
“Okay, seriously what the hell? This isn’t a dream, so what is a little flying horse doing in my room?”
“Your room?” Giovanni asked condescendingly. In truth, he was more than a little annoyed that Yuki had plopped her into his bed without asking.
“You!” the woman said accusingly. “I remember now! It was you that took advantage of me in that fog.”
She jumped out of bed and moved to rush him. Giovanni dropped into a fighting stance and prepared to intercept her, but this proved far from necessary, as she immediately tripped over her new hooves and fell face first into the ground. She scanned her changed legs and new, coffee-colored fur in disbelief.
“What the hell…”
She was now hyperventilating and looked on the verge of passing out. Prepared for this, Giovanni pulled a brown paper bag out of his pocket and placed it over her slightly protruding nose and mouth. She breathed in and out a few times before regaining her composure.
“Since you can’t seem to decide what to ask first,” Giovanni said, “I’ll start by answering some of your likely questions. You are in the mansion of our employer.”
“So you kidnapped me,” she stated flatly.
“It was her idea,” Giovanni said, pointing to Yuki. “I’ll have you know that I was completely against it.”
“That doesn’t sound like a denial to me,” the woman said.
“That’s because it’s not,” Giovanni said disinterestedly. “As to why—Yuki here noticed your tail.”
At this, the woman turned her head towards the pegasus, staring in disbelief. Yuki, for her part, waved stupidly.
“I’m sure you’re confused by what that means, but we know a little bit about it, if you’re ready to listen.”
She slowly turned to face him and shot him a look of contempt. “Tail? I haven’t the slightest clue what you are talking about.”
Yuki was grinning.
“Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. You mean to tell us that you didn’t notice the golden tail growing out of your bum?”
She shook her head.
“Some people,” Yuki said.
“You’re both insane,” the woman said.
Yuki closed the distance between them and pointed to the still-expanding patches of fur on the human’s legs.
“You’re denying this and you call us crazy? What about this?”
Yuki bit down on the woman’s tail, pulled it free from under her and brought it out in front of her face.
“That proof enough for you?”
She opened her mouth raised, a finger, tensed up before pointing her finger at Giovanni.
“You! Did—did you do this to me?”
“No,” Giovanni said, beginning to become impatient. “As we told you before you had it when we found you. We can argue this point all day if you want, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather cut to the chase.”
She nodded warily.
“What do you want with me?”
Giovanni pointed to Yuki.
“You see that? That’s you in a day or two.”
“You’re turning me into a miniature flying horse?”
“Pony,” Yuki corrected.
“Again, we have nothing to do with this,” Giovanni explained, patience faltering somewhat more. “All over the world people are turning into these ponies. We have no pulse on why it’s happening, but it is. And the government’s been remarkably competent at covering it up.”
“This can’t be happening…” she said, staring at her hands, which had sprouted a thin layer of fur and now sported noticeably shorter fingers.
“Well it is,” Giovanni said, barely sympathetic to his former tormentor.
“You kidnapped me!” She shrieked. “Why should I believe anything you say?”
Wow she’s not taking this well.
“Your choice,” Giovanni said with a shrug. “You’ll see for yourself pretty soon, though.”
The woman was sobbing at this point.
“This can’t be happening… I—I’m an officer of the law. I stand for safety, justice and peace of mind.”
“And now you’re a pony!” Yuki said in a singsong voice. “Isn’t that neat?”
She took a swipe at Yuki, who did a barrel roll to effortlessly avoid it.
“Now you can stand for fuzziness, cuddles and the power of song.”
“Power of song?” the woman asked, almost in disbelief that she was even bothering to ask.
“Sister, you’ll be surprised what you’re compelled to sing about. The other day, I started singing in the shower about how much I love soap bubbles.”
Following that strange shift in mood, a silence fell over the room. No one knew how to respond to that, and words failed them all in this absurd situation. Finally the silence was broken by a knock on the door.
Giovanni answered it, and his brother stepped in carrying a standard brown package.
“This came in the mail just now. It says it’s for Ambra, and the only person that could be is you,” he explained.
“Ooh me! Me!” Yuki shouted, raising a hoof. “I ordered it for her. That super-duper rush shipping is aptly named.”
Luigi nodded in relief. “That’s what we were hoping for. Otherwise, we feared a security breach.”
