> Taking A Stand
>  by ShadeJak
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Where It Started
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There’s an old belief that love and fear are our moral compass. I’d say that’s about as wise as saying everything’s black and white. People are guided by a number of things, but fear does indeed hold one of the greatest sways over our actions.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate… yeah I think everypony knows the rest. This hate came in the form of prejudice, people who don’t let their curiosity provide them the chance to understand something new choose instead to assume it a threat, or something beneath them they can just force to go away or stomp out.

It’s because of that fear that I knew something had to be done. The world had been changing in ways I doubt a man alive would have imagined…

People were turning into ponies.

A crazy thought, like if Franz Kafka wrote childrens’ books for girls, but it’s true.

I’m not talking about actual ponies one can find galloping around ranches on the countryside either, I mean the equine-like beings from of all things, a popular TV show; the latest revival of the TV show My Little Pony.

What to say about that show? Leave it to the talented mind behind Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends and Powerpuff Girls to create a revival that’d somehow appeal to both the young girls it was aimed for an older audiences, including males. And I thought I’d never see the day such a thing happened, but then again Transformers’ latest incarnations Animated and especially Prime have reached well outside their demographic as well in acquiring loads of female fans, but that’s beside the point… or maybe it was the point. Was its widespread appeal, or those the appeal reached, somehow connected as to who was subjected to the sudden change and who was not?

It all started with the show’s creator and its lead voice actress turning into Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the two characters who were royalty on the show, with godlike power. Things grew stranger when the week literally extended to the length of an entire year, with the most random names for each day, and more people started waking up in their beds as ponies, or other characters from the show.

And soon enough, I ended up being one of those people, and I’ve been stuck in this body ever since. Confused, afraid, wondering if my life would ever become as it was or if this was permanent. No answers ever came, even after the report of the ‘Mane 6’ being called to New York to fix this all had been made, it seemed nothing was going to change any time soon.

Nothing optimistic anyway; hatred and fear brought a paranoid bunch of people together in the form of a troublesome new group. For the most part they were just picketing places and holding offensive protests… Annoying? Yes. Something we could do without? Yes. But for the most part only that. But some weren’t content to just be that… some of their members had their intolerance mixed with a twisted form of supremacy that made them express their hate in far more extreme ways… vandalism, hazing, and even outright violence. And that’s when I decided it was time to fight back. That’s why now I’m laying on the corner of this rooftop, my head rested on my forelegs while looking down on the streets below, my face hidden under a dark blue mask, my coat and features hidden under a purple bodysuit and fedora, a long, dark blue cape billowing in the breeze. I’d chosen a symbol of heroism from the show long thought gone, but hardly forgotten. Fear from hate and paranoia, and those who exploited it in others, needed to be fought back with fear of reprisal; of consequences…

A message that Mare Do Well intended to deliver. How did I get here? How did I find myself here? And most importantly, when did all this begin for me, exactly? Well that’s an interesting story in and of itself…

~Three Days Ago...~

“GOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!” Robin Williams’ voice blared out of my cellphone as I jerked straight up in my bed, flailing like a fish out of water as I pawed at the air before falling forward and landing on my chin. A rather random choice for my personal alarm clock, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

“Jeez…” I muttered, reaching up to rub my eyes only to find my hands didn’t feel remotely right when they connected; like I didn't even have fingers! When I took a look at them, I saw why; in place of my hands were wide, flat stumps without fingers... or even palms for that matter! Come to think of it my voice didn’t sound right either…

Before I could think about it much I saw a flash of long hair flick up then back down out of the corner of my eye and turned my head over. With a whoosh, it flew back up, then back down. No way… that thing couldn’t have been… no it wasn’t attached to me was it? Nervous, I tensed my muscle again and saw it flick back up and reached out to swat it with the stump that had replaced my hand. Sure enough, I felt the stump connect with it and hold it down, and my fears of it being what I thought it was were confirmed.

“Please, no... not me…” I muttered as life’s latest curve ball had clearly been thrown my way. Thanks to what had been going on around the US, and possibly further then that, I knew enough for the little meter in my head to swiftly go from Doesn't Get It to Gets It (With Much Reluctance). People were randomly waking up as characters from that show My Little Pony… including the show’s creator and its starring actress, who became the show’s dual monarchs Celestia and Luna, who had beckoned the ones who became the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony to meet them up north in New York.

I suppose next comes the part of how I’d know this much about a show whose primary demographic, young girls, was not a term that fit my description? For starters I was not what one would call part of the "brony" fandom, more I was a casual fan. Call it my guilty pleasure. Sometimes the world and all the drama I hear about can suck so much I needed a little sugar bowl escapism, and it was one of those few merch-driven shows that you could tell had a staff that gave a damn about what they made. But that’s beside the point and far from explaining the situation I’m finding myself in!

Letting my eyes adjust to the dim light I examined the stump… or better term was hoof. Raising both up, I rubbed one limb with the other, feeling the soft fur coat. It was kind of a purplish-pink color, the hoof matching the coat. I couldn’t remember any stallions with fur remotely of that color, did that mean…?

My voice did sound much smoother and higher then my original one, like baritone changed to mezzo-soprano… maybe I was just younger? Or, aside from being extremely in denial, was I…? Oh GOD no! No, no, no, no, NO! No way! I reached frantically under my covers, feeling around my new pony body especially between my hind legs in some desperate and ill-conceived hope that what I feared next was not the case. Letting out a whimper that sounded anything but masculine, I closed my eyes, turning my head away as I bent my hooves to pull the covers up. Taking a few breaths, I nervously peered inside...

…and screamed as loud as I could when I saw my original gender did not survive the transformation. Life hadn’t just thrown a curve ball at me, it struck me out right on the spot!

“Oh god, oh god, I’m a girl, I’m a friggin GIRL!” I cried out in a panic, my eyes glued in the direction where I knew one thing was gone and another had replaced it to define my new gender and without thinking I lost my balance when I attempted to get on my hind legs and promptly fell right off the side of the bed, my forehooves wrapped around the blanket I’d desperately grabbed onto for support as I landed right on my head.

Groaning in pain, I rubbed my head with my hoof till it caught something jutting out of my forehead. Tracing my hoof up and finding the point, I managed a small smile despite my situation.

“Heh... at least I’m a unicorn!” I said with a small laugh, letting go of the blanket and rolling myself over so I was right-side up again. Granted, I was not the least bit thrilled about waking up this way, oh far from it, just if I had to deal with waking up as, and likely going to spend an indefinite amount of time as a pony, I’m glad it was something that at least had a far more reliable option for manipulating objects then hooves and teeth that the heavens were kind enough to give me as a small consolation for taking away my manhood and my humanity. Looking at my hooves, I realized sooner or later I was going to need to walk on these.

“O-okay… come on.” I said to myself, slowly trying to stand on four legs. If I could master this, I could reach the mirrored doors that were in front of my closet and get a better look at my new appearance. The first few times, I stumbled and fell over again. Growling, I tried to concentrate on just getting my forehooves up first until I was able to get into a sitting position on my haunches. “Well… one third of the way there…” I said, looking back at myself and seeing my flank for the first time. It was as pink as the rest of me, with an image of three brilliant-cut diamonds prominent on both sides. My tail was thick and violet-colored, with a floral-pink streak running through it. The appearance was vaguely familiar, but I doubt this pony, whoever she was, was as recognizable as Vinyl Scratch or Lyra. If I wanted to find out, I had to stand and walk.

Cautiously, I lifted my back end up with my hind legs, and after a little wobbling, I was able to figure out how to evenly distribute my weight so I could stand right. So far so good. Looking down, I raised a forehoof and tried to take a step forward, then my back leg, which bent in a way I really wasn’t used to so it wasn’t long before I found myself on my side and letting out a grunt of pain.

“Good job, Kyle…” I muttered to myself, turning over so I could sit and stand back up and try again. “Come on, you can do this… not like you have a choice.” I muttered. Closing my eyes and just trying to see if instinct would help me here, I tried to walk again, and this time I did a much better job with leg sequence. “Heh, well there we go!” I said with a grin as I glanced downward long enough to crash into my mirrored doors. This must have looked so ridiculous I’m glad no one’s watching.

Shaking my head, I decide to finally look at the mirrors.



Recognition hits me, blame my girlfriend for knowing the pony’s name. Looking back at me in the mirror was Amethyst Star, a unicorn mare occasionally seen in the background, but had a brief scene with a filly I assume was a sibling some pony she was foalsitting while dealing with an overzealous Rainbow Dash in the Mare Do Well episode. My mouth hangs agape for a moment… the mare in the mirror does the same as I stare at her, her large purple eyes looking right back at me. “This is too weird…” I muttered, still not used to the female voice that had replaced my own and watching my reflection match me. It was probably a good thing this sort of stuff had been all over the news lately or I’d be panicking a lot more. Steph on the other hand… I’d worry about her later.

I fell to my haunches again, bringing my hooves up to the sides of my head as the surprised look remained on my face and reflected back at me. My hooves moved along my new features, the large pointed ears that now rested at the top of my head, the dainty little muzzle that Equestrian mares were known for, the horn that sat atop my head. I opened my mouth and turned my head a little, sticking my tongue out; my teeth were now much straighter... made sense I wouldn't need canines now what with being an herbivorous creature. I turned my body a little, and tried laying down, but ended up falling to my side. Using my forehooves I sat myself up, my back legs still laying one resting atop the other while my new thick, silky tail swooshed into the air.

I let out a snort, then put my hoof to my face... did I seriously just make a pony sound?! Then I noticed how I was laying, like one of those 'sexy' reclining images found on the internet you couldn't escape from if you did a search for images of any given character. Some stranger fans may have found it attractive but knowing that mare in the mirror is me kinda takes that effect away!

Cocking my head, I raised my hoof and brushed back my new mane that matched my tail colors and was a mess thanks to me having just gotten up. I recalled a brush my girlfriend left here that should still be in the bathroom and I was glad this place had a master bedroom that led right to it so it'd be a pretty short trip for my inexperience in quadruped motion.

Entering the bathroom, it soon occurred to me the height difference could be a problem. I was barely above the height of a large dog now… guess the ‘little’ part in the franchise’s name was there for a reason… sighing, I crouched and made an attempt to get myself high enough I could prop myself against the vanity cabinet so I could attend to myself. After a few tries, I was successful in getting my hooves on the countertop and being able to see myself in the mirror. I tried to reach for the medicine cabinet but unfortunately I was too short. How was I gonna… wait, I’m a unicorn, I can handle this!

