• Published 1st Oct 2015
  • 3,305 Views, 82 Comments

It's Just an Experiment - falcon4



A guy and some of his friends snag the opportunity to have a go at being ponies. It goes as well as you'd expect.

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Commencement (Edited)

Ever had one of those moments when you screwed up? Like, really screwed up? No, I’m not talking about missing the math test or forgetting that you had to pick up your sister at five. Am I getting ahead of myself? Well, let’s take it from the beginning in that case, shall we?

The name’s Kevin, last name not important. I’m that guy that’s frequently being compared to Yao Ming and Slenderman in the terms of height, and a wooden board in terms of intellect, mainly due to the astonishing lack of common sense exhibited from time to time, and the below average performance in mathematics under the label of a Chinese guy. Ever tried to shove toothpaste back into the tube and call it recycling? Well, you get the idea. I could really go on about my physical descriptions likewise, but let’s just leave it as insignificant.

Now, imagine this: you’re in the casino, and you just threw in all your money on a single number in roulette, or some other equivalent. Maybe you just gave up and went all in, or you knew you were going to win? Or you just did it because you, well, just did it? Either way, the situation analogy brings us to the beginning of this story.

-

It was supposed to be the typical Friday.

Being that time of day again, the dismissal bell signalled for the students to file out of class for the end of another day. The cars were piling up at the courtyard again, with the parents eager to pick up their offspring to get home for the evening. Considering how parents would always come a good margin beforehand when their children were involved, the worst of the crowding was only beginning to show as the youth gushed out of the front doors.

Most of us students in last period Communications Technology class were all eager to join in the group of departing people, our bags already packed up and ready to leave well before the bell itself. It was a long weekend this week, with Monday being a day off from school. Most of us were long out the room the moment the bell sounded.

As usual, I’d be heading out with the group, trying to get home as quickly as possible. It was the end of the week, and I just wanted to do what everyone else wanted to do: Go home and relax. While I didn’t have too many friends, we would still hang out together from time to time.

Living right next to the school was a pretty big plus, given how it only takes one crossing of the street to get home. It saves bus fare, and commute times, the latter of which is seemingly more valuable every passing day. Other than that, it was just the typical, boring brick building with a slight roach infestation that I had grown fond to, as I spent a good portion of my life growing up there.

Up to the third floor and third apartment unit, a twist of the deadbolt opened up to my living room, with my mom getting dinner ready, and my little sister doing her round of basic math homework in front of our knocked out television set. Being around twelve years old, she was in that age group where she envied growing up more than anything else, something which I shared until I got to High School.

“How was school?” my mom would ask, still self absorbed in preparing the dishes for dinner.

“The usual,” I would reply, kicking off my shoes and heading for my room, “When would dinner be ready?”

“In an hour or so.”

“Sounds good.”

We lived in a two bedroom suite, with my parents and sister taking up the master’s room, while I took the smaller room for myself. It was cramped and cluttered, with papers and other materials being thrown around, just the way I liked it. When I finally got through the clutter and towards my table, I’d move the laptop out of the way and occupy it with the textbooks and binders for schoolwork, supposedly containing the weekend’s full of work. Normally would be the time to dump the bag and kick off the weekend with an evening filled with more or less disappointing games in World of Tanks or some other online game, but the last stages of May usually revolved around cramping up for the summatives and exams in a giant braingasm before the embrace of summer. Between working for a better tomorrow and playing something I’ve probably already spent too much time on already, I’d choose the former; I’ll have plenty of hours over the summer to do whatever was necessary.

Most of the session went ahead as expected: a few dozen something trigonometry questions from the textbook and assigned worksheets. Feeling the usual flow of optimism at the accomplishment on a Friday evening, I decided to lay off the few remaining math questions for tomorrow, while I take a breather and check up on the other pieces of assigned work later in the evening.

Math was never one of my strong subjects- even if I studied and knew what I was doing, I would still get lower marks than everyone else. I didn’t really mind that though, as I would enjoy sciences a lot more, sometimes taking hours just googling up random inventions or scientific discoveries. I would still be treading on the water on taking the sciences to the next level in university, or giving in to my dad’s suggestion of engineering for a more stable income line.

“Honey, dinner is ready.”

“Coming, mom.”

‘5:21 PM’, I processed, catching the glimpse of the radio alarm clock on the top of the bookshelf, ‘Not too shabby for a Friday.’

Dinner was as the usual for all weekdays, with the rice and some leftover stir fry. If there is one thing that we won’t have a shortage of in this household, then its vegetables; my mom would get into frequent arguments with my dad during shopping over the topic of meat. It was usually about ‘veggies good, meat bad’ with my mom, and my dad would counter it with ‘we need meat to live’. It was amusing to watch sometimes.