Clearly Luigi was in a hurry to leave, as he set the package by the doorway and shut the door behind him.
The moment he left, Yuki pounced on the package and tore it open in no time with her thieving prowess. Seeing what she expected on the inside she pulled out the box’s contents and put on her biggest smile.
“See? Matching collars!” She flew to Ambra’s side and compared it to her neck. “It should fit once you get a teensy bit teenier,” Yuki added.
Dumbstruck, the woman stared at the gaudy, bejeweled collar with her name on it.
“Wait a minute? How did you know my name, anyway?”
“That’s an easy one,” Yuki said dismissively. “You had multiple forms of ID on you.”
Her inquiry answered, Ambra went back to being completely perplexed by the situation.
“That’s basically what it’s come down to. Your choices are to be the master’s relatively pampered pet pony, or to take your chances on the outside looking like that. I take it the idea of a government-run concentration camp doesn’t appeal to you.”
The woman looked at the collar, looked at Giovanni and pointedly said, “Fuck you.”
“Again, blame Miss Cute Pony. I would have left you unconscious. At any rate, I give up. Yuki, I’ll leave the rest to you. Hey! Yuki?”
The pony had set the collar down and was cautiously approaching the package she had dropped.
“There’s something I’m curious about…”
She stuck her nose in the package and pulled out a rectangular shaped present with wrapping paper depicting some bizarre mythological creature.
“Aha!” she exclaimed, grasping the package in her mouth. She turned to Ambra. “Hey, it’s addressed to you.”
That shape! Giovanni thought. Could it be? Like Domenico mentioned?
Lynne took a deep breath and centered herself. She felt her magic naturally flow through her brain to reach her horn.
I’ve got this. It’s what I practiced.
Taylor for his part was sitting on his haunches adorably, watching her. At once she gathered a bit of strength from this while also becoming a bit nervous. In a sense, it was for Taylor that she practiced so hard—for all of them.
It’s so strange to think about fighting, especially when I’m like this, but…
She smiled at Taylor.
I want to protect them, and if I have the magic to do that, I have to try my best now.
She returned her gaze to the teacup set carefully on a stump outside the cabin. Envisioning her magic’s flow she pictured that flow projecting outward and enveloping the teacup. She imagined how it would feel to hold the cup and tried to lift it psychically. Remarkably it started to rise. Lynne nearly gasped, but was careful to maintain her focus. She imagined spinning the cup in midair and the teacup slowly started to gyrate. As planned she rotated it two times, before carefully setting it down.
She exhaled. A warm leg wrapped itself around her.
“You did it!” Taylor cheered.
Lynne leaned into the hug.
“I couldn’t have done it without you!”
“Me?” Taylor said. “No, all I could do was stare enviously at the cool magic I can’t do. You did all the work.”
Lynne felt a little guilty. She had flipped through the magazine, but despite her best search efforts, she had uncovered no special abilities of the so-called earth ponies.
“No, you were great,” Lynne said. “You always had good advice on what to try next, and your teacup suggestion helped me make a breakthrough.”
Taylor rubbed Lynne’s withers one last time before releasing the hug.
“I guess… but it was a risk. We could have just as easily ended up breaking it…”
Lynne shook her head. “But it ended up working and it really helped me. I didn’t want to break it, and that motivated me to really try hard!”
Taylor shrugged. “Isn’t there a Yoda quote about that or something? It’s like you can do it, but I just thought that we could remove the block somehow.”
“Yoda?” Lynne asked puzzled.
“You don’t know Star Wars?” Taylor asked, genuinely surprised.
“I suppose I should,” Lynne said, “but I don’t really watch a lot of movies or TV.”
“Let me guess: such pastimes were unbecoming of a lady.”
Lynne giggled nervously.
“Well, if you want my opinion—valuable as it is—I think Star Wars was just the beneficiary of being the right movie at the right time. It’s good and it was innovative in some aspects, but most of the hype comes from nostalgia I think.”
The two ponies walked side by side together to their room in the cabin.
“Don’t get me started on the prequels though. As a card-carrying nerd I come pre-loaded with eleven different rants. Some people can make a living ranting on the internet. Most are funny; the rest are like me—an out-of-work film major hosting a youtube show not even my mom watches.”