I looked at the corner of the mirror that opened like a cabinet. “Come on…” I said, closing my eyes for a moment and trying to focus on it opening.

My horn glowed a little, then the handle did. “Come on, come on.” I focused harder, and the door flew open and slapped against the wall. “Okay, note to self, focus less.” I muttered, scanning the shelves within for what I needed. My toothbrush and toothpaste, and Steph’s hairbrush. Smiling, I focused on them and they floated from their place and onto the countertop. Instinctively, I reached for the toothbrush with my hoof, before remembering that with no hands that’d be impossible. Looking at the toothbrush and toothpaste tube, I realized what I’d have to do. Closing my eyes for a moment and taking a breath, I looked at them both and focused.

Five minutes later I’d finished cleaning all the toothpaste off the floor with a washcloth and floated what had landed on my toothbrush towards my mouth, keeping watch over myself as I carefully tried to brush my teeth and get the morning taste out. When I finally finished, I spat out what I could and turned my attention to the hair brush. It was so pink and girly, but then again I wasn’t in a position to judge that anymore.

Focusing and letting it levitate into the air towards me, I aimed it above my head and eased my control, and a second later yelped in pain when it fell on my head… yeah this was really going to take getting used to.

Looking down at it on the floor, I focused again to levitate the brush back towards me, and looked at myself in the mirror again, my tail flicking back and forth as I was clearly getting more frustrated. Five more tries later, I finally had it right and I was brushing out my mane. It actually felt kind of nice... really nice, actually, enough to get a small smile out of me as I continued to work on it. Once I finished, I gave my head a demure turn and let my new, silky violent and pink mane swish into place. If I’m gonna be stuck as a unicorn mare for who knows how long, I may as well make the most of it to keep from going completely nuts.

My expression fell as the notion of having no idea how long this would last hit me. Maintaining a job, going back to college, and especially keeping my relationship was going to be looking far less likely now. Climbing down, I quietly returned to my bedroom and levitated my cellphone, and made it follow after me as I slowly walked into my living room. My stomach growled a little as I passed the kitchen, but I tried to ignore it. I wasn’t entirely sure what this body could handle that I had… I’ve always been a bit more inclined towards meat and didn’t really favor vegetables. Pausing, I figured some experimentation couldn’t hurt. Looking over at my coffee table I floated the cellphone over to it and walked into the kitchen, sighing as it occurred to me that everything was much higher now and would be hard to reach, even with my new magic I’d need to at least see what I was trying to get. I suddenly remembered the Chinese food I still had left in the fridge from the other night. General Tso chicken and some lo mein. Smirking, I trotted over to the fridge and eyed the handle.

“Okay… focus.” I told myself, and as I did, I felt a wave of fatigue come over me and the door refused to budge. Rubbing my head a little, it occurred to me I may have over-focused with cleaning up in the bathroom. I was still pretty new at this so I must have worn myself out a lot faster. “Alright, plan b.” I said, laying myself down on the floor and trying to dig my hoof under the door, and find the spot where it connected. Gritting my teeth, I gave it a firm pull and the door popped open,  Looking around inside, I found my prize, grinning as I got up and nudged the cartons toward me with my hoof, and grabbed them in my teeth, pulling both out and placing them next to me on the floor. Getting up and leaning against the cabinets, I tugged open the silverware drawer with my teeth and looked inside, smirking when I found a fork and craned my head in to grab it. Satisfied, I placed it atop the cartons and grabbed their handles again with my teeth, carrying them into the living room. Hopefully I could use my magic to eat with no problem.

Trotting past the papasan chair and climbing up on the couch, I reached for the remote and pressed the power, input, and about five number buttons all at once on it. I tried again, and with no further success. Three more times, and no closer to getting my tv on. “Stupid hooves!” I shouted angrily, swatting the remote aside, hopping off the couch, then trotting over to the tv and smacking the manual power button.

Glancing down at the floor I spied my PS3 controller and swatted it towards the couch.  Trotting back over, I climbed back up and lay myself down on it, facing the coffee table where my food was. I didn’t need much focus this time to simply open the boxes and float the fork to the food inside, so it wasn’t hard to make it impale a piece of chicken, then wrap itself around some of the lo mein and bring both straight to my eager mouth. Biting down, I chewed for a little bit, savoring it and finally swallowing. Heh, beat the tastiness of that, pony body! I thought proudly. I floated the fork over towards the box and turned my attention to the tv, where an episode of Transformers Prime was just coming on, earning another grin from me. Several pieces of chicken later, however, I suddenly didn’t feel well. Bringing a hoof to my stomach I felt even more queasy. It couldn’t be…

I immediately jumped down and galloped clumsily towards the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet in time. My nausea grew and before I could stop it, I vomited out the chicken I’d so recklessly ingested. Slumping against the porcelain throne, I groaned in anger. “You gotta be kidding me!” I cried out. “I lose my hands, I lose my humanity, I lose my manhood now I lose my diet?!” I rolled onto my back, kicking out my back legs and planting my forehoof over my eyes as I let out a fit of impotent anger and frustration.

“I swear, anyone who actually wants this to happen to them would have to be insane!” I grumbled. My train of thought was sharply interrupted when I heard the theme to Halloween playing and I realized Stephanie was calling me. I suppose this would at least save me the trouble of having to figure out how to call her and break the news.

Getting up, I hurried back to the living room, trying not to topple over from my inexperience with four legs and pulled my phone towards me. Stephanie’s pretty face was imaged next to her name as the phone kept ringing and I tried to grab it up before remembering I no longer had hands. “Argh! Stupid hooves!” I yelled for the second time today and tried to think of a solution. I didn’t want the call to be missed so I leaned down as best I could and pushed the call button with the tip of my horn.

“Hello?” I asked.

Silence.

“Uh, hello? Steph, you there?” I asked.

“…Uh, who is this?” my girlfriend’s voice asked. Crap! New voice! If I didn’t answer fast she’d probably think I had another girl over.

“Steph, it’s me! Kyle!” I said hastily.

“This doesn’t sound like Kyle. What the hell’s going on here?!” She asked.

“It IS Kyle, Steph! I swear it’s me! That thing the news was talking about, where people are turning into ponies? It happened to me!” I said.

A beat.

“Oh my god… you mean you’re a….?” She started.

“A damn pony, yes. Come on by if you don’t believe me.” I said flatly.

“N-no, that’s not what I meant, besides that…your voice...” She said. Another beat. “Are you… a girl pony?”

I looked down at myself and sighed. Well, no point in lying about it.

“Yeah, I’m a mare.” I said at long last with an audible sigh.

“Oh my god… stay right there, I’ll be over in a sec!” She said and she hung up before I could even answer back. Rolling my large purple eyes, I blew a strand of hair from my mane out of my face and groaned. Things were about to get a lot more interesting when she got here, that was certain…
	
		
> Love Intolerant
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Crap, crap, CRAP!” I muttered, pacing back and forth, my tail flicking back and forth in irritation. Steph was on her way over, and I must have squeezed my eyes shut and stood in place thirty or so times hoping this was just a dream to wake up from, with all the same results as before. Finally coming to a stop, I shook my head. Screw it. I’m a unicorn mare, there’s no way out of it. May as well wait for the inevitable. Glancing back at the coffee table I realized I hadn’t finished my food. Unfortunately the chicken was gonna have to go since I could no longer eat it with this pony body. The lo mein should still be okay, nothing but bean sprouts and other vegetables in it. Returning to my place on the couch again, I decided to slouch in a manner that had made Lyra Heartstrings an internet meme and floated the lo mein box and fork over so it was positioned next to me, my hoof holding it against my side. The fork floated in, twirled some lo mein on it, and floated back towards my mouth.

The taste of steamed noodles and teriyaki sauce offered little comfort and needless to say, I felt a need to watch something else to get my mind off of all this till Steph made it over. Focusing, I floated the PS3 remote up beside me, my large eyes studying the device as I tried to figure a way to work it without opposable thumbs, or how I’d be able to do so with magic. I looked up at the TV, then at the remote and placed it on my tummy. Floating the fork, I guided its tip to the power button and switched the console on, and made it push the buttons that ultimately brought me to Netflix.

Smiling, I scrolled through my Instant, then looked under my recommendations. Personally I needed something to get the edge off a little, really. Passing My Little Pony… nope, not in the mood for reminders of my current situation… I continued scrolling and eventually found a few superhero titles, including Dark Knight, The Shadow, Under The Red Hood, X-Men, Kick-Ass, V For Vendetta, and Spider-Man. Yes, I love the superhero genre; why do you ask? It’s been a hobby of mine since childhood, and being a pink unicorn mare isn’t going to change that anytime soon if I can help it.

Superhero stories, what can I say, I love them, from the comics to the cartoons to the films… well, most of the films, and I admit some of the comics have taken some pretty drastic downfalls and foolish shark-jumping all in the name of shock value that had been favored over good storytelling. I always thought these were meant to be worlds we wanted to escape into… not from! That was probably one of the appealing qualities Equestria had, a harmonious and fantastic quality that did have the escapist appeal to it. But even with the fact comics had become so gritty and scary nowadays, superheroes still had ways to give us that; they gave us characters that had used their talents to stand up to evil and oppression because no one else would or could. They had merits and qualities we could admire without being too perfect and flaws we could relate to without being too depressing. Their flaws made the decisions they made with their merits more believable and their merits made their ability to work through their flaws and troubles more admirable. Some had superpowers, some had to rely on skill and wits; but they all had a brave soul to respond to injustice and cruelty with fighting back and showing them it won’t be tolerated, and the costume, I saw as one of the most important parts, it carried a symbol, an image for them to know and recognize that good people can get behind and bad people can flee from, and often just were cool to look at. As I grew up, I had been in and out of martial arts training when money allowed in hopes of being a little more like them and I'd also gone to conventions and cosplayed the hell out of them. The last two caused me and Stephanie to meet, become friends, hang out more, and eventually, well… fall in love.

Slouching where I sat, more realization hit me as I wondered how this was going to work out now. She’s a human woman and I’m now a pony. Sure she had come out as bisexual a week before we started dating so my new gender probably wouldn’t have been nearly as big an issue with her as the species change was going to be. I had to change back somehow; I didn’t want to lose the person who mattered most to me over this.

As if on cue from those thoughts, a minute later I heard a car and soon after a knock.

