Tracy yanked off oversized clothes as he ran, ditching his shirt and jacket in the hall between his office and Janet's. The pants were a little more stubborn—he couldn't get those off without stopping. The sound of running, terrified people followed him like a wraith, so close it sounded like they might tackle him at any moment.
But none did, and he made it all the way to his office, passing dumbfounded coworkers and confused secretaries along the way. By the time he kicked the door shut, he could hear a distant siren, probably the building's ordinary security system.
A few seconds later, the sprinklers clicked then started spraying water all over the place from overhead.
Did someone trigger that on purpose? Last he checked, those sprinklers didn't use any sensors or emergency switches, but required actual flames to shatter glass tubes inside.
What do I do what do I do what do I do...?
Tracy stood still in front of the mirror against his door, staring at the terrified pony's reflection on the other side. Not even in his worst moments had he ever seen a whole pony on the other side. But then again, he had a room full of witnesses to attest what had just happened. While he stared, Tracy shook at the confining pant legs, dislodging them from a body not meant to hold them.
He had to run, obviously. He had to put as much distance between himself and Apex as he could. The shouting and confusion continued outside his door. There was no telling how much longer it might continue like that.
Water sprayed down against the wall, turning the fancy docked laptop into a piece of sparking e-waste.
I didn’t get to choose, he thought, to the tune of screaming and splashing water. It slid down his coat and wings, hardly even considered. Too bad I can't fly. I might be able to get home. He didn't have a window, but the building had plenty of exits.
A plan seized him then, a plan so utterly insane that he could barely even entertain it. He couldn't take off yet, that much was obvious. But he could fly, once he got going. There are twelve floors. If I can get up to the roof, I could fly all the way home. It wasn't even ten minutes away by car. If he could do laps around Ponyville, he could make that.
The door banged open, and Janet burst in. She was soaking wet, makeup smeared down the sides of her face. Shadows flickered in the space behind her, and for a moment Tracy imagined he could see a beak there. Was his transformation contagious somehow?
No, he was just projecting. Janet smacked the door closed behind her, then loomed over him with arms folded. If she'd looked big as a hippogriff, now she towered like a giant. A very angry giant. She screamed for almost thirty straight seconds, and he couldn't make out a single English word. What little Spanish he remembered from high school suggested most of it was profanity, though.
She caught herself, resting one hand against the door behind her. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" she finally asked, breathing heavily.
"Nothing intentional," he said, exasperated. "I'm out in a week. One more week, and this would be over."
Janet laughed bitterly. "No end to it now, pendejo. No end ever. I did good by you, kid. Now you..." She slumped against the wall, landing in a growing puddle on the floor. The energy was already leaving her. "Last year, fulfillment had an intern who melted a copier. I did not imagine anything worse could ever happen."
Tracy had to hop up onto his desk to reach his phone. Unlike the laptop, it was waterproof, and the screen still lit up despite the moisture. "In my defense, I didn't set off the sprinkler, or knock over the wall." It sounded stupid even as he said it. But once the words were out...
"Forget the fucking sprinklers," Janet snapped. "I'm talkin' about therapy for my people. You shouldn't exist—none of it should. I know you're not a demon, stupid little horse. Don't know what we do with you now. Forget what management thinks from Steven—what kind of men in black you figure come drag us away?"
"Us?" He dried the phone as best he could on some carpet on the far side of his office, then fumbled around with his hooves. When he brought this thing into Equestria, it felt easily double this size, obviously expanded to make it easier to use with hooves. Navigating to the phone app was agony. "Shouldn't you be joining the mob or something?"
She sighed again, even deeper than the last time. "Whole campus is evacuating. Security doesn't know what the hell to make of it, I think they're reading it as a gas leak from fabrication. God knows how they'll explain a disconnected building getting 'gassed.' According to policy, they'll sweep the building, getting everyone out. Police will be called—hazmat might already be on their way. Assuming they don't call the men in black."
"You're still helping me." He grunted in frustration, then gave up and just slid it along the ground towards her. "Can you call Rose for me? Or just text her... she should know what's happening."
Janet took the phone, but only tucked it into her pocket, rising to soggy feet. "We need to get out of the building. Did you drive?"
"I was thinking I could fly. I just need something tall to jump from. If I could get to the top floor, I could glide home." He nodded towards his keys, anyway, sitting beside the useless laptop. "I need to get back across. I'm not sure... maybe the door will fix me again? But I'm not sure what would be waiting for me if I did come back. Everyone in this whole damn building is going to see me."
"And... about a hundred cameras." She scooped up the keys, then brandished her own. "Fly across all of San Jose. If you weren't about to start an urban legend before—hello moth man."
He nodded weakly. "You shouldn't help me. What happens to you after all those cameras show us together?”
"Too late for that, amigo. Those visits I made to your place were all recorded. Even if HR doesn't know what I saw, they know I cleared you. Pretty sure whatever unmarked van boys come to look into this will dig that up." She hurried across the room, bracing up against the door. She peeked outside, then stepped into the dark hall, illuminated only by red flashing emergency lights on the exits.
He followed, keeping pace far better now that he wasn't trapped in those ill-fitting pants anymore. She was right about the evacuation though—he didn't see another soul on this floor. He could hear some moving on the floors above, and panicked voices still echoed from places he couldn't see. "I don't know what they'll do to us. Maybe prison for you, maybe dissect me..."
His imagination spun faster and faster with every step. By the time they made it to the emergency stairwell, he'd already conjured up a whole secret agency, watching for alien creatures that appeared on Earth. Obviously they must exist, if magic did. They'd find him, and make him disappear. Spookiness demanded it.
"Alternatively, that won't happen," she said. They hurried down the stairs. There were loud voices in the stairwell, and soon they came upon the back of a crowd. Janet pointed, and they fled onto a lower floor. Not before several people saw them, and more scattered, screaming and pointing.
"I'm fucked at Apex, obviously. Whole department will probably get restructured. What, you think the police are going to arrest me?"
Tracy didn't have a clue where they were going, but Janet seemed to. They crossed the abandoned floor of another department, this one without the puddles of water everywhere. But there were wet spots on the ceiling. They'd have their own water-damage soon enough.
"Maybe. They'd think you... helped me or whatever. You knew 'what I was' and didn't tell anyone. You're a..." But even as he said it, his fears seemed dumber and dumber. People weren't at war with ponies—they didn't even know ponies existed. If it weren’t for his transformation during a meeting, they'd probably just think he'd escaped from a petting zoo or something. Or maybe a circus.
Janet laughed. "I could just abandon you. But you need a key for the roof. Lucky for you, I have just such a key." They reached another stairwell, on the other side of the building. Janet poked her head inside, then gestured for him to follow. They ran up the stairs, a task far easier for her than it was for Tracy.
It wasn't like he couldn't move on four legs anymore—he'd mastered all four ways of pony movement now, even the tricky gallop. But these stairs were a human's distance apart, not a pony's.
They passed plenty of other workers along the way. "Get away!" Janet shouted, or something similar. "Other stairs! Don't get near it!"
People obeyed without question, often just changing direction and running the other way.
Janet grinned with increasing smugness each time it happened. "Just sound like you know what you're doing," she said. "Too bad that won't work to get us out of the building. Otherwise we could just drive you back to that house. What exactly will you do when you get there? You think you can reverse this somehow? Or were you always this way?"
"I wasn't. I never lied to you, Janet. But after all those people saw me—after causing this disaster. Apex is done with me. It's probably not even safe for me to stay on Earth anymore."
More and more people seeing us together. I sure hope you don't go to prison over this. Tracy slowed as they neared the top, the climb draining him more and more by the step. How much could one pony walk before they collapsed?
"I feel that," she said. "Probably smart. Melting right in front of us like that... there's no way you don't get vanished into some nameless military base somewhere. Might happen again. Might be contagious. Hell, it better not be."
Finally they reached the roof, and Janet produced her keys. She fished around with the gigantic ring. "Lucky for you I've got this master. Management doesn't know it exists, except now they will." It clicked, and they stepped out onto the roof.
The gigantic rooftop AC units were silent and still around them. Gigantic pipes provided constant obstructions to his line of sight. Still, he didn't need to stay here for long. Once he got to the edge, he could take a running jump, and fly home.
"I'm sorry for ruining your life," he said, struggling along behind Janet. Climbing ten human stories was so much harder than it looked. "And maybe the company too. I know you... cared about... Apex."
She shrugged one shoulder. "I give it 50/50 they give me more money than I would've made in ten years to keep my mouth shut. Either that, or... maybe Nick Fury shows up. I saved a thousand people from the 'demon'." She laughed, patting the wall with one hand.
It wasn't even half her height, probably only there to obscure view of the air-conditioners from the ground. It was taller than Tracy, though low enough that he could make the jump. He took a few steps back to do exactly that.
Then his back legs gave out under him, and he collapsed to the ground. A wave of tiredness crashed into him all at once, powerful enough that his eyes lost focus and his tongue went numb.
Janet turned, dropping to one knee beside him. "What's the matter, Tracy? Sure might want to take off around there. I hear an awful lot of sirens."
The world swam. He fought against the exhaustion, tried to stand. But this wasn't one night he'd gone without sleeping. It was months. "Ever...wake," he mumbled, twitching one leg towards the stairs. "Left it—"
He collapsed into blissful unconsciousness.
the second picture has a certain point if cuteness/adorableness in it
You.
Friggin.
Idiot.
As the old saying goes, it never rains, when it can pour...poor Tracy just isn't catching a break, nor will Janet at this rate...excellent chapter!
what a fricking great time for it to wear off. /sarcasm .
So judging by the art he's the spark that bridges the gap between humans and Equestrians, giving the former magic. And Janet is changing as well. I frigging called it last chapter.
Oh that's not good.
10730564
I prefer not to make calls when I already know the numbers up.
At least the Everwake didn’t wear off after he jumped off the building.
All the possible problems converged to create a giant fiasco. With all the chaos emerging around, did Tracy become an unwitting agent of Discord. Just think of it all the tasty disorder he can no longer impose on Equestria
Her ear is looking a little pointy along with the mirror of her.
The big secret of this story is it is set in "The Conversion Bureau". :) They needed a human to keep the portal open by using it often. That must be why Celestia and Dsicord was working so close together, but Twilight was told so little.
That is why the portal is closing soon. They needed to reach critical mass for the world wide conversion to be unstoppable, but close the portal to prevent any responses till after the world is fully converted.
I am like 75% shore the above is not true, but it could happen.
So now it’s on our representative Janet to get our boy home. For both of them, likely.
Seems like this is the end of the line unless Discord feels like stepping in, or if Janet has the presence of mind to try calling the landlord.
Well done. I look forward the most to these updates!
Hmm... Chapter 26:
If Janet stashes him in her house for the week, what happens?
...
And where's the story going from there? Yeah, likely best to start calling Rose and or Discord or something...
Beginning patches of fur under Janet's eyes
Next time you wake up it could be in area 51.
in Forbidden Places we are introduced to stable world gates... They may not have quite the same sideeffect as Discord's...
Discord and stable kinda makes an oxymoron by default...
that lease timing was not coincidential!
So, will Discord get two for the price of one?
Leave him on the roof, go back inside, lock the door, and start lying. Nobody ever goes out on the roof and he can sleep it off.
And the debt came due...
The Everwake wore off at pretty much the worst moment possible and now he's stuck on the wrong side of the portal. I wonder if the hippogriff shadow and reflection are saying something about Janet or if it's just Spark Gap's addled mind seeing things that aren't there. Both options seem equally likely, but if it says something about Janet we should wonder what that means for the other 2 that came to Equestria.
Lmao what a fucking idiot 🤣
10730674
The big problem with this solution is the extremely long amount of sleep Tracy has to catch up on. He's going to be asleep for days if not weeks. He'll need medical care, because he won't be able to eat or drink on his own. Leaving him to sleep it off on the roof would result in death, most likely.
Fantastic art as always. They seriously reflect the emotion in the moment(s).
Of course everything had to happen at once. And Janet's trying to help him escape. Is she going to be considered an accomplice and arrested like Tracy thinks, or is Janet right and she'll be paid to stay silent? Hmm... both equally possible...
10730687
Oh damn, I totally forgot about his other friends, but they spent more time in Equestria than Janet did because of their trial— wouldn't they have transformed already if Janet is going at this kind of pace just from a single visit? If they hadn't come running back to Tracy wondering WTF was going on by then, they may have been captured and sent to Area 51.
Weird choice of analogy. Wouldn't a wraith be silent or wailing? There's no lore I know of where wraiths follow you very closely. Unless he means the ring variety, in which case why not say that.
Oh please turn into a hippogriff, Janet. It would make my year.
10730704 I didn't say it was a solution for him.
10730674
She can't just abandon Tracy at this point because most people at Apex have now seen her with him. For better or worse, she's tied her star to him. At this point, she has to be considering just hopping on the other side to avoid getting picked up by the Men in Black.
10730707
That assumes that Tracy coming back with magic coursing through him wasn't the trigger for this whole thing. He wasn't on Everwake when he met his friends, so it's possible that they're still fine.
10730606
That's likely a more thorough explanation of "Tracy must use the house as his primary residence" rule that we first encountered in Chapter 8. He's incapacitated, but would still consider that house his primary residence. Also, Discord himself is the one who enforces that rule, as we see from that particular clause:
In other words, he's probably safe from that angle. It's no fun tormenting someone who isn't awake to react to it.
Yeah, called it last chapter that he left the Everwake. With Tracy unconscious for likely a very long time, next chapter we might see Janet's POV on things (or Rose's). On the bright side, Jordan should be able to keep Tracy company in the Dreamlands.
Huh, I didn't notice Nick Fury being name dropped on my first read through, nice! I'd certainly prefer he shows up rather than the Men in Black.
If there was ever a best time to crash on Earth, it'd probably be now where Janet can assist Tracy getting back. Though this may have condemned her to an Equestrian life if she wasn't already. There was no choice for her at all.
Good save, Janet.
Something tells me you may yet have the chance. Though given what happened on Earth, you'd probably couldn't cut it out living as a normal person anymore. You'll need a fake identity.
Either your perceptions are skewed or magic is slowly leaking into her as she's been to the other side as well. Once again, there are good reasons for Discord to close his gates.
Pretty sure Janet's in the train to Equestria too.
The magic leaking through opened gates apparently affects those that travel but I doubt it would spread. There are many gates that remained opened. The other gates don't seem to have this effect unless every human that used one never returned. Unless Discord's gate is fundamentally different, it probably doesn't bode well for our Forbidden Places team.
It's time.
Time Skip!
Oof. I felt that one, especially after more than a year of working from home.
He may also need a key for his house. Knocking is an option, but it's the middle of the night in Equestria.
And it's time to pay the piper. Or the Sandman, as the case may be. Sorry, Janet, this one's on you now. At least she knows where he lives. Probably still has his address in her GPS's recent entries as well. And even if she does transform halfway there, she'll still have fingers. Though, again, there's the question of getting in the house...
A line from an old song comes to mind...
it's time to pay the fiddler, and today's the day the first installment's due...
Can't remember who did it. Appropriate, yes?
I am really not happy with the way this story is going. Why being up a choice just to RIP it away?
Well. Things went from bad to worse. After all, why hit him with one problem when you can crush him with everything at once. ...which leaves me thinking that there's still more to come.
But there's no denying that that last scene is touching.
10730840
I'm there with you. I've argued multiple times over the past 10 chapters that anything less than him making that decision just blows up the tension that's been building around him having to make a choice.
I mean, Everwake had to give, the reflections thing had to do something, but happening in this way leaves him in a situation with no choice. Basically, the story spent too much time harping on the "He needs to make a choice" to not let him make a choice.
CLONK
Owww... Did someone drop their other horseshoe?
he'll be sleeping so long that when he wakes up the contract will be over! so i wonder where he'll wake up next chapter!
Of course it would wear off right there! Mmmmmmmaximum drama!
10730586
What fking crazy conspiracy theory universe are you getting that crap from?
Coming soon to a High tech industrial park near you.
Agent's of SHIELD
qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-da6a3632ef1a1a32a041ef2e10613227.webp
10730868
Don't forget that ponies have four shoes. Better get yer hard hat. ;)
shit is getting supper intense. it is not just Tracy that needs to run Janet has Equestrian magic in her also it is just a matter of time.
a super awesome chapter.
I know now's not the time for it...but I sorta want to hear that story now.
Darn that spookiness...be less demanding!
Daaaaaang it--I really didn't want it to be a case of Tracy being forced, or feeling he was forced, to abandon Earth for Equestria like this. If he was going to stay in Equestria, I wanted it to be a case of him choosing to stay of his own volition, and not because unfortunate circumstances basically forced him into it.
*sigh*
But that being said...maybe it is for the better. Heaven knows Tracy was dragging his feet for as long as possible to make that choice anyway...so maybe he always going to need it made for him in the end regardless.
You're a good person, Janet, and a good friend. Tracy's right, you're practically throwing it all away helping him when you have no real obligations to, so the fact you're doing so anyway says a lot.
I'm actually kind of sorry so many of us spent so long trying to find the worst in you, in fact. Clearly, we were misjudging you, doing that.
Aaaaaand of course that chooses now of all times to kick in too. I mean, everything else was hitting the fan too, so I guess it figured it needed to join the party.
Does lend credence to the theory that the whole transformation was triggered as a side effect of the Everwake though...maybe a precursor to it finally hitting critical mass, so to speak. It didn't know how to handle a human, so it "nudged" Tracy back to pony form. And then kicked in. Or I suppose, more accurately, wore off.
A thought I had a couple chapters back though...Rose alluded to bat ponies being able to dreamwalk. Maybe, while he's going to be catching up on those lost Zs, this'll be Tracy's big chance to determine if there's any truth to that or not.
In any case, he's now going to be comatose, so now it's all going to be on you, Janet. You got him this far--you going to be able to get him the rest of the way there?
At the very least, you've got his phone--might be a good idea to contact Rose after all. At this point, it couldn't possibly make it all worse...could it?
10730580
Speaking of Discord, the fact this is all going down at once like this, so close to the portal being due to close...it does make me wonder if he's had a hand in all of this...depending on which side of the matter he's on, he would potentially stand to gain from it...
10730637
Actually, I think that's just lighting casting a glow on her face--you can see a similar effect going along her nose.
But yes, I do think a transformation just might be in store for Janet too...though the question is, will it happen before or after she reaches the portal?
10730674
As much as I'd want that to be the case, I doubt it's going to work, not just for the reasons others have already stated, but because the authorities are coming and given the nature of the situation, the roof's almost certainly going to get searched too, so that's no good.
10730840 10730856
Agree with you both, as I already stated earlier in my comment. I much rather would've had it been kept as a choice for Tracy, not it be forced for him.
But...the story's also not done yet, either. It really sort of depends on what Janet does next--that could determine the course of the story from here.
And I remain unconvinced that once the portal closes, it can't be opened up again. So there's that to consider too.
If he stays on the Earth side, I wonder if the transformation will slowly wear off as he sleeps the Everwake off.
10731270
Yrs not the end yet but where it is IS concerning. Been doing great, don't screwups the landing
10730574
To be honest we had that at 73 percent odds. Glad we're not adding injury to insult! 😇
10731102
He is not allowed to live anywhere else for more then a few day. So he is forced to use the portal over and over. That could allow more magic to enter his birth world.
Turning humans into ponies in a human world sounds like something Discord would do. Celestia knows more about what Discord is doing then Twilight. So Celestia may know what could (is) happen(ing) in the human world because of Discord's portal.
If it is a runaway effect: like turning anyone who has had any contact with magic is being turned, then even the portal closing likely won't stop the magic in the human world slowly changing the whole world.
Where am I getting it from? I somewhat remember a The Conversion Bureau Story that Celestia "accidently" (she know what would happen) opened a portal that could not be closed and was slowly killing or turning any human; in a slowly growing area.
She offered to save anyone; with Conversion Bureaus. I think children was being turned (or born) into ponies by the growing magic,, while the adults could only be saved by being turned at a Conversion Bureaus.
Like I said at the end of my comment; I think it is unlikely we have an Evil Celestia in this fic. So just blame Discord.
Just saying when the whole I look in to the mirror thing happened and the ever-wake dependency kept getting mentioned I knew this situation was a matter of when not if.
Oh frick oh frick oh frick oh frick oh frick oh frick
Also if the mirror picture isn’t an indication Jantet also looks like she might turn. Her ears are pointier than those found in the picture of chapter 49 at the end.
Dang, this is way way better than any of my predictions. It might be jarring for the story if this turns into a rescue mission so I wouldn't put my eggs in that basket, but considering how much sleep Tracy has to catch up on... Aaaanyway, Tracy HAS to move to Equestria now.
Will Janet join him? Will she have a choice?
Visiting Equestria might be like visiting the Kingdom of the Fae - you can go there but not eat or drink anything there or else you are doomed to change permanently. Janet may be destined to join Tracy in the not-too-distant future.
That's a cute picture!
There's a saying about a pan and fire that would work here, awesome chapter