“So you've already graduated college? How old are you then, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Twenty-six,” Taylor replied. “I’m almost ashamed to admit it because I haven’t accomplished anything yet.” The two of them jumped up on the bed, circling a few times in place before lying down. “All I have is a dead-end job and G-list internet stardom.” Taylor sighed. “And now I’m a pony…”
Taylor frowned. Lynne hated to see him like this and she rubbed a hoof gently down his back. It was so strange. Normally, she’d be violating his boundaries, but touching him felt so natural as to be nearly compulsory. Taylor had picked up on this too, and although he was disturbed by the mutual removal of inhibitions, he had voiced his appreciation of it.
“What was your job like?” Lynne asked.
“Terrible. Since I clearly hate myself I work at Gamestop. My manager’s always breathing down my neck, and the pressure is there to upsell every customer. I can feel the scorn of the smart customers as they blame the messenger for the sleaziness and turn me down, which I’m used to. But when I do make a sale I always feel bad. Like I just sold someone a pointless warranty, or convinced them to write a game maker a blank check in the form of a pre-order. Why bother making a good product when your customer will buy it in advance? As you can tell I’m pretty jaded. It’s a lot to take for minimum wage.”
In response Lynne doubled her efforts on Taylor back, turning the light backrub into a pony massage. Taylor’s eyes drooped and he let out an involuntary cooing noise. Lynne giggled at this, while Taylor blushed. However, he didn’t let this stop him from enjoying the remainder of her efforts.
“You mentioned your web show a couple of times. You were at Disneyland Paris filming it, right? You must be a huge Disney fan, then?”
Taylor shook his head, frowning. “It’s a really long story.”
Lynne stopped rubbing and lay down at his side. “I’d love to hear it.”
“Well, how to start… I guess it begins with my sister. She’s younger than me by seven years. I always thought it was strange for my parents to wait so long in between kids, but I’m not one to judge them for it. Anyway, her room was across the hall from mine, and she used to have the Disney Channel on full volume all the time. I complained, of course, but unless I was doing homework I was told to shut my door and put up with it, not that it did me any good.”
Taylor sighed.
“So I heard it all—every asinine joke, every trite bit of dialogue, every cookie-cutter plot line. Finally I snapped and uploaded a fifty minute video rant, dissecting everything wrong with the fucking Zack and Cody movie. And the internet loved it. I got thousands of views and I couldn’t believe the feedback of got. Naturally, it went to my head, so I decided I had the talent to keep making videos. It was mostly just me riffing on the Disney Channel. I did okay for a while, but the novelty wore off quickly, the quality went down when I got busy with school, and my viewership gradually fell. I was of course desperate for internet attention, so I tried taking my channel in another direction. I did an analysis video trying to unravel what makes Disney’s good stuff so good. And, well, it was even more successful than my first.”
He looked contemplative for a moment.
“It’s so strange it seems so obvious in hindsight. Perhaps I knew all along but was just too stubborn to admit it. I guess what happened is that I sold out. It turns out there are a lot of genuine Disney fans on the internet. I saw the allure of making money—offensively little money but still money—and I started pandering to that fanbase. My videos became trite recitations of Disney minutiae. I was more ‘successful’ than ever, but I really stopped enjoying it. I guess I was under the illusion that if I kept going I could make it into the big time and make actual money. Instead, I became just another beggar on the internet.”
Lynne slowly started rubbing his withers again. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” Lynne said. “You must have had some fun doing it, right?”
Taylor paused for a moment of thought. “Well, I suppose I got to use my degree in the form of editing, special effects and camerawork,” Taylor admitted. “Still, it isn’t exactly my dream job. I suppose I was jealous of my friends. For instance, Larry can make a living playing pokemon on the internet. I still can’t believe he does, but he regularly pulls an audience of two-thousand on Twitch.”
“I’m not sure I understand half of that,” Lynne confessed.
“I barely understand how he does it either,” Taylor said. “The guy’s naturally charismatic and somehow people like to watch him play video games. He does do this one thing called speedrunning, which I can somewhat understand the appeal behind. However, the rest is just watching someone else have fun, which I don't get.”
Lynne had lost the thread of the conversation and wasn’t sure how to respond to it. She wanted to cheer Taylor up, but she would have to know what he was talking about.
Taylor snorted. “Here’s a thought. Maybe I can compete with Larry now that I’m a girl. I’ve seen girls play video games on the internet get high view counts without doing anything special. Maybe I can get a low-cut top that shows off my pony boobs. I’m sure that will the guys would flock in to see that.”