“Come on in.” I said, knowing she was in for quite the sight. The door opened, and Stephanie entered. Even with my current predicament I couldn’t help but smile a little. She was pretty, with a fit build and shoulder-length blonde hair. She had on her usual blue and purple color scheme wardrobe of denim vest and jeans, and lavender top. Her green eyes widened at the sight of me and she froze in place, her purse slid right off her shoulder and fell to the floor with a resounding ‘plop’, and I watched her carefully, hoping she wasn’t about to faint, as I doubt I’d get there in time and I was still not experienced with this unicorn magic thing enough to move larger things like people around.

“K…Kyle… is… is that really… y-you?!” She stammered, still staring. She seemed to have taken it a lot better on the phone, I guess hearing about something and actually seeing it were completely different things.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it’s me. Your full name is Stephanie Rourke Talbot, you hate your middle name because you think it sounds too masculine though I always thought it was kinda cool-sounding, and your first cosplay was Catwoman from the 60’s Batman series, which I think you did a great job on despite those so-called master-level cosplayers' overblown criticism, you’re bisexual, and you’re a proud pegasister who got me into My Little Pony about around the end of Season 1 and got me to watch them and Season 2 ever since.”

Steph was silent as I said this.

“And we slept together for the first time last June on the eleventh.” I added.

As I said this, she came over, her eyes not leaving me.

“Kyle…” She said softly and before I realized it she glomped me. “You’re SO adorable! I mean seriously, those eyes are huge!”

I squirmed. “Steph, come on! This is hard enough to handle as it is!” I protested, but I managed to cool down and let her cuddle me. If this helped her cope with the fact her boyfriend was now a pink unicorn I may as well have humored her.

“Right! Sorry, sorry.” She said, letting go. “So… uh… what’s it like? I mean being a pony and I guess the whole gender change?”

I sighed again. “Like a screwed-up dream I’d like to wake up from. Having four legs is still taking a little getting used to, not to mention how much shorter I am. The worst part’s not having hands anymore, or being unable to eat meat. I tried to… it didn’t work out.” I muttered, turning and flopping my front half on her lap, my forehooves stretched out as I rested my head on them and my thick tail flicked back and forth. “Being a mare's kind of emasculating and all but the whole turning into a whole ‘nother species thing's probably just drowning that out. Still, I…” I paused in mid-sentence as she stroked my mane. Damn that actually feels good!

I heard her giggle a little, she was enjoying this for now, I can let the realization sink in later I guess. “So… how’ve you been otherwise?” I asked, my eyes closed as I let her continue.

“Mom’s new job’s working out great, she’s making twice what she did before. That’s just as well I guess since she’s living alone. I’ve checked in with her, divorcing dad has been the best choice she ever made.” She told me. A chill ran down my back at the mention of her father; a retired marines officer who had no idea how to be a good parent. He was more someone who would slam his fist into your chest while keeping a tone suited for idle dinner conversation when disagreed with, a sort of tranquil fury which always scared me about him. Needless to say I’m glad that she got away from him when she did.

“That had been the best choice you both made.” I said. I felt her lean down and put her arms around my neck.

“Second best for me.” She said softly.

“I dunno, I mean how will this work out now? Unless I find a way to turn back.” I said. “But how’s that gonna happen? I mean I can use magic but I doubt they offer transfiguration spells for unicorns at any libraries on Earth.”

Stephanie smirked, amused by my statement but I could see the uncertainty on her face. “Well, maybe it’ll wear off?” She offered.

I shook my head. “People have changed a lot sooner then me, and they’re still ponies. I’m not putting a lot of hope there.”

“Well, look. Lauren Faust and Tara Strong turned into Celestia and Luna, right?” She asked, causing me to raise an eyebrow, not really following relevance there. From what I paid attention to on the news the most they did was keep ponified people from ending up as government lab experiments and preserve our rights for the time being.

“Yeah, so?” I asked.

“Maybe they’ll have answers, or a way to undo it.” Stephanie replied. “But even if all they asked for was the so-called ‘Mane Six’ to show up, I don’t think it’s right to just sit and wait for the best. We gotta do something, go up there.”

I thought about what she said. Go against the order? Show up anyway? Demand answers? Could be fun; and possibly rewarding if we made a good show of it. Not to mention I’d like to go back to a more intimate relationship with the person I loved without the species barrier that had now been thrown in the way.

“Well, good thing we got that savings we’ve been putting together, then.” I answered. My parents and her mom had contributed to it a little in the beginning, and we’d added in enough it was meant to give us a good start when we finally got to living together. “We gotta deal with hotel costs that tend to be pretty high there, and food and gas.”

“It’s six, maybe seven hours.” Steph said matter-of-factly. “Not exactly going cross-country here, and you have family up near there, don’t you? What can go wrong?”

I gave her a look that could melt iron. “Soon as anything does, I’m blaming you for saying that.” I said flatly. “At the least we can go out and buy some drinks and snacks, and leave tomorrow. Like you said it’s not like we’re going cross-country like I heard some ponies are on facebook.”

“So, should we go out, I guess?” She asked.

“Later tonight after dinner. I still need to just… I guess get used to this before I go out in public.” I said softly, lowering my head again. I’d seen the occasional pony out and about lately, but none I recalled from the show, and they got stares all the time… I suppose it’s no surprise given seeing colorful ponies and such wasn’t exactly something people were used to. That meant people were sure to treat me very differently now, too…

…Then there was that hate group, it wouldn’t surprise me if we ran into them or something they did somewhere, and I’d heard on the news about an incident in Kansas with Fluttershy. When was anypony gonna do something about these guys?

…did I seriously use a ponyism in my thoughts?

Shaking my head, I looked back up at Steph, who was staring down at me probably wondering why I got so quiet. “Look, we’ll go out after dinner, till then, let’s just get through some of the marathon I cued up, okay?” I asked, gesturing to the TV with a small smile.

“Sounds fine to me.” She answered, smiling back and taking up the PS3 controller, switching it back on.

A few hours later, we got through Under The Red Hood, Dark Knight, and X-Men. All of them seemed to hit a note for me, the themes of justice vs. revenge, persecuted for being different and how to respond to it, and of course Steph taking amusement at me magically floating popcorn into my mouth and watching the movie so intently as well as geeking out at my favorite parts and my suppressing an odd urge to dance along to the Dark Knight theme. I guess I’d have done the same if it had happened to her so there was no point in being angry or embarrassed over it. She’d made an excellent breakfast-as-dinner of scrambled eggs and waffles, which I enjoyed while taking the chance to practice more of my magic with using the fork and syrup bottle; the latter took some time as I didn’t want a repeat of the toothpaste incident but I got the hang of it and I was especially elated to learn eggs were not banned from my diet; I even recall Rarity had prepared them once in an episode. Dinner had otherwise passed with little more then just further progress down our marathon, such as getting through The Shadow next, a movie I always considered underrated and kind of cool in a pulp superhero way. Not to mention I loved his style of dealing with bad guys.

~

Once dinner was cleaned up, we went into Steph’s car and drove off to the nearby Kroger where sure enough, people and pony alike were there. Not missing an opportunity, Steph picked me up and placed me inside the cart so I could ride in it, plus I think she just found it adorable. We weren’t gonna be buying a load so there should have been plenty of space. Several canned drink cases, a few bags of chips, sandwich supplies which of course included peanut-butter much to Steph’s amusement, and a pair of full-sized towels; the single most massively useful inventions of all time just in case of emergency. Getting through checkout was easy enough; I simply floated the goods onto the counter and watched the cashier scan them, giving me a few odds looks.

“Amethyst Star?” She asked.

“Yeah. How’d you know?” I asked. I admit it was a little odd; anyone knowing who I was. Vinyl Scratch or Dr. Whooves, sure who didn't know them, but this pony?

“My daughter loves the show and has the toy of the character. Just be glad she’s not here or I doubt she’d let go of you.” She said with a laugh.

“Yeah, good to know I got fans.” I muttered with a slight eyeroll, noticing a few children were in fact staring at me and making me feel just a little more awkward. Once we had anything I anxiously gestured towards the door opening Steph got the idea. The sooner we got to the car the better. As I climbed out and began floating stuff into the trunk of the car, I noticed out of the corner of my eye one of the walls on the side had some kind of odd logo on it that looked familiar.

Without a word, I hopped down and trotted over, noticing a crude drawing of a horse with a red ‘X’ drawn over it done all in spray paint. The store would need to hear about vandals, apparently. Before I turned, however, I heard the sounds of a struggle and a whimpering sound.

“Keep the little thing quiet!” a male voice said urgently from around the corner. A female voice was crying, it sounded rather young like a child’s and that was all I needed. There was an old saying about not being a hero, but seriously, if a child was in trouble I wasn’t going to run off and give these guys more time! Sometimes, rules needed to be broken.

My ears twitched when I heard Steph approaching, I raised a hoof to her. “Go inside, call the police.” I said as quietly as I could.

“What are you planning to do?” She asked, almost mouthing it but my new hearing made it easier to get what she said.

“Something possibly crazy, now go.” I whispered. I moved closer. When I turned the corner what I saw made my heart sink.

Three men, maybe in their early 20’s, not much older then me, were struggling with a small pegasus filly whose mouth had been taped over and her wings taped together. They wore black shirts with the PAPA logo on them. That group made my skin crawl; nopony… nobody… was asking for this change! Nobody sane anyway, and these xenophobes wanted to make it more difficult by harassing and terrorizing them left and right simply for being… well… different? I couldn’t let this slide, especially with a child being in danger here. It was odd, usually they just waved signs and bullied ponies, but these guys… they were serious trouble if they were willing to murder a pony in cold blood to get their ‘message’ across. There was a time I didn't like confrontation, even with my experience learning how to deal with it, but now it was time to nut up, figuratively speaking.

Looking around, I saw a few chunks of debris, wood planks, and other things. The men all had knives on-hand; those would have to go first. Focusing with all my strength, I kept hidden and floated their knives away from their belts, surprising them enough and causing them to turn.

“Who’s there?!” One demanded, then he noticed the floating knives. “A unicorn, huh? Using magic against a human’s supposed to be forbidden, you know that, right?” he asked smugly, his grip on the filly not loosened. He then took out a match and struck it, dropping it into a metal barrel next to him and it promptly set ablaze, dangling the frightened young pony over it.

“And murder isn’t? You just made a huge mistake!” I said, giving my voice a low, angry snarl as I kept hidden under an old navy blue sheet near the dumpsters. Focusing, I caused one of the knives to shoot forward and embed itself in his thigh, causing him to scream in pain and toss the filly sideways, thankfully she missed the barrel. As he collapsed to the ground in pain, one of his pals came over, trying to remove the knife but only causing him more pain. Letting the knives float into the burning barrel, I turned my attention onto a plank of wood and sent it flying at the second man’s back like a club, causing him to grunt in pain, turn around, and get struck again in the face, knocking him unconscious while his friend kept crying out from the blade in his thigh. I smirked from my hiding place; pleased that I doing a lot better with the magic thing. The filly squirmed on the ground, trying to escape as the remaining man grabbed her up.