I scooped a slide of rice into my own bowl from the rice cooker as I settled down behind the table, where mom would be asking about my day once again as I finish my dinner, and my little sister trying to scoop at the vegetables with the spoon. The conversation usually swings from my day, to her day, and some immensely ridiculed subject manner on how organic food is becoming obsolete. It’s usually me describing the day’s detail and my dislike for some random thing I disagreed with, and her disagreements over some grudge with a few nurses at the nursing home, and some middle ground on global problems of whatsoever. That soon switches towards to my little sister Rebecca asking for the juice, being denied and switching over to a ridiculed subject which I had no idea about. I wouldn’t complain, as I probably did the same thing when I was her age.

Scarfing down the last pieces of rice and some more broccoli but ignoring the taste completely, I threw on a long sleeve shirt and pants, along with the other essentials, notably the cellphone and keys for a typical Friday’s outdoor adventure given the feeling of disdain for the computer. I gave mom a quick wave as I headed out the door, signalling the absence, being rebutted with the simple ‘don’t wander too far’ notice, as per all parents that cared for their kids.

Passing the local Elementary school park and down a drainage ravine forked between some elderly looking estates led to a sparsely grown tree area, clearing out to a dirt path, then to a paved path, which followed under a highway bridge, then a rail bridge. It would then pass parallel to the rails and a river, before crossing paths with it. I would disembark from the pavement there to a stale dirt path, embarking onto the rail tracks on the top of the hill for the ‘average weekend’ adventure, or the places where the parents dreaded that their kids would attempt to go in the outdoors for fears of leaving the safety of bubble-wrap.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about this place, other than taking a front row seat in observing passenger trains cross by at a semi-frequent interval. It was more stress relief more than anything else, as I discovered more or less recently by heading to the outdoors on a more frequent basis. It was good in that sense of clearing the mind and taking a step into the outdoors.

Climbing to the top of the hill and meeting the tracks, I turned north, stopping at a bridge running over the river. It wasn’t the first time I did this, but I would always feel nervous eyeing the stretch of bridge, some thirty meters in length. I took a deep breath and was about to start at it again, yet I hesitated for a moment, which made me pick up the sense that a train was approaching with that distinct low rumble of a diesel engine. I got out quickly to the side ditch as I caught sight of the locomotive coming into view.

I exhaled a sigh of relief once the last cart passed, realising that I forgot to check for the start of an hour. It was a crude way of checking for traffic, but it generally held true for the most of it, once I checked the clock on my phone to discover that it was about 7:09. I went back to scaling the bridge, feeling a bit more at ease.

Up ahead was another bridge, before going under a road bridge. Even further up ahead was some hills, with a clear cut view of a golf course and some power lines, before crossing over a service trail into some more trees and a corporate storage yard. Like I said, there wasn’t anything too special about this place, it was just another random place I found pleasing to hike through for a stress reliever, as it offered an escape from somewhat predictable frustration life has.

Most of the hike was uneventful, apart from me taking glances at the scenery or behind me to make sure that I wasn’t being followed. In hindsight it worked well for practicing time trials, trying to get across before the sun goes down, or maybe trying to avoid detection from the houses near the corporate lot. It helped to spice things up a little and make the exercise deal a bit more exciting. Eventually I reached the end of the path with the corporate lot and yet another train bridge further ahead, which I crossed without hesitation this time before trying to scale the hill ahead and getting into the yard of a condo.

Not interested in loitering any longer I left the premises quickly, ignoring the odd look of a fellow resident who thought that a zombie just came out of the wilderness. I would head east through the neighbourhood that once happened to be my home before stopping at the main road to wait for the oncoming northbound bus with a precautionary bus ticket. I needlessly took a transfer once the bus arrived, and settled down in one of the empty seats for the two block trip back.

It was that time again when my mind came back to reprimand me about the fact I used a bus ticket for such a short distanced trip, even though my parents have told me to not hesitate when it involved getting home before dark. While saving money was always good, I would generally consider the overthinking and worrying part to be a negative, for the obvious set of reasons. I discarded that thought, reminding myself that it wasn’t worth the trouble to fuss over something of relative insignificance.

Either way, the flow of optimism came back when the bus arrived at my stop, reminding me that there could have been worse outcomes that could have happened, and that it was just a typical Friday after all. It was mundane, but sometimes things were probably better off that way as you didn’t need to stress yourself out, something which I shouldn’t be doing either way. The unit was already dark when I arrived home, and I promptly showered off and brushed my teeth before heading to bed early, as catching up on some sleep didn’t seem like a bad idea anymore.