Despite Taylor joking about it, Lynne could see that it was still very much a sore subject.
“How are you taking that, by the way?” Lynne asked.
Taylor frowned.
“It’s going about as well as you expect. The pony thing is mostly overshadowing the gender thing, so much so that honestly I’m still coming to terms with it. There are the little things, like having to squat to pee that I’m still in disbelief about. But what gets to me even more is hearing my own voice. I’m not complaining, given that I could have ended up sounding like Xavier, but the fact is that hearing my expression—my personality—come through in a female voice sounds so dissonant. It’s like someone else is narrating for me. I know there are bigger things to worry about, like the fact that I’ll be going into heat soon, but that still vexes me the most.”
Lynne had no response, so she just hugged him as tightly as she could. Her heart was pounding and she felt goosebumps under her coat. Yet Taylor’s warmth was incredible. It was like hugging the world’s greatest stuffed animal.
“Since we’re girl-talking about each other’s problems, is there anything you want to share,” Taylor asked. “I don’t want to hog all the catharsis.”
Lynne released the hug and pet Taylor’s head. Her heart was full-on hammering in anticipation of what she was about to do.
“I’m very troubled,” Lynne explained. “I was undeniably attracted to Storm when I was in heat, and I still am even now.”
Taylor nodded. “Even I’ve noticed how well-built and handsome he is,” Taylor admitted. “Even though he’s a nut… I suppose it was just a matter of time before I was attracted to stallions…”
Lynne’s heart skipped a beat and she went cold for a moment. However, she was not to be deterred.
“And yet,” Lynne said. “And yet, I find myself still wanting to do this.”
She pulled the bigger earth pony towards her and snogged him.
Taylor’s eyes went wide and he started to pull away at first, but just as quickly he leaned in and reciprocated the kiss.
Lynne felt a world of weight of denial lift from her. They barely knew each other. Still, it was the most natural thing in the world.
For a moment, Storm faltered in the face of Domenico’s accusation, but he quickly spread his wings, stiffened his body and stood up to his full height.
“What is the meaning of this, Sir Domenico? Surely my deeds vouch for my identity as the one and only Storm Chaser? Why the alternative would be absurd.”
“No, what I think is absurd is your explanation for the real pony’s autobiography being so accessible. It’s almost like you want to be found out.”
Storm was more than prepared for this and he scoffed. “It is an Equestrian custom. Who are you to say it is strange or impossible? I may have had some help writing it, and some details have been embellished, but I assure you I am one-hundred percent Equestrian.”
Domenico was unconvinced.
“I imagine your evidence is that you can use pegasus magic so proficiently and are already a highly skilled flyer?”
“So you do see reason?” the pegasus said. “So why are you hurling accusations at me, then, good sir?”
Domenico closed the distance between them and sat on the end of the bed near him.
“First of all, your Don Juan act is entirely wrong,” Domenico stated. “The way you talk about mares seems outwardly lecherous, but I’ve known several womanizers. You are nothing like them. Sure, you may go through the motions of giving the mares unwanted attention, invading their personal space and flattering them. However, the way you look at them is entirely wrong. You never stare at them like they’re a piece of meat. You never try to get a look under their tails. You can talk all you want, but your actions betray you.”
Storm genuinely sighed, defeated. It was a facade that was exhausting and, honestly, he was relieved to come clean about it.
“Well, you’ve got me there,” Storm admitted. “While I do have a reputation as a skirt-chaser, truthfully much of that is fabricated. In Equestria, there are three mares for every stallion, and that has built a culture of resilient masculinity. The mares outnumber the stallions, so the stallions cling to their stallionhood all the more. There’s the idea that a real stallion among stallions is one that seeks to ‘conquer’ as many mares as possible. That he should be prolific and that a large herd with many foals is a sign of success. With military ponies, that ideal is even more pronounced. I have been pressured to conform to it for most of my life.”
Should I go there? I wonder… but when will I get another chance? Storm thought.
“But the truth is I don’t see mares that way. I don’t lust after their bodies. Rather, I respect wo—mares for who they are as individuals and for their minds.”
Domenico smirked. “I remember Diego saying something like that too. Ironically, you’ve spoken like a true womanizer. So the lecherous Equestrian hero is actually gay?”