“Show yourself or I drop her in!” The last one shouted, and I knew I had no choice. Using magic, I made the sheet I’d hid under go around myself like a makeshift hooded cape and approached. He waited, so I gathered he must have seen the moving sheet and figured I was on my way over.

“Figures, one of you animals finally snapped!” He said with a sneer. “Your kind’s the reason we exist!”

“Seriously? Murdering an innocent filly?! What’s wrong with you three?!” I demanded in a low, dangerous tone.

“PAPA’s got the right message, but they’re being too soft on you freaks!” The remaining punk snarled. “We’re gonna make it clear your kinds’ days are numbered, starting with this one!” He said, releasing his grip and letting her fall.

“NO!” I cried out, focusing all my magic and I don’t know what I did or how I did it, but a sudden burst of telekinetic energy knocked the man clear off his feet and crashing headfirst into a dumpster, the barrel fell over and the filly tumbled out. I galloped over to her and draped my sheet over her. “You alright?” I asked, looking down at her. The small pony nodded, tears in her eyes and she hugged my foreleg, taking me by surprise. I wasn’t really expecting it, honestly, nor was I really used to it so I just let out a small sigh and patted her on the back with my hoof. A few light singes but she seemed otherwise okay thankfully.

Suddenly, I heard the man who’d gotten the knife to the thigh groan in pain as he pulled it out and began to approach, and I turned my attention to him as he stood, limping towards us. “That’s it, we’ll make an example of you both!” He said furiously. The filly whimpered and hid behind me, still under my sheet.

Not since the time I learned where a nasty bruise on Stephanie’s back had come from almost a year ago had I felt so much anger… but this time was different, I realized. This time, I could do something about an unfair act of cruelty. Levitating the two-by-four again, I sent it right at him and made it smack him several times, he powered through, but I saw my opportunity and had the plank slam into the wound in his leg, causing him to fell to the ground again, too injured now to fight back. Disgusted, I used my magic to float the knife from his hand and send sliding out of his reach. “The only example being made is what a bunch of soulless pieces of garbage you are! I ever get wind you’re harming fillies again, I promise you won’t be in one piece when the cops find you.” I hissed, putting on the best show I could for added effect that I hoped would make sure I got my point across.

Without another word, I had the filly follow me out of the alley, and I saw Stephanie arriving. “Go over to her. She’ll help you, alright?” I said softly to the filly, and I immediately galloped off, leaving her in Steph’s capable hands. No need to be present for the authorities or reporters once they showed and have to answer a million questions that I was too worn out and exhausted from the experience and magic use I’d gone through to answer.

~

“So her name was Mary Geller, ten years old. Apparently she was in the store with her mom when she didn’t feel well and went to the bathroom. She blacked out and woke up as a pony. She came out looking for her mom and got lost in the crowds, and suddenly she got grabbed by those guys. She told the cops what she remembered and what they were gonna do to her.” Stephanie explained as she drove. “Then… in her words…” She said with an amused smirk. “Some totally amazing pony came in and saved her. She couldn’t really tell what she looked like, but she was like a superhero or something. She would have died if this pony didn’t show up!”

I tried my hardest not to blush.

“The police were pretty surprised, aside from an isolated incident or two, PAPA has never been this extreme, they doubt the law will crack down on them as they can’t force many to be accountable for the actions of a few and they’ve yet to be deemed terrorists…” She said, clear disappointment in her tone.

“Great.” I muttered as we finally pulled up to my apartment. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “But as long as some sort of crackdown doesn’t happen, people like that won’t be afraid to keep doing what they almost did back there.”

“Well for now, let’s be glad that she’s safe. She was so scared at first, I guess afraid her mom was gonna reject her now.” Steph replied, and my ears twitched a little as worry came over me.

“She didn’t, did she?” I asked.

“Of course not! Her mom was so happy to see she was safe, and told her she loves her no matter how she looks. Still, it’s a lot for a little girl to have to deal with people and like those guys you busted up are only making it harder on her.”

“Tell me about it.” I said as we finally reached the driveway. There had to be something that could be done about it, but I let those thoughts stay in my head as I floated some of our supplies out of the car while Steph carried the rest and we went inside, setting them down on the table. I didn’t doubt for an instant this was gonna hit the news soon so I walked over to the remote and pressed on it, hitting about five buttons at once with my hoof.

Letting out a sigh, I leaned my head down and tried to press the power button with my horn.

“Still adjusting to the new body?” Steph asked as she walked in from putting the cold things in the fridge.

“It’s weird, I didn’t have too much trouble when I needed to use my magic helping that filly.” I said.

Don’t think too much, just do.

Where did that voice come from? “Did you hear something?” I asked, looking around, it sounded like my current body’s voice but I didn’t remember saying it.

That’s how magic works best. Just like opening a peanut-butter jar, just be calm and don’t focus too hard!

Oookay, voice in my head. I thought to myself. “Nevermind… just turn on the news, see if they’re already talking.” I said.

When Steph changed channels, sure enough, news traveled fast when it was live. The reporter went on about the attack, and how a ‘hooded pony’ apparently beat up several men who tried to harm a pegasus filly. PAPA denied their organization as a whole would go so far, and denied knowing of or planning the incident, however from the way the response was worded, it didn’t seem to me they condemned the action either… as I figured. The filly, Mary, was on next.

“I didn’t see her face, but she helped me! I would have died if she wasn’t there!” She said, a woman I assumed was her mother holding her securely in her arms as if afraid something else could happen. “You're my hero, Miss Pony! Thank you! Thank you so much!” The filly said as the reporter took control again and resumed talking.

“The men are being held in custody, authorities have decided not to take action against the unicorn in question as her magic was used in defense to protect another and Mary Geller has given her report on the entire event. However, questions remain over the exact nature of this ‘ponyfication’ pandemic that we hope will be answered in the near future—“

I tapped my hoof on the playstation remote to turn on the PS3 so we could return to our marathon, deciding I'd heard all I needed.

“She’s right you know.” Steph said, sitting with me on the couch. “If you hadn’t helped her, she could have died, and since she was just ponified, no one would have known what happened to her.”

“It was weird, I’ve seen where the hostage cries into or hugs the hero when they get saved, it’s always so heartwarming in the movies, it’s weird actually experiencing it.” I said, my tail flicking from side to side. The most I ever had with anything like that was when I first learned about Steph's home life prior to leaving her father, but I didn't think I'd done anything heroic or life-saving then.

“Well, what you did there was pretty brave, and maybe a little crazy too. But like I said, thanks to you, that filly gets to see another day.” My girlfriend said, mussing my mane while smirking.

“Maybe. But still… I doubt it’s just those three.” I said. PAPA’s all over the country, this country’s got a lot of people, plenty of idiots and xenophobes to join their ranks that could be just as bad or worse, and after tonight I’ve seen there are some that aren’t content with waving banners with misquoted religious passages and skewed hate slogans; I thought to myself while selecting the next movie we were gonna watch as I focused with my magic. Batman Begins, it is.

“At any rate, once the movie’s over, we should probably get ready for our little trip.” Steph said. As I started the movie, though, thoughts of what had happened swam through my mind, and knowing of the part where Batman first introduced himself after saving Katie Holmes from the thugs whom the so-called law enforcement could care less about just brought more ideas into me.

“You know, I’m getting a thought here…” I said, watching the movie intently.

“Them’s dangerous words.” Steph said, playfully patting my head, earning an eyeroll from me.

“Look, I got an idea. Guys like that want to send a message to ponies, maybe somepony… ugh somebody needs to send a message back! Look, what I did back there, the more I think about it, remembering that filly’s face when I saved her, maybe I can do something with this whole being a pony thing! It's sorta like getting superpowers, right?” I explained, annoyed at having made a ponyism again. Seriously, I may look like a pony but I didn’t plan on starting to act like one any more then I had to for getting by. “Do we still have all the materials for making that Spoiler cosplay?” I asked, recalling it as one of Steph’s future cosplays… no the irony was not lost on either of us.

“We got enough for, like three! You did kinda go overboard on the materials.” She replied. It was clear she was aware of where I was going but not wanting to address it.

“Well, they did have a three-for-one deal on everything we needed…” I mused with a smirk. “And are you still good with making hats?”

“Uh, Kyle… what’re you getting at?” My girlfriend asked, getting more concerned.

I looked at my laptop and levitated it to rest between where we sat. Moving the mouse around with my hoof, I grimaced when I realized I’d have to manipulate the keys once I got on the search engine.

Don’t think, just do.

Okay, let’s try this.

I tried to think of the words and the keys slowly typed out the words I had in mind like… well magic, I guess.

“C’mon, Steph. We’ve both read enough comics and have seen enough movies to know that if we’re gonna deliver that kind of message, and fight back like I did back there for that filly. I got the superpowers, now I need a symbol. Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot, right?" I asked, recalling a certain superhero's reason behind his care in his symbolic design. "Superpowers don't do it alone, a symbol can strike fear and respect, and bring out inspiration! I think if memory serves, I know just the one!” I said with a smile as I ran the search, and a familiar image appeared.



“We can put off the road trip for a day or so. For now, we got some work to do!” I said eagerly, the movie forgotten but the message about ideas and symbols and fighting fear with fear burned into my mind, but then noticed the look on her face like I was nuts.

“…What?” I asked.

“You realize what you’re planning? You’re gonna be some kind of… pony vigilante in a costume now?” She asked, still wearing that look of disbelief. "I'm for the whole going to New York despite you not being one of the 'Mane Six' but this...?"

“You better believe I'm serious. I’ve been hearing about these incidents with them, and nothing’s deterring them because nobody’s bothering to! There’s a reason for that real-life superhero group having popped up in Seattle, and the other times where you hear about vigilantes popping up! Sure people think they're a little nuts and some are, but heck, the stuff we see in the movies all follow around the same idea: someone decided to stand up and tell people making injustice that they won’t take it anymore!” I said, my expression fell and I put my hoof on her lap. “Steph… please, I’m not doing this because it’s cool, it’s that… you were proud of me for helping that filly… who’s to say this won’t happen to more like her if we don’t do something?” I asked. “Or what people like that’ll do if they think they can get away with it?” The thought of how much pain her father put her and her mother through and essentially got away with passed my mind, and I think from the pained look on her face, the same thoughts entered hers as well. “Steph, if I’m gonna be stuck as a pony for awhile, I wanna make some kind of difference. I need to do this, can you please, please trust me and help me out with this?” I begged; trying my best pouty face which I suspect with this new form, was now infinitely cuter. As I hoped, it looked like she was starting to cave and she hugged me tight.