I was outside.

Upon a quick inspection, I still had my tee, jeans, and cap, topped off with the glasses, being the typical set for summer commutes.

Luckily the climate was in support of the clothing, being only slightly cloudy, obscuring the rays of heat just enough to not make the surroundings a blazing and humid inferno, but enough to remain comfortable with the following set of clothing.

It was a clear field, with some mildly forested hills rolling farther off into the distance, being backdropped by a mountain range further back. Being similar to those desktop backgrounds where you would always see in the Windows series, which followed up by the ambient climate, was the seemingly ideal outdoors environment on a summer day that just never seems to happen on most years.

Though I cherished the ambience and remoteness initially, it started to worry me to a degree eventually, being unlike the casual remoteness experienced within a suburb ravine. There were no signs of nearby civilization and I had no idea where I even remotely was. My first programmed instinct was to fly into my right pant pocket for my phone, but discovering that it wasn’t there, I started to feel light-headed in silent panic.

‘Where am I?’ my head raced, as I absentmindedly went into a random direction as my pessimism kicked me into inattention, ‘I have nothing that can help track my position, nor does anyone know I’m here…’

As if on cue, a flash of purple and a sharp ‘pop’ in front of me forced a jolt backwards. My hands flew over my eyes at the burst of light that temporarily blinded me.

“Um, hello,” a voice spoke, with a trace of subtle uneasiness toned to it. Was it from the flash? Why did it sound so familiar?

I slowly removed my hands from my eyes, still being sensitive from the abrupt flash of light. As per cliché, I looked upwards, left and right before looking downwards, spotting a strangely similar purple unicorn looking up at me curiously. It wasn’t very tall, being as tall as my lower chest level without the horn, based on a visual estimate. I would swear I saw her somewhere before, but the exact place was still-

Wait a minute…

“Twilight Sparkle?” I blurted out mindlessly, my initial shock curbing slightly as I pieced the revelation together.

“So you’re familiar with the show as well,” she smiled, to which I answered with a still confused nod.

I didn’t exactly consider myself a brony, but I still enjoyed the show in the few occasions on watching it with my little sister, or by myself. It was decent entertainment on part, but I still didn’t tell my friends, as god knows they already have enough ways to annoy me with their situational humour. But why would the show be of her interest to me? Aren’t there other fans more interesting than me for that consideration?

“So, where am I?” I reasoned out my main priority, trying to completely ignore the awkwardness of the previous exchange, “Or at least, is there a town or some form of settlement nearby?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Twilight reassured in a calm voice.

“What? Why not?”

“We’re dreaming.”

“I am?” I asked, both skeptical and confused. Last time I recalled, I can't tell if I was dreaming or not, maybe except for the money collecting ones, which wake me up instantly if I noticed that the amount I collected was obscene.

“Yes you are," she stated with flatness, "And if you're willing to cooperate, I can explain the ordeal to you, Kevin."

“You know my name?” I felt some fear upon this; how would she know some random guy's name, like me? Or was that just dream logic, where you invent new things out of thin air? But again, she didn't freak out when I managed to blurt her name out correctly, give or take to that.

“That would be in part with my explanation,” she stated, “If you want to listen to the proposal, that is.”

“S-Sure,” I accepted with some reluctance, seeing no logical connections between the joints this time, it would be best to let someone else that was more knowledgeable to fill in the gaps. No need to bust my brain over something that makes no sense of whatsoever to me; Getting worked up isn’t going to help either. Besides, I was dreaming, so there goes the chance of me needing that life insurance…

“Long one or short one? Neither will take too long, to be honest.”

“Guess I’ll take the longer one, then,” I stated, finding a nearby tree to settle down under for the impeding explanation.

“Of course,” Twilight cleared her throat and settled down in front of me akin to a teacher giving help to a clueless student, “So, it started some decades ago, when our observers at the Canterlot observatory found a planet within our magic’s reach, not too unlike ours- it had water, an atmosphere, landmasses and native life. But then we found beings like you- humans, to be more precise, which drew closer attention from the scientific groups, and eventually the princesses themselves.”

“The princesses liked what they saw in your world, even in spite of the ensuing global struggles being pressed forwards,” she continued, “Though we had our fair share of questions and doubts initially upon seeing your world divided in conflict, we also saw the upper sides in your technological and political advancements in overall. It was a complicated and interesting sight, largely reminding us of the more turbulent days we experienced previous to this discussion.”

“We let snippets of our world to a woman named Faust, which you probably best know as the show,” she added, “Though it exaggerated the situation of our world by quite a bit, I think the overall message is clear, in that we’re a society that wants to make a few new friends with other species that would be willing to the gesture."

