• Published 3rd Apr 2013
  • 51,322 Views, 6,881 Comments

Five Score, Divided by Four - TwistedSpectrum



As a fan of the show, I always loved Rainbow Dash and her cutie mark, but I never wanted it to appear on my leg! Now that it has, all sorts of things are getting weird around here. I'm a guy, not a mare! Cartoon ponies aren't real... right?

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9) First night.

Dave's Perspective

“So, how you enjoying being a pony?” I smile and turn my head to look at Evan, who just looks back at me and raises his eyebrows.

We left the farm about 10 minutes ago and had settled into a nice steady walking trot as we entered the thick woods behind the farm. Most of the journey would be through this sparse forest, which was good as it was almost always deserted. Anyways, neither of us had really said anything since we left the farm so I tried to get the conversation started with that question.

Evan responds without breaking his pace “Uh, that’s kind of a loaded question isn't it?”

“Oh? Why would you say that?” I smile innocently, I was trying to get Evan in a better mood. I mean, I'm going to be stuck with him all day, might as well get him smiling if I could.

Evan tilts his head slightly. I think he wanted to shrug his shoulders, but you really can't do that while you’re using your shoulders to walk. “Oh come on Dash, you said how am I enjoying being a pony. That implies that the action is something enjoyable.”

I look over at Evan, his words seemed bitter but he said them with a slight smile on his face. It was a start. “Oh, so sorry Grand Master-Professor of the English Language: Dr. Evan Smith. Let me rephrase, please describe the average summation of your positive and negative feelings that your neural limbic system and emotion-linked amygdala have felt ever since you became an equine. If possible please give standard deviations for all your values and list off the statistical p-value.”

Evan chuckles lightly “Smartass.”

I stick out my tongue “Dumbass!!”

“Nerd.”

“Moron!!”

“Mare.”

“Work horse!!”

Evan laughs “Taking lessons from my sister are you?”

I smile at him “Hey, don't play with fire unless you wanna get burned.”

Evan smiles and shakes his head “Oh you think you're so good at this game?”

I hasten my trotting pace and walk past Evan “I am immune to your insults. Unlike you and Jack, I am perfectly at home in this body. You can't bring me down.”

Evan replies “Oh is that so?”

“Come at my Big Red. Give me your best shot.”

Evan clears his throat. “Oh please, you're a horse with a rainbow face.”

I laugh so hard I stumble and have to stop walking to catch my breath “Oh god, come on Evan, was that even an insult or was it a compliment?”

Evan also stops walking and throws his front hooves in the air. “I said you have a equine body and a feminine face! I'm making fun of your loss of masculinity and humanity!”

I continue laughing “Telling me I have an equine body and a feminine face is like telling a girl she has a very womanly body. I'm pretty sure that's a compliment.”

Evan waves one hoof at me “Oh come on! You've gotta be upset about some part of this transformation thing! You're a mare! Hell, once you go in heat you will want nothing else but to get rutted! That's degrading!”

I smile to myself, time to screw with Evan’s head. I slow my pace and move around him while sliding my tail under his chin “Oh? Who's to say I'm not in heat right now? Hmm?”

Evan tenses up and blushes at the feel of my tail on his face, “Uh, Dash...uh, wow...” Evan swallows hard.

I burst out laughing. “Haha, you should have seen you face, that was just priceless!”

Evan bites his tongue and shakes his head. “Gah, Dash you are the most bizarre, insane pony I have ever met.”

I hop from my left hooves to my right, and then back again. Bouncing back and forth in place like a little school filly. I am really enjoying myself here.“Hehe, I ask again Evan, was that supposed to be an insult, or was it a compliment?”

Evan rolls his eyes “Alright, enough of your antics, let get back to our trek”

I hold up a hoof, still smiling from earlier ”Not yet cowboy. We need to find a big tree or something to hide under for a few minutes”

Evan looks around “Uh... okay? Any reason in particular or do you just wanna play hide and seek or something?”

I start trotting a little ways ahead looking for shelter “There’s an isolated rain shower headed this way. I was hoping we would pass it before it got here, but turns out we’re not going to make it. Do you wanna get rained on and spend the rest of the night with wet fur? Because if not, well then I suggest finding a nice tree to get under.”