“I get what you want to do, Kyle. I’m just worried, I guess. I don’t want you getting yourself hurt.” She said softly. I put my hooves around her and nuzzled her gently with my pony snout.

“If I don’t, more ponies could be.” I said. That look on her face, I wanted to kiss her so badly but in this body I doubt she’d be comfortable with that. “I saw and stopped something that could have happened anywhere. I know it sounds so ridiculously cheesy but I think with this I can make a difference.” I explained. I admit I was scared; I could get in over my head at any point, but wasn’t just sitting and doing nothing out of fear just giving those people what they wanted and letting them win?

At long last, she sighed and lowered her head. “Don’t you dare make me regret this, Kyle.” She said softly but sternly. Soon as the words left her mouth I threw my forehooves around her and hugged as tight as I could, blushing.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouiloveyousomuch!” I rambled at breakneck speed, then paused. “Sorry. Little caught up in the moment there.” I said with a nervous laugh.

“It’s fine. Guess we got work to do, huh?” She asked. Good thing we had off from work, though my job was gonna have to deal with one hell of a phone call.
	
> Where's A Montage?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke to the gentle rays of Thorsday morning light, stirring and feeling Stephanie’s lap beneath me. Oh please tell me that I’m back to normal… I thought to myself, lifting my head up and looking down, and groaning loudly when I was greeted by the sight of pink hooves instead of my own hands.

Steph snapped awake, apparently my noise must have disturbed her and she brushed back her hair and looked down at me. “Happy Thorsday, Kyle.” She said with a small but sad smile. I guess she was disappointed too and I can’t say I blame her.

“Not much to be happy about. The days are screwed up all to hell, and I’m still a pony…” I muttered, feeling my tail involuntarily flick back and forth and I rolled to my side, looking down at myself. “Guess I gotta resign myself to this body after all.”

Steph turned my chin up. “Well, what about our plan? I seem to recall we had something in store for those PAPA freaks that involves costumed vigilantism?” She asked.

“Heh, and here I almost considered I wasn’t thinking right when it came to mind, but I guess that’ll give us something to do.” I said. “We should probably go and grab all our materials if we wanna get an early start!”

“And work?” Steph asked, reminding me of something else I needed to handle.

“Oh… right.” I muttered.

~

One extremely awkward phone call later that problem was solved, and immediately after we went into the room I kept all my cosplay supplies in. Between the two of us, she had hands and I did not, so she’d be doing most of the work.

“Alright, we got all the fabric and stuff we need, you said we got enough for, like, three costumes? We should probably do that just so we got spares in case anything happens.” I explained, floating out numerous sewing and gluing equipment, along with all the fabrics and a few pieces from old cosplays that could probably be remade into some things I could use, like the tactical gear I had from a few more… militant cosplays. “This should be everything and we’re set to go!” I explained, smiling as Steph carried the sewing machine over to the table and plugged it in.

“Once I got your measurements we are!” Steph said, taking a tape measure from a box of pins and a notepad from a compartment under the sewing machine. “After I get the first one done, the rest should be easy-peasy.” She explained, and after doing several measurements of my pony body and writing them down, she returned to the desk and sat down, switching on the sewing machine. “This is gonna take awhile so I hope you’ve got something you can do to pass the time.”

I raised a hoof and was about to speak when I realized I had nothing. “Well… uh…” I muttered. My activities were a lot more limited as a pony.

“Hey, maybe work on your magic?” She offered. “I mean, if you’re gonna do this whole superhero thing you should probably work on the magic. You know, make it easier to defend yourself and all?”

I guess that made sense. “Alright…” Now I just needed to think of a way to start…

Telekinesis! Try something more complex like opening a jar!

I jerked upright, my eyes wide as I heard the voice in my head again. Weird.

“Ooookay…” I muttered, earning a look from Stephanie. “Where’d you put the peanut-butter jar?” I asked.

“Third cabinet from the left, top row near the fridge.” She answered. I trotted into the kitchen and used my magic to open the cabinet door. From my height, it was hard to see inside so I had to balance on my hind legs while leaning against the lower cabinets to get a closer look. Spotting my prize, I grinned and floated the jar down and set it in front of my hooves.

“Alright, little jar… prepare to face the might of Mare Do Well!” I sneered, and my magic aura surrounded it.

~

Forty-five minutes later, I had come dangerously close to flinging the unopened jar across the kitchen floor as I'd fought stubbornly against it. “Open, damn you!” I shouted, focusing harder, but to no avail.

“Problem, officer?” Steph asked from behind me, I turned and looked up at her.

“Yeah, somepo—“ I began, facehoofing at nearly using another ponyism for some reason. “Somebody has apparently krazy-glued this thing shut!” I protested. “Any progress with you?”

“Yeah, I got the first bodysuit done. Perfect piece of work if I do say so myself and amazing how much time the machine saves.” My girlfriend said with a smirk, pulling it out from behind her back and my mood quickly improved.

“Whoa, cool!” I said, grinning and suddenly the lid popped off the jar, causing me to glance back at it and sigh.

“Practice makes perfect, Kyle.” Steph said, returning to the sewing room. “I’ll get to work on the collar and mask, then we’ll worry about the boots and cape and all.”

“Thanks.” I replied, shaking my head and staring down at the jar, using my magic to float the lid back on and screw itself back in place and try again.

Some time later, I’d finally managed to master it, getting the jar lid to open and close at will, and moved onto adding a pickle jar in the mix. This one took more effort, tiring me out more, but eventually I was able to get a similar result though I needed to get the paper towels to wipe down the floor afterwards. Twilight made it all look easy... hell the Cake twins pulled this stuff off!

Thinking about them made me realize there was one other magic ability I’d probably need to figure out if I was going to pull this all off: teleportation. If I could figure that out and master it to an adequate level, I’d be able to make clean getaways, be harder to track, and not to mention be tougher to hit if I fought any nastier opposition. I doubt I’d ever reach remotely the skill Twilight had that allowed her to transport herself miles away, but I could probably figure out something that could get me several feet away or to a rooftop at most, which was sure to come in handy. Once I got this telekinesis down, I made a mental note to move onto that next.

Staring at the jars, I felt my progress just wasn’t fast enough. I needed motivation, something inspiring, like…

“Hey, Steph, can we turn on my work music?” I called into the other room.

I heard a slight groan and my girlfriend peered out the door frame. “Kyle, are you expecting some kind of training montage?”

“Would it hurt? Maybe some inspirational music will get me through this a little faster!” I said with a grin. Rolling her eyes, Steph went over to the laptop on the coffee table and loaded up the playlist, and sure enough the first one on it, Eye of the Tiger, started playing.

“Really, Kyle? How cliché can you get?” She asked, looking over at me.

“Hey, go with what works…” I said, dancing to the music far better then I normally ever did and far better then I expected I would with zero experience in a pony body.

Ooh! This song’s amazing! The voice in my head said.

“Uh, that’s not practicing, that’s dancing.” Steph remarked when the song ended moments later.

Wait… did I dance the whole time? I wondered to myself. I sorta spaced out there, just got caught up in the rhythm… “Weird, I never was that much of a dancer.” I said. “Sorry, guess I was caught in the moment.”

“Well, try not to let it distract you if you’re gonna have it play.” She replied, returning to the sewing room again as another song played. This time, however, I kept focus and walked over to the laptop in curiosity. I couldn’t help but wonder why I got so enraptured in the song and danced to it like that, but I had work to do!

Hitting the playlist on shuffle and returning my attention to the jars, I set to work and let myself focus, remembering what the voice in my head told me…. Don’t think, just do Right, whatever you say.

Sure enough, the lids popped right off!

And to think I forget sometimes… I shook my head in frustration, trying to make the voice stop. I had enough problems being a pony with compulsive dancing disorder!

Eyeing the lids, I gave a little focus but more just will and desire to control them where I wanted them; and I wanted them to orbit my body. Sure enough, they lifted up and spun around me back and forth in a criss-cross orbiting fashion.

“Cooool…” I said with a smirk, watching them spin back and forth. Looking at an empty soda can on the table, I willed one of the lids to fly straight at it, knocking it over and leaving a nice dent in it. Grinning, I looked at the other lid, noticing it had fallen to the floor and having a new idea in mind I walked over to the paper bag near the trash where I kept empty soda cans for recycling. Floating five out one by one, I levitated them to the table and returned where the pickle jar lid sat on the floor. “Alright, let’s get dangerous!” I sneered, my horn glowing again as I floated the lid up and looked at one of the cans. The lid spun and flew straight at it, knocking it over and falling to the floor with it. Nodding, I sustained my magic and floated the lid back to me… a lot faster then I intended and I barely had time to dodge it.

Taking a few breaths having avoided getting smacked in the face, I turned my attention to the next can, shooting the lid at it and bringing it back; feeling like the the main character from Krull only with a much less cool-looking spinny-weapon-thing. Three more cans later, I jumped up with excitement and let out a cheer.

“Yes! Yes!” I shouted, grinning and noticing Steph had returned.

“Having fun?” She asked, looking down at the dented cans.

“Loads!” I said. “I think I got this down now!”

“Good to know.” Steph replied. “I got the collar and mask done. I’m gonna add the tactical gear and resize it to fit you. You’ll have a belt ready for you shortly. The pouches should fit those smoke bombs and firecrackers we still have from last year.”

Right… last year called off on account of sickness. Well, blessing in disguise apparently!

“Firework smoke bombs and firecrackers? Steph, I love you!” I said with a grin, throwing my forelegs around her.

“Well, figured that might help if you’re up against people twice your size with hands and probably more strength then you have.” She said with a smile. “All that’ll be left then are the boots, hat and cape.”

“Good. I’ve seen unicorns open saddlebags and float stuff out of them, so a utility belt should work the same way.” I replied. Telekinesis was covered now, and with Steph occupied on a few other things, it gave me time to figure out teleportation. Whenever she finished I could test out lighting those fireworks if they were gonna be of any use.

Well, chatty voice in my head, how hard could this be? I thought to myself.

Always been great with telekinesis, but... kinda can't remember anything else...!

Crap… guess I’m on my own.