“N—no,” he said with some hesitation, some annoyance, before clearing his throat and speaking truly. “The idea itself does not repel me, but I am sure I am not. Though I don’t lust after mares, I still crave their companionship—their touch.”
“Interesting,” Domenico said. “Not the answer I expected.”
He looked into Storm’s eyes and studied his body language.
‘I take it you still insist you are Storm Chaser?”
“Quite so!” he said. “I assure you I am the magnanimous stallion of legend, or my name is not Storm Chaser!” he proudly proclaimed.
Domenico cracked a grin, but was otherwise unaffected by his attempt to inject humor into the situation. The mafia heir quickly regained his serious expression, crossing his fingers and studying the stallion once more.
“If you are a true Equestrian, then care to explain why you so quickly assumed your damsel in distress was formerly a human?”
“W—what do you mean?”
“When we were discussing the matter of rescuing the Mion-captured pegasus you not only failed to deny the assumption of the rest of the ponies that she was a former human; you actively bought into the assumption yourself. If you were actually an Equestrian who has merely traveled to far-off lands, why wouldn’t your first thought be that she was an actual Equestrian pony as well.”
“Th—that’s because.. I..”
Storm retreated a few paces and froze. He started rubbing his hooves against one another nervously.
Think! He implored himself, but nothing came of it.
Domenico, smelling blood moved as close to him as possible without leaving the bed.
“That’s the problem with lies. It’s a constant juggling of the littlest of assumptions you would never think twice about. Failure to manufacture even a single little link can capsize the whole illusion.”
Storm was still thinking. He knew it was bound to come undone eventually, but…
Deny it! Deny it! Even if you can’t come up with a reason, deny it!
Yet, he looked on Domenico’s countenance and couldn’t bring himself to do it. Those eyes—the sharp wit behind those eyes. Even if he could summon the perfect riposte, Storm almost wanted to admit defeat out of respect for his astute observation.
“While you’re thinking your way out of that one, I’ve got another for you.”
Storm nodded weakly, still trying to process his misstep.
“I’m sure you’ve realized it yourself, with your ‘quite a fascinating device’ comment, but you were far too proficient at using Taylor’s phone. You took pictures with it all on your own without the slightest instruction. If you were from a culture that had no such devices, there’s no way you’d be able to master the user-interface so easily.”
In a last-ditch effort, Storm offered, “How do you know Equestria lacks cell-phones?”
Domenico shook his head, smug. “That’s where you dug your own grave with your defensive-minded comment about the fascinating device.”
"I see," Storm said not resignedly, but in relief. “I’m glad you were the one who noticed, Domenico. Tell me, have you told anyone else of this?”
In a flash Domenico’s hand when to his pocket and he drew a pistol, cocked and aimed it straight at the pegasus pony.
“Okay! Okay! Unfortunate choice of words—I get it! All I’m asking is that you don’t tell them. Promise me that, put the gun down and I’ll tell you anything you want.”
“Still trying to protect yourself?” Domenico asked, lowering the gun slowly.
Storm looked away, contemplatively. “No, I’m trying to protect them.”
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Protect them? Protect them from what? It's a very blanket term, 'protect them'. From their drives? From others? From going crazy?
7803696
Aren't cliffhangers fun?
You're asking the right question though.
Glad to see this story still kicking. I liked pretty much how every scene in this chapter progressed, but Domenico was spot on a cool dude here, in handling this.
Then where the heck was Storm leading them?
It'd be a huge twist if Storm really was from Equestria and just learned how to use a cell phone before meeting them, but didn't want them to think he was prepared for them.
On occasion, especially at gambling casinos, I was given a handful of tokens and told to go play arcade games. I always ended up with a handful of tokens because it was so much fun watching other people play. When the Let's Play craze hit the Internet, I had to actually avoid them because they're making these gigantic games that someone would record 8 hours of entertaining gameplay. It's odd because I get little to no enjoyment of spectator sports, I think because in "professional" sports, athletes expect to be taken seriously and aren't there to have fun.
With song? Duh!
7821048
Nowhere in particular. He was mostly stalling and hoping for another sign from his cutie mark to lead them to where he needed to be.
Oh such a wonderful surprise! Two chapters yay!
This one ends in a quite interesting cliffhanger also it has a healthy dosage of shower songs :p