“And that’s where you come in. As we are unable to send any observers to your world due to us still fine tuning the long range teleportation spell, we decided to take an alternate approach to it instead."

"What do you propose on that?" I asked, my initial reluctance and uneasiness fading a bit from the discussion.

"Let's say we have a volunteer that would be willing to cooperate with you, and have them switch bodies with you."

"Why would you do that? And who are these 'volunteers'?"

"The 'volunteer' is usually a pony, but can also be a Griffon, Zebra, or pretty much anyone in our world that's willing to participate and cooperate in the experiment. We’re going along this way as we are unable to teleport to your world directly, yet our magic is still within reach. But otherwise, this would help us gain a better understanding on both xenophillia and phobia on both sides, how it may affect relations, or just general public reactions to our world. A social experiment of sort."

“Alright then,” I nodded slowly at her explanation, “In that case, why was I picked, then? Like, who didn’t make it as your experiment’s candidates?”

“Think of it in a way as a lucky opportunity,” she explained, “But in case you’re wondering, the ones that didn’t make the cut were partially due to mental issues, extremism, and potentially life threatening health conditions that would make the process or the aftermath a negative experience for both parties of interest, or just downright fatal. Others just didn’t want to participate. Elsewise, the rest were simply decided to be unfit for the task due to the lack of suitable volunteers to be paired with, or how their area of residence would put them at threat if the experiment went on. We're just having this exchange to see if you're comfortable with the idea of our experiment and your willingness to participate.”

“I guess. Who is this volunteer that’s willing to cooperate with me, taking that I accept the proposal?”

“She’s an old friend of mine,” the unicorn said with a smirk, “Though she lives in Canterlot, I think you two should get along together quite well.”

'It's a her?' I processed, but still feeling cool right now. I was never too comfortable with the opposite sex, but that didn't manage to bother me for the moment being. Chances were that the encounter was probably completely lucid of some sort, but then again, if she’s nice enough, I’d be naturally tempted either ways.

“Hey there!” an overly-excited voice chimed in as a blue unicorn with a toothpaste remiscent mane teleported into view, “Wow, so is this the volunteer I would switch my shoes with? He's a bit taller than I expected, but then you can't expect aliens to look too similar to us!”

"Hi," I managed, as nonchalantly as I could manage.

“The name’s Minuette,” she introduced, booping me on the nose, “I assumed you just met up with my old friend Twilight here, haven’t you?” she wrapped a forehoof around her friend’s neck, who returned a smile at her friend’s gesture, “What’s your name?”

“You can just call me Kevin,” I smiled.

“Well, it’s good to meet you, Kevin!” she shook my hand with both forehooves, a gesture which I found to be rather cute, “So you’re the volunteer that would be to switch shoes with me, is this correct?”

“Guess so.”

“I’ll just leave you two here for now,” Twilight stated, “I’ll check back later. You two play nice!” With that, she teleported off on her way.

With the seconds of silence ticking onwards, I decided to go ahead and ignore the ramblings within my mind, “So, any ambitions you’re trying to get out of this?”

“It was actually the result of a favor,” She replied with a smile, “Basically Pinkie wanted to meet some new people in your world, but she is unable to sign up herself as she is an Element, so she asked a few friends to help her do it.”

“So I assume you got selected for her little assignment?”

“Yep! I agreed to her proposal, so here I am!” she beamed.

“I see,” I scratched my chin, smiling deviously, “So my new friend, tell me a bit about yourself,” I asked, glancing down at the cutie mark on her flanks, “Such as, what’s your special talent?”

She glanced down at her flank, then back to me, “I’m not too sure what it means precisely, but I would assume that it’s the ability to make friends in no time flat!” she beamed, “It could also be some time magic thing, or just the overall relationship with precision and hourglasses, but that’s all insignificant in comparison!” she asserted.

I had to smile at that. She has the very real potential of a more powerful talent, yet she chooses to take her abilities to go out and make social glue instead. More focused visual examination would say the same thing as well- Her steel blue eyes, her voice, her laugh. It held the quintessential definition of happy-go-lucky, even though she was a unicorn instead of a human. Such a persona would be hard to come across, regardless of the species barrier. I respected that, to say the least.

We only got halfway through one of her stories, namely about her friend Lemon Hearts getting her head stuck in a beaker, as absurd as it sounded. Though disappointed that Twilight had to step back in to remind us that our session was up, I still felt content in how a simple conversation on perspectives can help bring two strangers a bit closer.

“We’ll still have time tomorrow if you take the proposal,” Minuette rubbed a forehoof into my chest, “Elsewise, I hope I can see you in a few years, when we can hopefully link our worlds together.”