~

“Come on, don’t think, just do. Fillies and foals could learn this stuff! Hell somepony along the way invented it! Come on, come on…” I thought to myself about a half hour later. My patience was normally thinner but when I had a goal in mind I found I was willing to give myself more chances, especially when said goal focused around defending myself and others from out of control extremists. My horn was glowing, I could feel it, but nothing was happening. I tried imagining the spot five steps away from me, imagine it, imagine it, come on…

POP!

My eyes snapped open and I was five feet off the floor. Yelping, I fell to the ground with a thump and stood myself back up. “Okay… that didn’t work…” I muttered, then I felt a wave of nausea come over me, like I could throw up any moment and clumsily hurried to the bathroom.

Thanking the heavens I didn’t toss it all on the floor, I moved away from the toilet and used my magic to flush. I guess it was a side-effect of the teleportation; so it’d probably make more sense to practice in here.

It took some time, but I was eventually able to control where I went with not much charge-up or sickness, but it only really worked when the distance was no more then six or seven feet. Any further and I’d feel dizzy and wind up either upside-down or sideways on the wall or several feet off the ground again. “Huh…” I muttered, getting up off my back when I had ended up off on the ceiling upside-down and landed on the floor. “Guess that’s my limit for now…” I stood back up and shook my head to fight off the dizziness and go check in on my girlfriend.

Entering the sewing room, I found Stephanie working on the hat and smiled at her. “Nice work!” I said.

Turning, she took the cape from the table and swooshed it in front of her. “Whaddya think? Pretty badass, huh?” She asked. “I’m almost done with the hat. I’m getting a little hungry though, so we can get the spares done once I eat. How’s the magic going?”

“Eh, alright, I guess.” I said. “Telekinesis is spot-on, but I think my teleportation level is just barely leaving Magic Kindergarten; like I can only teleport about six feet or so, I go any further and it has side effects. How does Twilight make it look so simple?”

“Aside from having spent more time then you have practicing it? No idea.” She answered sarcastically.

“Well, I guess it’s passable for now, I’m sure I’ll have more chances to work on it later” I replied as Steph finished up with the hat.

“Well, I think we’re ready to try it on!” She said, taking all the stuff and putting it into a pile for me. “…You… can put clothes on, right?” She asked.

Ten minutes later, I came to the conclusion that I had another thing to work on, and that was putting on the costume without hands, so Steph helped me out with that in the end. Fully geared up, I approached the full-length mirror I kept in the sewing room for when I needed to see how any finished cosplay looked.

“What do you think, Kyle?” Steph asked.

“Suddenly this whole ponydom thing isn’t as bad as it was. Lemme try something.” I replied, smirking under the mask. Floating a few empty spools, I had them orbit me a few times and sent them at the walls one by one, then tugged my cape with my hoof and vanished, reappearing three feet away. “Yes!” I shouted triumphantly…

..before noticing I no longer had the costume on. It lay on the floor in a heap three feet next to me. “Awww!” I groaned. “Guess I still need more practice.” I said.

“Well, I feel like going out, you feel like going out?” Steph asked. “I think I need some more thread, so how’s our favorite shopping area sound?”

I smirked, big-ass JoAnn, plus movie theater and plenty of eating places it was a great location. It’d handle our late lunch and her sewing needs quickly. “It’s a date then.”

~

“Good thing one of us can still drive.” I said, hopping out of my seat as Steph parked the car in the lot near the Cici’s we frequented. As we did, however, we were beset by an unpleasant sight nearby.

“Stop ponydom! Work towards protecting humanity’s future!” some twenty-something stringbean standing on a set of crates with a small table on it with several fliers with a very familiar acronym printed on them stacked near him that matched his shirt and what I swore was an egg carton.

“Wonderful.” I muttered, my tail flicking back and forth at my tension.

“Don’t let yourselves be fooled, for this is a curse wreaked upon them by God to make examples of those of immoral nature!” The protestor continued, then gave a hateful glare at a woman and a small colt. “You! You tolerate your son when he has been marked?!” He yelled, causing the colt to hide behind his mother.

“He’s my son! He’s done nothing wrong!” The woman said angrily.

“Look at him, he’s been transformed into a lowly animal and you say it’s without cause?” The PAPA protestor asked, reaching into the carton and removing an egg which he threw at the colt, who barely avoided it. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you are claimed next for betraying humanity and society by defending that thing!”

“ENOUGH!” I shouted, rage boiling as I approached, my horn glowing. However, the man just laughed.

“Go ahead! Attack me and prove I’m right that you magic-using unicorns are especially a threat to us!” He said, taking out another egg and looking at me with a smug sneer before flinging it. I stared down at where it’d broke in front of my hooves and looked back up at him, my teeth grit so hard I swear they were about to crack. If I did do what I wanted to do, he’d use it against me and everyone else who had become ponies.

“The only threat to people is idiots like you.” Steph said, joining my side and glaring at the man. “And you’re just asking to get arrested for throwing stuff at ponies.”

“Not a chance, I'm careful not to actually hit anyone, I clean up after, and I’m on public property, so I haven’t broken any rules! You’re gonna criticize me when I’m only doing this to show everyone that this country gives us a freedom of speech to state our opinions and you have the nerve to oppress that?” He sneered.

“Right, that old excuse you and every other youtube commenter who gets called out on rude behavior makes, where you expect us to be responsible for protecting and respecting your verbal assaults that you pass off as 'opinions' when you're so quick to attack ours.” Steph answered, rolling her eyes, and I looked up at her and slowly edged back, knowing where this was going.

“Big talk little lady! By the way, you two sure are close! Didn’t think it’d get so immoral people would start having relationships with those animals!” The protestor said with a laugh. “Why don’t you take your beastiality somewhere it’ll actually be tolerated!”

It all happened so fast. One second Stephanie was at my side. The next… she wasn’t. The impact of her fist slamming into the protestor’s face was strong enough to send him off his feet and off his makeshift podium, right onto his stack of fliers. My eyes were wide as saucer plates from what I witnessed before me…

“N-no! Please! You weren’t supposed to attack! The ponies were! Th-this wasn’t how they told me it was supposed to go!” The protestor pleaded, flailing his arms and crawling away from a positively livid Stephanie, who stood over him nursing her fist but maintaining a furious glare.

“Heh, figures! I thought PAPA had standards that were above taking sniveling cowards like you into their ranks. Take your class act and clear out before I do decide to ‘oppress’ you.” She said in a tone that sent chills down my back. The protestor stood up hastily… I swear his crotch area looked noticeably darker then it was before… and gave her a quick, frightened nod before he ran away as fast as he could.

I clapped my hooves and trotted over with a smirk as the mother and her child nodded approvingly before leaving. “Not bad. Remind me to never get on your bad side!” I said.

“I got a feeling he was more in it for the attention then the actual message, but when he started saying those things, guess I just kinda lost it.” Steph answered, brushing back her hair. “But I feel better now. So, shall we?” She asked, giving me a smile and gesturing back over to the Cici’s a few doors away.

“Sounds good to me!” I said with a wide smile and we went inside to enjoy our lunch. Things could only look up from here!

~

An hour and a half later, we were on our way home. Steph looked pleased, I just sulked in my seat.

“Aw, come on, Kyle, it wasn’t that bad!” She said, trying not to snicker.

“Says you.” I said.

“But they loved you! I’ve never seen so many excited little girls since my cousin’s 8th birthday party!”

I snorted in response. While Steph enjoyed her food I was being provided the latest emasculating experience of my new life as a pink unicorn mare by being cuddled, petted, hugged, and fawned over by a bunch of young girls that had been in the diner.

“Loved when one stuck their hairbow on your mane.” Steph said, letting the giggles finally fly free.

“Oh shut up.” I muttered. It would have been a lot easier to endure having a gigantic Applebloom-sized hairbow on me if they didn’t all whip out their phones and take pictures of it. I was definitely not making a facebook account for my pony self now.

“Hey, now. Don’t be mean.” She said. She was loving this, I knew it.

“Soon as I find something to win against you on a bet in, I’ll make sure the terms involve you cosplaying the most girly, feminine character I can think of.” I said.

“Good luck.” She replied.

Sighing, I sank back down on my seat and waited for us to get home. I guess on the positive side, it was a better reaction to my appearance then the protestor had… well, maybe. Hard to say, but now we could get the spare costumes done and I could get back to practicing my magic.

~

A couple hours later, we were finally done. Two spares made, both fit me perfectly, and it felt like time to celebrate. I sat on the couch in my new costume minus the hat and mask, leaning against a very exhausted Stephanie as we tried to decide on something to watch.

-"Worst singing I've ever seen."-

“Change.”

-"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"-

“Change.”

-“This is The Factor and today’s pinheads are these pathetic man-children called ‘bronies’ defending these animals—“-

“CHANGE!”

-“Lauren Faust and Tara Strong, who have become the characters known as Celestia and Luna, have gone missing. There is still no confirmation as to where they could have gone or the cause behind their disappearance—“-

I stared blankly as the news reported this. They were missing?! What could have happened to them? My heart sank, if they were gone, there was no way of meeting them now… “Jeez… tardy to the party.” I muttered.

“Well, maybe they’ll make it back eventually?” Steph asked. “Better to be there when they turn up then to be down here and be late again.”

“Then we better be ready by tomorrow morning. We got plenty in our savings, I’m sure we can talk your mom into helping pay, and no I’m not changing my facebook.” I said. An awkward silence followed after.

“…Netflix marathon?” Steph asked ten channels later, looking at me with a tired smile.

“I guess.” I said, moving over and laying on her lap. “I’m so sorry you had to do the work on these. If I had hands or even the third of Rarity’s skill with using magic for sewing stuff I’d—“

“Hey, hey, it’s all fine, baby.” Steph replied, brushing her hand through my mane. “We got what we needed done, right? Cool costumes made. Spares ready, food in place. When we start our trip up north nothing's gonna get in our way!”

“That’s a relief.” I said, floating one of the towels we bought over and making it fold into a makeshift pillow on my girlfriend’s lap and rest my head on it. “This is still so messed up. We can’t really enjoy all the stuff we used to do together anymore… not with me as a pony.” I muttered, I could feel my eyes getting watery as that all hit me. Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I fought back any possible tears. “I just want this over, but I’m not gonna sit around and wait, or sit on my hooves and let the real monsters make things worse for others who have it harder… they have to pay, and when we hit the road I’ll see to it they do.”

The thoughts of what I could do to that hateful group I have to admit I was grateful for as it negated any emotional trauma over the wedge in my relationship.

“Things’ll get better, Kyle.” Steph said, brushing her hand through my mane again, causing me to smile from the relaxing feeling that gave. “I promise.”