Even looks up at the mostly clear sky and raises an eyebrow “Rain is coming? Really? I mean Jack always said you had a knack for this sort of thing but--”

I cut him off “Bitch please, this is what I do.”

Evan mutters some reply but I don’t hear him, I’m busy looking for some sturdy shelter, we only had about four minutes until the rain came.

After another minute of searching I find something useful. I yell across the forest, “Evan! Get over here!” In front of me was a huge downed tree that fell across a log, there was enough space under it for two ponies to huddle and stay dry.

I find some small soft branches and drag them under there so we don’t have to lie directly on the mud, I just got things cozy when Evan finally arrives. He looks at my little fort and laughs “That’s adorable, it’s like a 5-year-old built a treehouse on the floor”

“Oh well that’s fine. You make fun of my castle, you can stay out there then buddy.” I smile as, right on cue, the rain starts to fall.

Evan feels his fur start to get wet and swallows his pride “Sorry, sorry. Um, Captain Dash, can I enter the awesome fort you worked so hard on?”

I grin, “Yes you may soldier, welcome aboard!”

Evan steps inside and turns to me “Wait, welcome aboard? Is this a ship? I thought it was a castle?”

I backhand his shoulder “Shut up! It’s both!”

Evan laughs quietly and shakes his head, then lies down next to me. The rain starts to fall harder, but we remain quite dry under here.

Evan looks at me “How long till this passes?”

“Not long, about seven more minutes.”

Evan yawns and leans against me for support. I lean back into him, enjoying the warmth radiating off his body.

Some time passes, I close my eyes for a mini-nap but get distracted by the fact that Evan, a stallion, was lying alongside of me. The two of us were alone, thoughts of the things we could do together poke at my mind.

“Gah!” I shake my head with a start, anything to get those thoughts away from me.

Evan looks over with concern “Uh, are you okay dude?”

I rub my eyes with my fetlocks. “I’m fine Evan, I’m fine. It’s just... well...”

Evan leans his head closer to mine “Yes? What is it?”

I sigh, well heck, I might as well tell him. “Evan, you know back there when we were joking and said I was in heat?”

Evan looks confused “Yeah, what of it?”

I bite my tongue for a moment, this was awkward. “Well, I wasn’t joking. I’m pretty sure I actually am.”

“What?!” Evan stands up and jumps back an inch, bonking his head on the tree he forgot we were under. He yelps out in pain and takes a few steps away from the tree, ending up back under the rain.

I burst out laughing “Haha Evan, nice work klutz. Now calm down dude, and get back under the tree! I’m not going to jump you or anything man.”

“Oh... right” Evan slowly gets back under the tree but stays a few feet away from me.

The seconds tick by agonizingly slow, finally Evan speaks up “So... how’s that whole “thing” going for you then?”

I sigh once more “It’s annoying, but I can deal with it. Just gotta keep a clear mind and fight the urges, thankfully I’m stronger than them.” Evan nods, and I look over at him “Say, uh, how long do you suppose this status will last? You have experience with horses right?”

Evan pokes at the ground with his hoof. “Well, with horses on Earth it's usually just a few weeks.”

I frown. A few weeks? Man, that’s annoying. As if I didn’t have enough crap to deal with right now. Oh well, I’ll manage.

The rain starts dies down and so does our conversation. Eager to get my mind off the awkward topic we just discussed, I look back over at Evan. “Hey, you never answered my question!”

Evan steps out from under the log, making sure the rain stopped. He looks over at me with a blank face. “Hmm? What question?”

I grin “The one about how you enjoy being a pony. Or not enjoy. Whatever!”

Evan sighs and looks down at the wet earth. It was a good rain, the grass here was eagerly sucking up the water. Evan smiles and closes his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the ground under his hooves. Feeling fresh dirt under a hoof felt very peaceful, very natural. It felt good.

Evan opens his eyes and looks back at me, appearing quite content with himself. “Well, I’ll tell you what.” Evan pauses for a moment and grins “It certainly has it’s perks.”

~~~~~~

We eventually got back on our hooves and started walking about. Thankfully we hadn't lost that much time waiting for that rain to subside. As the following hour or so passes we make some good distance; we only had another five or so miles to go before we reached the town limits.

We don’t say much as we walk and my mind wonders. Being in heat was a little disturbing, but I was okay with it I guess. I could ignore the urges, and hey, it was just another part of being a mare. If I wanted to be Rainbow Dash, this was just something else that I would have to accept. Part of the package deal I guess.

Granted, what if we change back after all this? What if I become Dave again? I shiver at that thought, but it only gets worse when I think about how awkward things will be for all of us. Losing this kickass pony body and being a normal human again would suck, that’s for sure. But actually being a guy again after spending all this time as a girl, and after knowing what being in heat felt like? Urgh, I don’t know if I could do it. I didn’t want to be changing genders back and forth randomly, there was only so much my mind could take!

“Whatcha thinking about Dash?” Evan looks over at me inquisitively.

I looked up at him “Well...” I paused to think of a lie, as per usual. Wait a second, why do I have to keep lying when people ask what I’m thinking about? Screw that, I’m going to be honest for once. “Well Evan, I was just thinking about the fact that I’m pretty set on being a girl now.”

If Evan was drinking water, he would have done a spit take. ”Wait what? The hell?”

I take a deep breath “I don’t know, I just don’t think I could go back to being male right now.”

Evan stares at me “Really...”

I tilt my head “Well, we don’t really seem to have a choice in this at all, but yeah, if right now if we found ourselves turning back into humans, I would actually prefer to remain female when all was said and done.”

Evan laughs “What are you, a closet cross dresser or something?.”

I laugh with him “Oh shut up, but no seriously, I would feel weird going back to being a guy now. It’s not a sexual thing either, it’s just a feeling I’ve been getting. Being a mare just feels right, this body feels like a tight fitting glove to me. I mean at first I just thought I liked being a pony more than a human, but now I think I actually sort of like this gender more than my old one too. Sure the heat thing is annoying, but fuck it, I can deal with that. I kind of like being a mare.”

Evan turns and stares at me “Really? That’s kind of creepy isn’t it? I mean, I guess I’m also starting to get the hang of this body, but I still think I would prefer to change back once this is all over. You actually want to stay like that huh?”

I smile and get back to walking “Yeah, pretty much. I’ll be honest, I really like this body compared to my old one. I would do almost anything to stay like this.”

Evan inquires “Anything huh? Give me an example.”

I stick out my tongue “I’d volunteer to go on some lame trek with this boring red earth pony, and I’d even be suffering through heat the entire time too!”

Evan laughs “Damn it Dash, I don't understand your confidence. I mean you were turned into a female pony, are experiencing something no man should ever experience, but at the same time you’re just smiling about it and cracking jokes. I wish Jack could be as confident in her body as you are in yours...” Evan shakes his head and sighs ”I mean really, how do you adapt so fast?”

I shrug my shoulders ”I’m not sure. I guess I maybe just feel at home here because for so long I loved everything about Rainbow Dash? So actually being her just seems like the next step or something? I don’t know, I just feel like I want to keep this body and do whatever it takes to be more like Dash."

Evan nods “Hmm, well I guess that’s better than the opposite route and just being depressed about everything. But, I have one question for you: How far are you gonna take this?”

“What do you mean?”

Evan goes on “Well you said you want to be more like Dash. But where do you cross the line? How much of yourself are you willing to lose? If you ‘succeed’ and you pursue this and become Rainbow Dash incarnate, well then... what about you? What happens to Dave? Where do you go after you cut yourself out?”

I pause, that was a good question. I didn’t have an answer for Evan.

Evan smiles “No response?”

I look back at Evan “Yeah, I don’t know, that thought never crossed my mind before. Ever since this started I was never concerned about keeping my humanity. That sounds weird doesn't it? But yeah, I think I was pushing to be more like Dash every step of the way.”

Evan nods slowly “Well, it’s something to think about; just how much of yourself are you willing to give up?”

Evan stops to scratch his leg and I trot past him. We settle back into a steady pace as we leave the forest and enter some fields. Evan is still a few steps behind me and I find myself pondering Evan’s question.

Evan breaks my concentration by changing his pace and moving to pass me. As he passes me I notice he is blushing wildly for some reason.

Confused, I speak up “Uh, problem Evan?”

Evan doesn’t look back “Ah, umm, sorry Dash. I need to be in front... can’t walk behind you right now.”

I look behind me, I don’t see anything “Why Evan? I don’t see anything, and it’s not like I farted or something.”

Evan looks back, still blushing “Sorry, it’s just that, well, I can’t help but stare at your tail and legs when you walk. It’s... awkward.”

I laugh softly ”Careful now Casanova.”

Evan shakes his head “Gah, this is so wrong, I should not be in interested in the legs of a freakan blue horse!”

I mumble, “Mmm, not horse. Pegasus.”

Evan looks up, desperate to change to conversation as quickly as possible “Hey, you know, I actually meant to ask you about that. What's the deal with those wings? Can you fly?

I stop walking. “I... don't know.”

“Well then Ms.’I-want-to-be-like-Dash’ don’t you think it’s time you tried it?”

“Hmm...” I look around us, we had emerged in an open field close to the edge of the town limits. It was like 9pm or so, pretty dark and the sky was calm. It is good flying weather that’s for sure. The ground here felt pretty soft from the rain too. “Well fuck, this seems like a spot as good as any to try flying.”

Evan laughs “Should I put out some pillows for you to land in?”

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up big guy. You’re just jealous you can’t do this yourself.” I open my wings and twist my neck back to look at them. I am sort of used to how to control these wing muscles. I can open and flap then down pretty easily now. And the wings themselves look fine to me...

“Come on scaredy pants, start flapping!” Evan takes a few steps back to give me room and is grinning. “Just see what happens!”

I take a deep breath and flap my wings down as hard as I could. The feeling of the ground under me vanishes and I feel my body get launched upwards into the air. Whoa, I didn’t expect that would actually work! I look down to see how high I am, but instead of the ground below my hooves I see the night sky. Wait a second, shouldn’t the sky be above me? And do I need to flap my wings more than once?

THUMP

My back slams into the ground knocking the wind out of me. “Ow...”

Evan is laughing like a hyena “Oh god, that was fucking priceless. I wish I was filming that.” After a few more seconds of hearing his laughter he manages to get a hold of himself and trots over to me, holding out a hoof and helping me to stand.

I wipe the mud off my shoulder “What the hell happened to me? Did I fly?”

Even laughs a few more times and finally explains things “Well you flapped your wings once and then just sort of froze. So you propelled yourself like three feet into the air, and then just fell straight back down to earth. Oh and you somehow managed to flip over during your descent, ha ha.” Evan moves his fetlock to wipe a tear from his eye as he laughs some more.

I flex the various muscles on my back. That fall was probably going to leave a bruise, oh well. I look over at Evan and smile “So what you’re telling me is that... I flew!”

Evan wipes his eye again “Yeah, sure, sure. You flew about two feet there buddy. You gonna try it again?”

I think about it for a moment. That fall hurt like a bitch, if I was any higher up I would have probably broken something. “Yeah Evan, I’m gonna try this one more time. But I really need to stay upright this time.”

Evan nods “You just gotta balance yourself some more!”

“Yeah, okay, with what? I’ll be in midair, I can’t exactly grab onto a handrail here.”

Evan waves his hoof at my sides “Use your wings! Balance with the wings!”

I roll my eyes “Oh yes, why didn’t I think of that. It’s so easy to balance myself while flapping these appendages that I’m not even entirely sure how to fully move.”

Evan sticks his tongue out at me “Well numbskull, at the very least flap them more than once if you want to actually stay in the air.”

I wave a hoof at him signaling to back up “Yeah, yeah, I know, now give me some more flying space.”

Evan backs up and I spread out my wings. I give them a nice, slow beat downwards and then bring them back up, getting a feel for the rhythm. I close my eyes and keep practicing the pattern a few more times, nice slow beats downwards and gently bringing them back up again. Nice and smooth. Okay, I could do this. Now when I finish this practice, to actually fly I’ll just have to flap them faster, but I gotta keep this same pattern. Just nice and smooth, just gotta keep flapping. I think I’m ready to--

“Nice work kid! Now try landing!” Evan’s voice comes from below me, from very, very far below me.

My eyes shoot open and I see nothing but sky. “Oh holy sweet fuck what the hell, I’m in the air.” I look down and panic fills me, I somehow made it fifty feet in the air and now I was just sort of hovering above Evan. Confused, I look back at my wings, they were still making the “practice pattern” I had started when I was on the ground. I was just slowly flapping up and down, about once a second. I honestly didn’t think that was enough to generate lift, I had just wanted to practice moving them!

“Dash, come on down now!” Evan’s voice is distant and was slightly distorted by the wind.

I look down at Evan and yell “Shut up, I’m trying!” I swallow hard and ponder what to do. Right now my wings are pretty much on autopilot just running though that flap pattern. I mean you know how when you don’t think about it, you breath automatically? Well, that’s what my wings are doing right now. But if I wanted to lower myself down and land I would have to take manual control over them. Damn it, this landing is going to be painful...

“Evan, get out of the way, I’m coming down!” I slowly take control of my wings and tell them to stop flapping for a moment. Unsure of where to hold them, I decide to just keep them vertically pointing straight up at the sky. Hopefully I would lose some altitude? Maybe?

I drop like a fucking stone. “Ah shit, shit, shit, shit” I fall about 15 feet in two seconds, then start flapping again, which immediately stops my descent like a car slamming on the brakes. God damn, flying was strange. I mean, it’s like swimming in deep water and you are treading on the surface, but the second you stop treading, you just sink like an anchor. This was crazy, who’s idea was it to put wings on things?!

I hover in the air doing some more gentle flaps for a few more seconds before I look down. I am closer to the ground now, maybe, I don’t know, 30 feet in the air now? Well, this method of decent works, I guess. Time to drop a few more feet, I lift my wings vertical again.

Wind whips past my ears and I feel my stomach move up to my throat as I drop another 10 feet in one second and then start flapping again. The sudden lift from my wings abruptly stops my fall and jerks me up suddenly.

Evan, now about 20 feet under me starts laughing “Haha, It’s like a 15 year old learning to drive! Flooring the gas for two seconds and then slamming on the brake! This is priceless!”

“Damnit Evan, shut up, I’m trying to not kill myself here. Gotta do one more altitude drop and I should be able to just hop back down to the ground.”

“Hey Dash, instead of holding your wings vertically to lose altitude, why not hold them horizontally out to the sides? It should let you glide down instead of just falling.”

I hover in place for a few more seconds as I thought about that suggestion. I smile for a moment as I realize I can just effortless hover at will now. I mean, hovering with these slow flaps is very easy to maintain, and it is actually felt pretty comfortable to just sit here in chill in mid air. Damn, I am actually really starting to like this flying thing! Right, back to falling with style idea, let’s try Evan’s suggestion and see if I can glide. I was still like 20 feet off the ground, this should be pretty safe to try. I take a deep breath and stop flapping my wings and instead spread them out to the sides as far as they can go.

I gasp in shock as wind rips past my ears. I was still falling, but instead of just going straight down like before, I was falling down slowly, but falling forward at about 20mph.

“Holy shit~~” Evan yells out from below and I hear his voice fade away as I shot away from him. I was accelerating away from him faster and faster as I was falling is what was apparently some sort of dive. I keep my wings fixed and look in amazement around me, the field below is zipping by under me alarmingly fast. I am both thrilled and horrified to see how fast I am now going, and then I realize my altitude is still dropping and I am on course to hit the ground moving at about 50mph.

I am only about 5 feet off the ground at this point, so I tilt my wings up, hoping to both slow my fall and my forward velocity. It sort of works, but the sudden deceleration starts to lift my hind legs upwards, I am going to flip over in a moment if I kept this up. I am just a foot off the ground now and moving at about 20mph, so I give one final regular flap of my wings in hopes of softening the landing.

I think it worked. Not entirely sure, I blacked out from the impact either way and opened my eyes to see Evan out of breath and standing over me “Holy shit Dash, are you okay?”

I wave a hoof at him “Pfft, I’m fine... never been better... ow...” I wince as I wiggle my legs. I think I bruised my everything.

Evan twists his neck and looks around, measuring how far we are from where we started “I mean, holy shit dude, I’ve never see something accelerate that fast. You went zero to sixty in about a second a half. ”

I lean forward into a sitting position and shake my head to clear the ringing noise. “Ha, yeah, what can I say, I’m built for speed. I mean, imagine how fast I could have gone if I started that dive at higher altitude! I only had twenty feet to work with during that dive, imagine if I had a thousand!”

Evan frowns and holds out a hoof to help me back up on my hooves. “Well, then you would have died probably.”

I nod somberly “Mmhmm, pity we don’t live in an actual cartoon. That fall fucking hurt.”

Evan laughs “Well yeah, you slammed into a dirt mound. But hey, at least it wasn’t concrete, gotta be happy about that.”

Something suddenly dawns on me “Happy about that? Oh no, I’m not happy at that fact. You know why I am happy?”

Evan raises an eyebrow “Because you’re still alive?”

“Try again.”

“You’re happy because.... um, you learned something new?”

“BECAUSE I CAN FUCKING FLY!!

Evan chuckles to himself and I let out a scream of jubilation and start galloping across the field screaming “I CAN FLY!!! FLIGHT!!! WOOOHOO!!! HAHA!!! FUCK YEAH!!!”

~~~~~~

Once I calmed down we made it into town. As much as I kind of wanted to try flying again, I really couldn’t do it here, it would attract too much attention. Turns out it’s not normal for two colorful ponies to be walking the streets at night, so we really had to stay as hidden as we could. Thankfully, it was a fairly sparse town with lots of trees and public landscaping to hide behind, plus the fact that it was 10pm and really dark outside meant we could sneak around if we were careful.

Evan and I had just turned a corner and dashed for a large bush half a block away. Our hooves were extremely loud as we galloped over pavement, but what can you do. Once safely under the bush we catch our breath and Evan speaks up “Alright Dash, this is your part of town, where’s Fiona’s apartment?”

I wave a hoof at the large building down the street. “It’s that one. We can push the room buzzer by the front door and see if she answers.”

Evan looks around and slowly nods. Finally he points at something down the road “Okay, right there, 200 meters away. Large shrub on the corner of her apartment building. Let’s move to there.” We both check around us once again, making sure there were no pedestrians around and no voyeurism going on in any of the apartment windows around us. The coast is clear so we both gallop over to the next bush and I smile to myself as I realize I can run much faster than Evan. Eventually we both reach the bush and the apartment is just a few dozen feet away from us now.

“Okay Evan, it’s room 306. The buzzer button for her room is on the far bottom left. Go over there, buzz it, and see if she answers.”

Evan looks at me. “Wait, I’m going alone to ring the bell? Why don’t we both go?”

“Needless risk, there are lots of windows near the front door. Both of us don’t need to go.” I reach up my hoof and flick my bright rainbow mane “I’m colorful and a lot easier to spot than you. You’re a nice subtle red and brown, people won’t even see you in this dark light. Just go and ring the button dude.”

Evan looks around to make sure no one is coming, then takes a deep breath and bolts out from under the bush, galloping across the parking lot towards the front door. He makes it to the door and I see him peer at the buzzer controls on the wall as he looks for Fiona’s name.

I mutter to myself “Come on Evan, bottom left button, hurry up and ring it...” I was getting nervous, he was ridiculously exposed over there.

I see Evan stick out a hoof and press one of the buttons, then he started looking around to make sure no random person was on their way. The seconds tick by agonizingly slow as we wait for Fiona to answer the doorbell.

I start biting my hooves with worry. Come on Fiona, answer the damn buzzer! At least no one was walking over there, coast was still clear...

A good 30 seconds have passed, Evan rings the bell again, then looks over at my shrub and shrugs his shoulders. He yells across the lot “No answer!”

I wave a hoof beckoning him to return to safety “Alright dude, come back!” Evan nods and gallops back over to my bush. I am honestly surprised that nothing bad happened there, this was incredibly dangerous for us. I chew my lip for a moment as I realize we really need to get off these streets. I mean, it was only 10pm, people could still be walking around.

“Let’s lie low for a few hours Evan, my apartment is just a block away.” I look over at Evan and he nods, just as eager to get off these streets as I was.

~~~~~~

It was surprisingly easy to get to my apartment, we did have to hide behind some trees as a couple walked by us, but once they were gone it was smooth sailing over to my building. We didn’t even have to worry about going through the main entrance, there was a side door in the alley that was always unlocked. I had always meant to ask the landlord to lock that door since it was a pretty glaring security flaw. I never got around to it, and that was probably for the best because it sure came in handy right now. Anyways, we got into the building and then slipped down the hall, making our way to the door of my flat.

Evan reaches the door first ”I like how you marked your door. Easy to find, hehe.”

I get there and raise my eyebrow “What are you talking about? Marked?”

Evan points at the crescent indent near our eye level, “A hoof mark.”

I stare at that for a moment, that wasn’t there before, was it? “Oh, hey, I think I know where this came from. Must have been when Jack and I left to go shopping yesterday. We had hooves, Jack probably kicked the door shut.”

Evan nods, ”Makes sense. Well, come on dude, open the door. We’re kind of exposed here in this hallway.”

I roll my eyes, “You’re the one with the key you big goof.”

Evan gets a confused look on his face. “I what? Oh yeah, the bag! Haha, I completely forgot I was even carrying this thing!”

I facepalm and then Evan shifts his neck and removes the canvas sack. He starts moving the contents around with his muzzle until finally a silver key pops out and lies flat on the carpet. Satisfied, Evan puts his bag back over his neck and steps away from the key.

I give him a strange look, “And...? What, you’re just gonna leave it on the floor?”

Evan smirks, “Your key, your apartment. Have fun with that...”

Unsure of what exactly he means I reach down with a hoof to grab the key. No luck, this thing was way too tiny to pick up with hooves. Finally realizing what Evan meant, I roll my eyes and reach down with my mouth. I start biting the ground as I attempt to pick up the key with my mouth.

Evan starts laughing, “How’s that taste?”

“Like shoes.” I mumble and then I finally feel the cold metal of the key on my tongue. I get it between my teeth and stand back up. “Taa-daa!” I exclaim through my closed teeth.

Evan just smiles and points at the lock on the door. “Also... have fun with that.”

I look over at the small keyhole, damn, this was going to be hard. I move up to the target and try and align the small hole with the key that is clumsily between my teeth.

“The key is sideways.” Evan remarks, deadpan.

I grumble and fix it, only to see Evan smile out of the corner of my eye, “Ha, nice, now the key is upside down!” He starts to giggle softly, but a few seconds later I flip the key over with my tongue and he nods to confirm that it’s facing the right way.

I keep poking it around. Since my muzzle was covering the lock, my eyes couldn’t see where I was stabbing with the key. It was all just blind trial and error.

Evan leans over, whispering in my ear, “Can’t get it in huh?”

“Mmhmm.” I mumble as I try a few more times.

Evan is clearly holding back a smile as he leans forward and whispers quietly, “That’s what she said!” Evan starts laughing quietly to himself as he steps away from me. I roll my eyes, but a half second later I feel the key slide right into the lock.

Upon seeing this Evan’s soft chuckles become a full bellied laugh. “Haha, oh wow, you really enjoyed that didn’t you? You’re such a girl dude!”

I feel myself blush. I was going to kill him once we got inside.

Suddenly I hear a door down the hall crack open and a voice yells out “Hey, keep it down over there! Damn kids!” The door then starts to open all the way as the owner of the voice clearly wants to see who was making all the racket.

Fuck. I fumble a hoof and manage to turn the key, then grab the doorknob in my mouth and twist as Evan pushes to open the door.

The door swings open and we both collapse inside. Evan rolls off me and I take a deep breath. Phew, close call, we got inside before that person could see us. I look back at the door frame, fuck my tail was still sticking out into the hall. I quickly flick it inside and then kick the door shut. Well, hopefully the owner of that voice was just some old guy with bad eyesight and didn’t notice?

Evan stands up and fumbles on the wall looking for a light switch, he finds it and flicks them all on.

I blink and look around the room. “Well, this place looks... different.”

Evan nods “It does, I think it’s because we are lower to ground. But yeah, everything looks a little off being this short.” After a moment’s pause, Evan lowers his head and once again drops the canvas bag. He starts rummaging through it with his hoof until he finds what he was looking for: the battle hardened Nokia with Jack’s phone number programmed in.

I look over “Calling Jack to let him know we arrived? Good idea. Let’s see it’s about 11pm right now, and we left at 4pm. Seven hours? Not a bad trip really. Anyway Jack is probably showering or getting ready for bed.”

Evan nods and presses the speed dial button with the tip of his hoof. He turns on speaker phone and we both just stand there as the phone rings.

On the very last ring the phone is answered. No voices come from it though, and Evan and I lean forward waiting for Jack to say something.

~~~~~~

Back in the stables Jack was looking down at the phone. The phone had come from the small bag that was on her back. The ringing of it startled her so she shook the bag off of her back and found the black box that was making the noise. Instinctively she hit the green button. She wasn’t entirely sure what to do now though. She looked around her at the other horses, none of them had black rectangles that made noise. She let out a soft neigh, why did she have one of these? Maybe she should just kick it away?

Yeah, that seemed the right thing to do. A few more seconds pass by and that idea seemed to make more sense. Horses aren’t supposed to have strange devices like this, she wanted nothing to do with this non-horse object. Jack licked her lips, this was it. All she had to do was get rid of this thing and she would finally be like the rest of the horses here. Just get rid of this last thing and she would finally belong, she would have a home here for the rest of her life.

Something poked at the back of her mind, something felt very wrong about all this. It told her that this wasn’t her life, she shouldn’t be doing this, something strange was making her do things she really shouldn’t do. Jack stopped for a moment, then gave a soft whinny and shifted her weight around. She was confused, why would this something try to manipulate her? She blinks her eyes, it didn’t matter. Just get rid of the phone and everything will be done. There would be no going back. Jack smiles at the thought of living like this forever. Spending all her years alongside these other animals, raising lots of foals with the stallions in here. It would be a good life, a life fit for a horse. She smiles, she can’t wait to finally be treated the same as the other animals. Her mind made up, she lifts her leg to kick the strange device away from her...

~~~~~~

“Evan, something is wrong.” I look away from the phone and over at Evan, he seemed just as worried as me. Jack had answered the phone about 30 seconds ago, but said nothing.

I poked Evan again “Dude, say something, I got a really bad feeling about this.”

Evan swallows hard and nods, approaching the phone microphone.

~~~~~~

Jack zeros in her aim on the strange device, she was ready to send it flying across the room. She tenses her leg muscle and--

“Jack!” The phone comes alive and voices pour through. “Jack look, I’m sorry for what I said before! I know I already apologized, but I just wanted you to know that I feel terrible about this whole thing. You’re my twin sister, and I won’t give up until you’re my twin brother once again. We’ll get to the bottom of this Jack. You and me... we’ll fix this.”

Jack lowers her leg and steps closer to the phone. That voice! Her brother! Fog lifts off her mind and Jack dives to the ground and grabs the phone “Evan! Evan you’re alright!”

~~~~~~

I breathe a sigh of release to hear Jack’s voice. Evan smiles and laughs into the phone “Of course I’m alright, why wouldn’t I be? I got your best friend here watching my back. But how about you? How you doing on the farm?”

Jack’s voice cracks through the speakers “I’m... um... good? Yeah sure, good here, don’t worry about me. Did you find Fiona yet?”

I step beside Evan and join in the conversation “Not quite, still looking for her. Look, Jack, we’ll call you once we get a hold of Fiona, okay?”

We say our farewell and hang up the phone. I turn to Evan “Well, that’s good news. Jack seems alright. I was sort of worried about her ever since we left.”

Evan nods. “Yeah good to know that she is safe. So! Now what do we do?”

I look around and sigh “Well, I guess we go to bed for a few hours. We should set an alarm for 3am or so, we can take another trip to Fiona’s then and find out if she is at home sleeping.”

Evan tilts his head “So... we have some time to kill?”

I nod “Yep, not much else we can do until then.”

Evan grins slowly “Well, I wouldn’t say that.”

I look up at him “Hmm?”

Evan trots over to the living room and starts to fumble around with my DVD collection. I raise my eyebrow in confusion “What are you doing Evan, do you wanna watch a movie or something?”

“Not quite...”

It’s too dark for me to see what box Evan grabs, but I hear him stuff a disk in the player and hit the ‘Play’ button with his nose. I get up and walk into the living room as he turns the TV on and the speakers come to life.

“MY LITTLE PONY, MY LITTLE PONY, AH AH AHHH...”

“You got to be fucking kidding me Evan.” I stare at him, I was pretty sure we had enough pony in our lives as is.

Evan turns around and grins “I wanna see if the TV version of you is just as annoying as the real world you!”