With that, she teleported off, leaving only Twilight and I left in the field, with me still staring at the place where Minuette was standing just a minute ago. Twilight tapped my shoulder a few times, getting my attention to be diverted back to her.

"So, do you have anymore questions about the proposal?" she asked, though her voice was still hinted towards accepting the proposal itself.

"Well, you definitely have me interested, in case you're wondering," I told her, "But is there anything else to this deal that should be mentioned?"

"So far, participants will be given permanent residence rights from the homeland of their partners," she stated, "We're still having talks on the monetary compensation protocols so far."

I scratched my chin at that. Maybe I wasn't poor, but extra money was always good, assuming that we were even paid in the first place. Permanent residency sounded nice as a boot, given that I had the time to visit there in the first place. I always liked to explore the unknown, and that would make the whole concept easier.

“So how long will I have to stay as ‘her’?”

“About a week due to safety concerns with the magic,” she explained, “There would be safety nets involved; we can pull you in if things get out of hand.”

“Wait, I thought you said you couldn’t get here, wasn’t that why we were doing this in the first place?” I asked, figuring that ‘pulling in’ meant going to Equestria.

“We can’t sent living things like ponies over,” she explained, “But pulling you in right now can still be done safely. For the sake of a quicker explanation, its sort of one way right now.”

“Sounds fair, sounds fair…” I reiterated, looking around nervously, “Also, please don’t take this the wrong way, but does that someone I’m switching bodies with have to be a girl…?”

“We do it on a basis where we find two individuals most likely to cooperate with each other,” she smiled, “Unfortunately we’re short on volunteers, so finding someone else is quite unlikely.”

“I see.”

“I’m glad you pointed it out though.”

Nothing seemed to sense now, given the course of action in the past encounter. Some alien beings resembling unicorns have claimed to have wanting a better relationship between our worlds, while stating that I would be involved in some experiment of theirs to switch bodies with a member of the opposite sex, with vague promises of compensation. In amidst of the nonsense, part of me is clearly telling me that it might be a good opportunity of an experience even without any form of repayment, in spite of all the areas that could go wrong. I held out a hand over her face, with her nuzzling it as tertiary confirmation that this was really going on.

I knew I had everything I could ever have wanted: A home, a family and the potential of a future career. Surely someone else can do this instead, right? I have all I need, and what would this do to offset that balance? Yet at the same go, I was insanely curious at just the outcome of what people would think, along with the opportunity to see what the other side was like. And for me, the less rational side had the edge in this case- besides, this would be a critical point for mankind, and sometimes you just needed to make less than viable decisions in order to advance down the line.

“Screw it,” I said, throwing precaution to the wind, shaking her hoof gently, “It’s Alice in Wonderland after all. Count me in.”

"Well, that was definitely quick,” she stated, if not a little surprised, "I just want you to know that there’s no backing out once we start, and that you’re final on your decision.”

“I’m certain of it.”

“Very well then; It’s your call.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, her horn lit up in a pinkish aura, tinting my vision in it as it surrounded me. It didn’t look to be a normal thing to her, with her showing obvious signs of straining to keep the magic up. I felt slightly fuzzy and warm on my skin in its embrace, an alien but not unpleasant experience. Eventually it got deeper within my body, causing my control over myself slip away as it reached the core of me, backing me up against the tree. I didn’t pass out though, as the magic stopped right before I was about to, leaving me disorientated with a diminished amount of control through my whole body, and a mildly disturbing cold sensation.

"How do you feel?" she asked with concern, glancing at me from several different angles, "Anything off? Anything broken?"

"Just a bit dizzy," I slurred slightly, trying to shake my head, only for me to fall sideways, if not caught by her magic.

“Take it easy now,” she smiled, settling me stable as my orientation improved, “I’m glad that you took the choice. It’s not an easy one, and many backed out upon hearing the concept of it. Try not to think too much of its significance, but don’t just throw everything away, either.”

I gave a slow nod as the words seeped into my rebooting mind.

“Good luck Kevin. I’ll meet with you tomorrow to discuss more details of this plan. Hopefully you won’t regret this experience.”

With that, she teleported off, presumably with her friend. Leaving me all alone sitting underneath a tree. I smiled blearily at myself.

‘What have I gotten myself into this time?’ I thought absentmindedly, getting up to take off in some random direction.

Author's Note:

This was chopped up for the umpteenth time to make it more fluid. I suggest you to re-read this if you read previous versions of this chapter before.

Got rid of scenery porn to improve flow.

Either way, feel free to scrutinize this some more. It helps future chapters. :raritywink: