Cause and Effect: Discord's Truth

by Coltsguy

I AM A TOTAL IDIOT!

Once I saw the former ponies, I knew I had really fucked up.

There wasn’t any real reaction to the change for a bit. They were honestly too stunned to do so. Unfortunately, I reacted instead. The inherent problem with changing them into humans was the fact that since they didn’t wear clothing normally, they didn’t come with any clothing now either. I was basically looking at a bunch of naked pony-humans.

That was quite an interesting sight to behold. The first thing I noticed was the lack of clothing of course. The fact that there were almost no men around made it hard to not stare. Staring like an idiot lead me to the next thing. They still kept their wings and horns. Earth ponies ended up looking like regular people, but Pegasus ponies had wings coming out from their back just below the shoulder blades. The wings themselves were about two feet long and all of them were white. The unicorns all still had their horns. They seemed to extend about four to six inches from their foreheads right at the beginning of the hairline.

Another interesting thing was that they all kept their cutie marks as well. It was now about halfway down their thighs on both legs. It was a bit intriguing. Everyone also seemed to keep the same hair color as their mane color. It was even styled in the same manner as before.

The strangest thing that I seemed to notice was everyone was Caucasian. I was honestly expecting more diversity or for their skin color to match their fur color, but that was not the case. Some of them were tanned, but ultimately they were all very much white.

As much as I wanted to keep staring at them, they were all pretty jiggly in one way or another; I realized that I needed to change them back. Unfortunately, when I attempted to do so, it didn’t work. I tried several times, but to no avail. After the fifth attempt, the crowd began to react. It was utter pandemonium. Everyone just started running in every direction.

The only thing left that I knew to do was to give them all clothing. I ended up trying a different approach to that. I crossed my arms at the wrist and snapped my fingers on both hands. That effort seemed to work. Everyone was now wearing a toga since it was the simplest thing I could think of. Trying to get everyone a custom piece of clothing would have been absurd… and probably would have worked too. I had already done this, though, and it was acceptable for now so I left it alone. Changing it now would have somehow made something go horribly wrong. At least that’s what I thought would happen if I tried.

This act, however, had no bearing on the pony-humans. They continued to run amok. They were just stampeding everywhere. Thankfully, that made me think of getting some help from Applejack. That seemed right up her alley.

The problem now was getting there. I had no idea where her farm was. I hadn’t seen a single apple tree while I was there. I also had no idea how to navigate there from anywhere. They always used cut-scenes to bring the audience to Sweet Apple Acres. Somebody should have really made a map of Ponyville and posted that sucker online. Of course, I probably missed it somewhere so what do I know?

I had to think hard about this. I had no idea where the farm was. I wasn’t even sure of the general direction. I also had yet to learn how to teleport anywhere so I couldn’t be sure of my success getting there with that method.

You know what? Chaos magic got me into this mess. Since I didn’t have any useful spells, chaos magic will have to help bail me out. The question is how?

“When in doubt, think like a crazy person,” I thought out loud.

The first thought that came into my head I quickly snapped my fingers and let it happen. Instantly, fireworks started to go off in the sky. It worked well, as all the pony-humans stopped to look up at the fireworks. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, so I needed to think of something else soon. What would help calm them down?

It was relatively easy for the next spell. I snapped my fingers and quickly a disembodied head appeared in the sky. If it wasn’t in the image of Celestia, I think that probably would have been a disaster. I had to do this fast while I still had their attention.

“Citizens of Ponyville do not be alarmed! There has been a magical accident that has transformed you all into a creature known as a human. Do not worry as the spell is not permanent. It will wear off before the end of the day. Rest assured that we will try to remove it sooner to ease your minds, but do not concern yourselves. Please remain calm and try to go about your day as you would normally.”

I managed to get that last part off as her image faded from the sky. If anyone could calm down the ponies of Ponyville, it was Princess Celestia. Or at least a facsimile of her anyway.

I looked around to see if it worked. There seemed to be a tenuous peace that permeated the area. It didn’t seem like anyone was comfortable, but they were at least not panicking like they were before. In reality, I had hoped that the spell wasn’t permanent. I hadn’t thought of it as permanent, but I hadn’t exactly thought it through in the first place. If I had, I would never have done it at all. Chaos is one thing, but wholesale panic in the streets isn’t funny.

Speaking of things that weren’t funny, some of the pony-humans were giving me some looks that made my skin crawl. Of course, I still stuck out from them because I was the only one not wearing a toga at the time. I wonder if I should speak to Rarity. She could definitely make something much nicer for everyone to wear. Knowing her she was probably already doing that for her own attire.

Wait. Did my head just tingle?

“Seth. What is going on in Ponyville? I feel a disturbance of harmony coming from there.”

“Ah, so that’s what that was. There was a bit of a mishap with my chaos magic.”

“What kind of a mishap?”

“I kind of accidentally turned everyone here in Ponyville into anthro-ponies.”

“You did what!?!”

“They all look human except for the wings and horns, but yes they have been turned into humans. I am very sorry about this and I’ve already calmed down the populace.”

“I am very unhappy about this Seth. I wanted you to study in magic from Twilight.”

“And Twilight gave me a list of spells to learn while she went and studied that magic coin that Discord gave me.”

“So instead of helping you study to learn magic, she is currently studying Discord’s coin?”

I swear I could hear gears shifting in my head. Too bad I didn’t understand what they meant.

“That’s right. It’s partially what led me to this situation. Although, I think a lot of it was my fault and not hers.”

“I believe I need to have a chat with my faithful student about this.”

“I don’t really think that’s necessary. I’m not exactly happy about being away from that coin, but I do think that we need to take a closer look at it.”

“While that may be so, it is not what I asked her to do. I want you to learn from her, and not just have her tell you what to do and send you away. Doing that will also not help you learn the magic of friendship either.”

“I’m a bit hesitant of that part in the first place, Celestia.”

“While you are here, you are a citizen of Equestria. Therefore you obey the laws that I decree.”

“Okay, now I know you’re just making shit up.”

“You forget, as the ruler I can in fact make shit up. It comes with the territory.”

“Hearing you swear is really weird. It doesn’t really matter that much, but I’m just saying that is all.”

“Indeed and I will endeavor only to do so with you. My little ponies don’t deserve that kind of language.”

There was a bit of silence after she said that. In hindsight, I think it was because she used a My Little Ponies reference again. I would never really know, but I’d like to think that anyway.

“This discussion has gotten off topic. The situation sounds like it has been quelled for the time being. Therefore, when I finish tending to some royal duties, I will travel to Ponyville myself to assess the situation and to have a chat with Twilight Sparkle about your studies in magic and friendship.”

I wanted to say something to her about that, but I really didn’t know what. I had no way to prevent her from doing what she wished. She had my memories and her ancient wisdom. Any argument I could try would probably be countered by her in some manner I likely would never think of.

At a loss for what to do, I simply started walking. Everywhere I looked I noticed the pony-humans trying their best to follow Celestia’s advice. Well, my advice with a sugar-coating of Celestia. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down and all that jazz. I was still feeling bad about doing this to them, though. I was just glad that no one was noticing me anymore. They were too busy looking over their new forms and adjusting to them.

Thinking about this more led me to a weird thought. Why are they all able to walk and run so easily after the change? If you looked at the biology of animals, you would know that switching from quadrupedal to bipedal movement would be pretty hard. Then, I thought about it for a moment. Why would it be so different? I don’t mean for normal animals. I’m talking about these ponies. There are lots of instances in the show where you see them up on two legs doing things like a normal two-legged person would. I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that they could alternate as ponies and not worry about it. It seemed like it was in their very d.n.a. to do so.

Either that or it was just more chaos magic bullshit. I kind of want to lean on that more.

Speaking of just being on that train, I noticed somewhere I wanted to be.

Sweet Apple Acres.

I looked all around and noticed I had walked all the way out of town and to her place without even noticing it. I didn’t even see anything I would recognize as having led me here. There was also the fact that getting to her was absolutely unnecessary now.

“I might as well see what’s going on here. No sense in wasting the trip.”

Luckily for me, I was at their house and not one of those many barns they have. I could easily get them mixed up. I only knew I was at the right place because outside in her rocking chair was Granny Smith.

I honestly assumed it was Granny Smith. Other than the rocking chair, I had no real indication of who she was. Like I had thought, my stupid spell had made its way out here and Granny Smith had been turned human. Thankfully, my other genius spell made it out here too. That would really have been a ‘what has been seen’ moment.

Like everyone else Granny Smith had turned human and kept her mane color for her hair. She had a tanned skin tone that almost made her look like a different color altogether. Thankfully she was still asleep rocking her chair back and forth. If she came to and saw herself like that, I would be very concerned about her having a heart attack. Without any doctors who knew how to work on people, I highly doubt she would survive.

That thought really put me in a daze. What about everyone in the range of that spell? What might have happened if I had turned a Pegasus pony human in midair? Even if they still had their wings, there was no guarantee that they could use them in this form. What if I was responsible for ponies falling to their death?

Thinking these things really made me uncomfortable. Imagining them in my head really didn’t help either. I decided to walk past Granny Smith without waking her up or else those thoughts might just become too real for me to handle.

I walked up to the front door and knocked a few times. No one answered. A few more tries and I gave up that approach. I was about to yell for someone, but quickly remembered about Granny Smith. That would definitely wake her up.

Luckily, I was spared trying to test my luck on just walking into their house. A barking sound drew my attention to my left. It was Winona, Applejack’s pet dog.

“Hey there puppy. I don’t suppose you could take me to Applejack could you?”

She barked twice and ran off into the field. I ran off following her as well as I could. What surprised me most while running after her was that I wasn’t winded after running a few minutes. I’ve not been able to do that since I was a teenager. I was a two hundred and thirty pound diabetic and I wasn’t currently panting while running. The only thing that seemed the same was that I wasn’t running very fast. I was going maybe a bit faster than I think I normally could, but not by a whole bunch.

After running for a little over ten minutes, I saw who I was looking for. Applejack, or who I assumed was Applejack, was sitting against a tree with her Stetson hat covering her face. The first thought that came to me was that she tried bucking a tree with her human legs and got hurt. That thought gave me a little burst of speed and I quickly closed the distance to her.

“Applejack! Are you alright?” I yelled about forty feet away.

She took her hat off of her head and looked my way.

I’m pretty sure I tripped over something as I ended up tumbling over to her after she took her hat off. I ended up landing face up and quickly looked up to her.

Holy crap she was stunning as a human. She was tanned like I had expected a farmer to be. My dad was a farmer until college and I could recognize it immediately. She was lithe, but from the look of her arms I could tell she had quite the muscle tone to her. Her freckles only stayed on her face and were nowhere else on her as I expected them to be in a similar fashion to myself. Her eyes and hair were the same color as when she was a pony as well. Her hair was even in the same ponytail style as before. Her toga was ripped in a few places and it took me a second to realize she had dragged herself to this tree.

“Should I throw out a falling for you joke or should I ask if you’re doing alright?” I quipped.

She chuckled a little.

“Ah’m fine. My leg kinda got hurt while ah was buckin’ this here tree. It was my own durn fault for trying to keep buckin’ these trees after I got turned inta’ this. This darn clothing is a might uncomfortable though.”

“Yeah, well you should keep it on anyway. Even though as a guy I’d love the show, as a gentleman I feel like warning you to keep this area and this area around your waist covered or you would be considered indecent by human standards.”

I emphasized that by waving my hand over her breasts and her waist while I was talking.

“Donit mean that when you was here at the beginning that you weren’t decent? You didn’t have a thing covering that top part of ya back then.”

“The top part is called a chest and it’s different for men than women. Breasts on women are kind of like udders on a cow. Although, it kind of just ended up that way that women ended up covering them up. It’s a cultural thing for humans.”

At hearing my explanation, she pulled on her toga and looked down at her breasts. I halfway expected her to try and squeeze them to see if I was telling the truth, but she merely stared down at them. Eventually, she put her toga back in place and looked back at me.

“You called yourself a gentleman, but ah also noticed you starin’ a bit. Not very gentleman like if’n ya ask me.”

“I’m also a guy. So sue me. Do you need help standing or are you good?”

Applejack slowly made her way to her feet. She hesitated putting her right foot down. It was obviously the one she tried to kick the tree with. After a hesitant moment, she looked like she was in no pain. She then looked up and smiled.

“Looks like ah’m alright.”

“Good. I think we should go check on the others. I’m a little worried about them as well.”

“That sounds like a good idea. We’ll split up. Ah’ll head out to Fluttershy’s place and you head back to town.”

“There’s a problem with that. I have no idea how I got to your farm.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“I literally started walking and somehow I managed to find myself in front of your farm. I have no idea how to get back. I’m not even sure which way Ponyville is from here.”

“Fine. We’ll both head over to Fluttershy’s and then we can split up from there.”

“Sounds like a plan boss.”

I then hesitated.

“Perhaps some better clothes for you first would be nice.”

I snapped my fingers and clothes changed in front of me. Instead of the toga that I hastily gave everyone, she was now wearing a flannel checkerboard shirt and some denim overalls. She was also in some nice cowboy boots and her Stetson hat completed the look.

“There. That looks a lot better and it’s better to run in.”

“I thank ya kindly, but we need tah git over to Fluttershy’s in a hurry. Let’s go!”

She ran past me with Winona in tow and I followed her back in the direction her house was in.

The only thought I had at the time was making sure Fluttershy was okay.

I could only hope that her animal friends were still her friends.

Author's Note:

I almost turned that tingle into my own Spidey-sense, but I decided that would be annoying and too difficult to use properly. Just an FYI from the storyboards.

Comments

[skultech]

Ok this story is taking a strange turn now.
Let's see where this corridor leads.

[kragor]

hmm...

[PotatoManato]

...Not a fan of this twist.

[Kevin Lee]

Equestria Girls seems to be here a few seasons too early, if you ask me...

[bladehorn]

“ You forget, as the ruler I can in fact make shit up. It comes with the territory. ”

Big oof