“Thanks.” I said, closing my eyes and leaning up, giving her a peck on the cheek. “Now, I think the Mysterious Mare Do Well must retire for the night, and encourages the best girlfriend in the world to do the same!” I said, getting up and taking a pose, and focusing my magic as I vanished.

Reappearing in my bedroom, I discovered I was once again clad in only pink fur and feeling a horribly turned stomach.

“Hey, Kyle? I think you left something behind.” Steph called, entering seconds later with the pile o’ costume in her arms.

“I may just... have to forget this one…” I grumbled to myself, hurrying to the bathroom before all my meals found themselves on the floor

~

As we turned in, Steph lay sound asleep on the bed in the clothes she wore, I lay curled up by her, staring at my thick tail and watching it occasionally flick. So much was on my mind, I didn’t know how I was going to get to…

Sleep had a funny way of creeping up on you, when you least expect it and even when you feel certain you aren’t gonna pass out any time soon. I was suddenly in a field of some kind, on a picnic blanket, and sadly, still a pony. Next to me, though, I heard humming, expecting Steph, I looked over and saw instead a double of the new me, smiling as she hummed to herself preparing her lunch, then moved onto the peanut-butter jar… and opened it with ease.

“So, I take it you’ve had a pretty eventful day, huh?” She asked, causing me to flinch a little. “Nice to meet you, and I’m sure I don’t have to explain who I am, right?”

“No… probably not.” I said softly.

“Good.” She answered. “As a sidenote, I really have no idea how this even happened, but the days changing in this world, I’m going to assume Discord is responsible for this as well. How’s ponydom? Enjoying being a mare?” She asked with a mischievous smirk.

“Oh yeah, it’s bundles of fun. Got mobbed by a bunch of little girls today.” I said flatly, earning a chuckle from her.

“Well aside from dancing, I always loved making kids happy. Guess it comes from having a little filly sister.” Amethyst replied.

“Well, I guess if it makes sense it felt pretty good helping that filly yesterday.” I said.

“Yeah, about that. I’m not really a pony that does that sorta thing, but what you did for that filly was really brave, and your girlfriend’s been wonderful too. Have you ever done anything like that before?” Amethyst asked.

“No, not really. Kinda glad I never had to.” I said. “One time, wish I had the chance to…”

“Yes, your girlfriend’s father… I’ve seen a few of your memories, nopony should ever have to go through what she did. You’ve been the best boyfriend you could be for her, I’ve always been the best sister I can be for Dinky.” Amethyst smirked. “Won’t she be surprised if she sees me… or us, I guess… running around in that Mare Do Well costume.” She said with a laugh, floating her finished sandwich up and taking a bite out of it. “Ffpeekng uff…” She began, her mouth full of sandwich for a moment, and she swallowed.

“Speaking of… yeah it was annoying at first but in hindsight, I admit Rainbow making a complete foal of herself when she got jealous was kind of funny. Who knows… maybe being a superhero going against those awful people will be satisfying.” The unicorn mused.

“Celestia and Luna… they’re gone.” I said, causing the unicorn to pause and look at me.

“Well, I’d say we should find out what happened, or go with what your girlfriend said, and at least try to be there whenever they get back. I figure they’re our best bet at setting things right.” Amethyst replied.

“I guess so, I mean, what could get in the way of that?” I asked and everything began to fade away.

~

My eyes snapped open and I sat myself up, looking down I could tell that I was still very much 100% equine. I looked over, and realized that I wasn’t the lone example of that statement.

There, next to me, sleeping peacefully in Stephanie’s clothes that now hung loosely off her body, was a lilac-colored pegasus mare with a long sea-green mane done in a very feminine style. Looking at her flank, I saw she had a trio of dragonflies pictured on the side, I have no idea how it equated to a talent or purpose, honestly, but I was not one to judge by my own abstract cutie mark of three diamonds. She looked familiar somehow… Flitter, was it?

As if to compound the situation, the pegasus stirred, letting out a cute yawn as she stretched her hooves, her wings spreading briefly and causing the back of her shirt to stick out a little. “’Morning, Kyle…” She said, looking at me and noticing the likely shocked look I had on my face right now.

“Uh… Kyle? …Why are you staring…?”

Note to self, watch what I say, even in my dreams, and in the future to be REALLY careful to be more specific when I wish for removal of a species barrier...

> Change Of Plans(And Species)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Uh… Kyle? …Why are you staring…?”

Uh, ‘cause you’re the hottest and coolest girl I’ve ever met?

No, I looked way too shocked to make that claim passable.

You made funny sounds in your sleep?

No, that’s quite a delayed reaction.

You caught me thinking of something else?

No, that’d never work either.

Aw hell, I waited way too long.

“Steph? TRY not to panic, okay?” I asked, looking over at the nightstand and magically turning on the lamp. Instinctively, she raised her hoof up in front of her eyes.

“What the hell, Ky—“ Steph yelped when she noticed that she no longer had a hand, let alone an arm. Shuddering, she held her foreleg out, touching the cute little muzzle she now had as well and looked at me, her huge purple eyes wide with fear. “….Kyle? W-what does the r-rest of me look like? A-am I… a….?” She asked, her voice trembling. Looking down, she nervously pushed away the loose clothing and struggled her way out of her shirt, and sure enough, was greeted with lilac pony body. Before I could speak, she climbed off the bed and promptly fell on her face, attempting to walk over on her hind legs and being about as successful as expected. Getting herself up again, she settled for just crawling over to the mirror doors, and saw the dainty pegasus mare Flitter looking back at her.

“Oh my god… i-is that… me?” She asked, inching away as I hopped off the bed and came to her side. "I-I'm a-a-a... a... po-ony?!"

“I’m afraid it is, Steph. Welcome to ponydom, for better or worse.” I muttered, putting my hoof on her shoulder.

Steph hung her head, her sea-green mane falling in front of her face. I could tell she wanted to cry, I didn’t blame her; our chances of being able to travel or deal with people were seriously reduced like this. The young mare fell to her haunches, her head still hung low and shivering slightly.

“Hey, Steph? Sweetie, c’mere.” I said, moving my hoof under her chin and tilting her head up towards me. “It’s gonna be okay… we got the costumes, our supplies… hell, look at me! I had to handle being ponified and getting my gender changed in the process! I’ve managed as best I can, so will you. Hell, you’ve been through a lot, I know being in a pony body is something you’ll be able to handle.” I said, giving her my best smile, or the best I could give with the form I now wore and she threw her forehooves around me. After overcoming the slight surprise I returned the embrace as I allowed her to snuggle into it. Resting my head atop hers, I gently brushed my hoof through her mane.

“And not to mention, in case you haven’t noticed, check out the new appendages.” I said, playfully patting the wings on her back.

As soon as I did, they popped straight out, startling me a little.

“Whoa, whaddya know, wings…” She said as she looked down at her back, staring in awe at them and watching them fold back up, then spread again.

“And you’re a seriously a world-class cutie as far as ponies go.” I added, causing her to giggle slightly and look at her reflection again.

“I guess I am pretty adorable.” She said, managing a small smile.

“Like I said, world-class cutie.” I said, giving the lilac pony a peck on the cheek, causing her to give the most adorable shy look ever. I can assume she was blushing, hard to tell with the fur coat. “Well, we should probably clean up or something, been awhile I haven’t exactly cleaned myself off since I went all pony.”

“May need to check online for exactly how to clean a horse.” Steph answered, looking back at her wings and trying to make them open and close.

“You alright?” I asked.

“As alright as I can be waking up like this… I wasn’t exactly expecting to wake up with four legs and a pair of wings and not to mention lose over half my original height.” She answered. “Just trying to figure these babies out, if I’m a pegasus I really should learn how to fly and from her bio card Flitter’s apparently pretty good.”

“Well, I’ll go look online for getting these pony bodies cleaned right.” I said, leaving the bedroom and heading into the den where the laptop remained where we’d last left it. Moving the mouse with my hooves and going to the bookmarked youtube I looked down at the keys, trying to focus on the ones that’d spell out ‘bathing a pony’. Clicking on it and watching, I felt a little burst of satisfaction of doing that for Steph… weird, she was a pony now… did I find her more attractive now since I was also one? I never really questioned Amethyst’s orientation and I sure hope we had the same preference as I didn’t need any confusion right now.

With my new knowledge of how to handle the hygienic needs of this body fresh on my mind, I trotted back into the bedroom and found Steph was now hovering a few inches off the floor as she flapped her wings, only to fall back down a second later. “Not a bad start.” I said.

“I wish. I can’t last more then a few seconds.” She answered, snorting. “Whoa… now I just made a horsey-noise there…”

“Yeah, comes with the whole pony package I guess.” I replied. “Well, anyway, I got the whole cleaning thing covered. The shower stall should be big enough to fit us both.”

“Oh really now?” Steph asked, trotting over with a playful smile and earning a shocked, blush-ridden expression from me as she trotted past me and into the bathroom, prompting that I follow.

~

About forty minutes later, we emerged together from the bathroom, all cleaned and dried off and smelling nice and fresh. For added effect, I put a ribbon on Steph’s mane, magically tying it into Flitter’s distinctive bow and earning a shy smile from Steph in return. “So… uh, what now? I guess driving’s gonna be a tad hard to pull off now if we’re both ponies.”

“Maybe if you steer and I could work the pedals with my magic?” I asked.

“Get serious Kyle, what makes you think that would ever work?” Steph replied with an eyeroll.

“Good point.” I said. “Well in the meantime we’ve got a city pretty close by, anti-pony sentiment all around, and a bunch of Mare Do Well costumes all on a lovely Wagnesday! Maybe what we need to do is brush up on our skills, I can pull a few crazy feats off by instinct but I don’t have any proper magic training so I can’t do anything other then telekinesis and some really crappy teleportation so I guess that means get a little more skilled with the former. It might do you some good to get some practice with those wings.” I said, watching as she flapped them a few times. “Gotta admit, I’m a little jealous I bet flying’s gotta be really fun.” I said with a small smile.

“Says the pony who has the best substitute for hands.” Steph said, smirking back as she tried flapping her new wings some more, then stretched them a few times finding she could move the largest feathers individually. “Huh… well that’s weird. If I didn’t know better I’d think I practically got a pair of giant hands on my back. Can we say ‘freaky’?” She mused.

“Good to know you’re not just stuck with hooves then.” I said, turning my attention on the laptop as I used my magic to switch it on and visit good ol’ facebook. Raising an eyebrow at my own page, I looked at the photo that showed me and Steph arm-in-arm smiling at the camera which made our profile image and frowned a little… all just a memory now. Focusing on some of the keys, I typed out Pinkie Pie and sure enough I saw a profile of her… or the one who became her and she had a ludicris supply of friends to say the least. No shock there. I also saw Fluttershy’s… just as adorable as she is on the show I see. I fight off my closeted desire to hug that puppy-eyed pegasus and check other pages. Some were out-and-proud bronies who sought to watch the backs of ponies travelling to New York, as well as provide money and shelter and such should they need it. It was a relief to know people like that existed, calling themselves Night Guard and such... maybe Steph and I would run into a few whenever we finally got off our haunches and started travelling... In the meantime, we also had PAPA to worry about. The incident outside the store the other night and the one I’d heard about with Fluttershy proved to me they had members who decided to take their hatred much further then sign-waving and annoying protestors, and it made me all the more motivated to deal with them more directly. That, however, would require training and I was quite glad it was still pretty much morning which meant plenty of time!

It was fortunate my living room was very spacious that made it possible for Steph to improve on learning to fly; I don’t think we were quite ready to go outside and be seen by neighbors after all. She had to take several starts of going off the ground, but was soon able to hover in the air for several minutes. A little while later, she was able to land more softly. That meant time for her next step; taking to the air from a high place. We didn’t have any clouds or cliffsides to use in the house so we settled for the dining room table.

Needless to say, this proved more challenging. As cute as she looked even when she landed on her face, sometimes she just looked discouraged enough to stop and I’d do my best to encourage Steph to try again. Eventually, she was able to make a softer landing from jumping without me having to use telekinesis to slow her descent. We’d been through rough times; being turned into a couple of ponies wasn’t going to stop us now!

It took maybe an hour and a half to exhaust us. Chalk it up to ‘trying too hard’. Or maybe it’s because I was never a morning person. Either way, it left us tired enough to want to take a power nap. Going over to my cell phone, I pushed it open with my hooves and used my magic to get to my alarm, setting it for about two hours of sleep. Satisfied, I climbed up on the couch and looked over at Steph, who cocked her head.

“Well?” I asked, patting the sofa with my hoof.

Steph brought a hoof to her face and she giggled a little before flying over and landing beside me. Using magic, I made the small blanket I normally had draped over the back of the sofa lay atop us.

“So… ponies, huh.” She said.

“Yup.” I muttered.

“Ya know… it’s weird, right before I woke up, I swear I was seeing Flitter in my dreams. It was for a second but I remember it now.” Steph mused. “She looked… lost and confused somehow. Before I could answer, I woke up and here I am as her…” She said, looking at her hoof and brushing it through her mane and looked over at me with those large eyes of Flitter’s.

“Last night I met her… Amethyst.” I said. “She was in my dream, we talked. I think she might, I dunno, be in here somewhere.”

Steph seemed to grow worried. “Think Flitter's in me, then? Will we still be ourselves? Are you still… attracted to me?”

I blushed, though I dunno if she’d be able to tell given my pink fur coat. “Duh, why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, giving her a kiss and laying one hoof over her as she snuggled up to me. “She admires you, too, if that means anything. I’m just glad I didn’t end up as Trixie or Gilda or something.”

"Hold me... this is a lot to take in..." Steph said, her drowsiness slowly winning out over her worry. “Wonder what’ll happen… when this is all over.” She wondered. “Will we turn back? Will we end up in Equestria living our lives as these ponies?”

Equestria certainly seemed a nicer place then here… if one didn’t mind monsters, possessed rulers, and of course a rampaging chaos god. I sometimes wondered if the beauty and harmonious nature of the place was what drew the appeal.

Or it could just be with shows like… well… every reality tv show that ever existed and the depraved idiots they glorified, or the blowhard pundits hosting talkshows to shove their extreme views down everyones’ throats, who’d have guessed a toy-driven animated show aimed for girls half Stephanie’s age would show itself to be cleverly written and enjoyable enough to grant us that escapism we so desperately seek when we turn towards the television to provide us entertainment. Only, from the looks of things, the show was in fact real, apparently. Somewhere out there, in another universe? Was it that crazy theory introduced to me in a Justice League Animated two-parter?

Multiverse theory… that stuff makes the brain hurt. Made me wish Whooves was the pony I ended up as then maybe I could have figured it out in no time. No such luck though.

Letting my mind wander a little more, I felt Steph drift off to sleep and soon I did the same.

~

Stephanie

I awoke, not on the couch but on a cloud of all things! The sky was a perfect blue, birds flew about here and there, along with… pegasi?

I looked down and saw I was indeed still Flitter judging by the hooves and the lilac pony body they were attached to.

Was I dreaming?

“Yeah, you are.” A voice said, apparently having read my mind or at least knew what I was thinking. I turned around and there was Flitter, hovering in the air as her wings held her in place. “Guess there’s a lot to explain, huh?” She asked sheepishly.
	
> Magic For Dummies (Kyle's Dream)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I opened my eyes and found myself in a beautiful field. Birds chirped here and there, the gentle breeze blew around me. As I tried to get up, I realized that I was still very much a pink unicorn mare. Sighing, I looked down and noticed I was one a red and white picnic blanket. “It’s like some kind of weird dream that won’t end…” I muttered.

“Hey, cheer up, picnics are great to get away from it all!” A familiar voice said. Familiar in the sense that I’ve been using it for the past few days.

“Guess I should have expected you.” I said, smiling a little. “I guess you already saw what happened to Stephanie, huh?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m glad she’s still okay, though. Both of them, I mean… Flitter’s one of the sweetest ponies, she usually foalsat Rumble for Thunderlane.” Amethyst replied. “Bit on the feminine side, though. Dunno if that clashes with Stephanie’s tastes.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Steph’s tough when she’s gotta be, she had to be really, but she’s always been the sweetest girlfriend I could ever ask for. Gotta say, her decking that stupid protestor was priceless!” I said with a laugh. “Speaking of that, I’m way serious about becoming Mare Do Well… with or without your help.”

The other unicorn pondered that for a moment, and floated a sandwich up to herself and took a bite from it. “Really, now?” She asked. “I guess it’s probably best I do what I can for you… wouldn’t want either of us getting hurt. I’ll be happy to help out in any way I can!”

“Well, then you can help with my telekinesis?” I asked.

“And other things.” Amethyst said with a hoofwave.

“Wait, I thought you didn’t have much range in magic use.”

“Actually, Kyle, I do. The whole transfer across time and space and winding up sharing my body with you kinda… messed up my mind a bit. I wasn’t remembering a lot of things right away, thoughts kinda… scattered, I guess. You know those times where you remember something, then when that moment it’s useful comes up you don’t remember it at all, or forget about it completely? Something like that only more severe.” The other unicorn explained to me. “The truth is, I went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns… and I even had Lyra as a classmate!” She said with a smirk.

“Bet she was kind of a weirdo.” I replied.

“Heh, prone to snarky remarks like me. Maybe we’re not as different as I thought.” Amethyst said. “But yeah, Lyra can be… eccentric at times… not to mention she still owes me five bits.”

“I see... so… what do you know then?” I asked.

“Well, telekinesis for one thing, and I remembered I do actually know teleportation and magic bolts! A few other things but I’d need books and stuff to teach you  that and I kinda doubt you have around here so we're just gonna have to stick with those basics.” She explained. “Also, my skill with 'em's not really for sorcery or combat; more just basic self-defense. You never know when you need it… I mean I’m not a Royal Guard or anything like dad was, so you can’t expect much in the way of fancier weaponized magic or combat spells like lightning or shields.”

“I see… so yours is more like mace or a taser?” I asked.

“A what?” Amethyst asked.

“Mace is like a really spicy spray you put in someone’s face if they’re attacking you. Burns their senses and hurts like hell if what they say is true. A taser is a small boxlike thing you press a button and it shocks a person if you touch them with it. People… use them for defense against dangerous people so they can put them down long enough to get away.” I explained.

“I see… well yeah, the strength of my magic bolts are about… that level I guess at best.” Amethyst said, rubbing her chin with her hoof as she glanced to the side.

“Looks like I’ll just have to get creative then. I mean, the authorities are kinda against unicorns weaponizing magic, and probably weather manipulation that pegasi can do. Heroes in comics, though, they always found ways around it. They’d get creative with their powers, and can still kick butt, and Mare Do Well’s gotta be like that.” I said with a smirk.

“Well, at the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns we get a lowdown on magic and understanding it, studying its history and practicing and all that, but being able to learn the bigger spells like Twilight did takes a lot of dedication on a pony’s own time, and a lot of books we probably don’t have available here.” Amethyst explained with a sheepish laugh.

“I see… I guess like Harry Potter or something?” I asked, earning another puzzled look from the unicorn mare and realizing she’d probably not know who that was. “Oh, right. You probably don’t know anything about that. It’s a book and movie series, about a boy wizard who goes to a school to learn magic.”

“Humans learning magic?” Amethyst asked.

“Well, not for real, just in stories. Magic and monsters and stuff here… aren’t real, they’re creatures in folklore. A lot of the stuff from your show.” I explained.

“I admit… I’ve been meaning to ask about that...” The unicorn said.

Oh… right… wonderful.

“How is it here I’m in some kind of… what did you call it, television program like some made-up character?” She asked. “I don’t get it, I feel as real as anything and I can remember all I’ve done, but… then how is all this possible?”

I came over and put my hoof… her hoof? My hoof? We were the same pony right now, but that was probably beside the point. I put my hoof on her shoulder and managed a smile.

“I saw a tv series about superheroes, they ended up in a parallel world that looked just like a comic book one of the heroes read. They theorized that both worlds were real, like alternate realities. See, we’re both real but exist in different worlds… well, till now I guess… but basically, one thing exists in another form somewhere else, your world exists as a TV show here, so maybe the show’s creator and writers… sort of could sense the things that went on in your world, and took them for creative ideas and expressed it as entertainment here, so it’s sorta like a way that till now was how your world interacted with ours.” I said, hoping to avert an existential breakdown on my double’s part. I honestly had no idea if this was the right answer but I was happy to go with whatever seemed plausible. “You’re clearly real, though, so I guess it’s all true! Somehow I guess the realities crossed in a weird way.”

“I… guess I can believe that.” Amethyst said, smiling a little. “I’d hate to think I was just made up.”

“Good.” I answered, eager to skirt past the subject anyway. “So… magic, there aren’t like, Unforgivables are there?”

“Unforgivables?”

“Eh, Harry Potter reference. Curses that are considered so harmful they’re forbidden to use. Use of them guarantees life sentencing in the worst prison in the wizard world. All of them created by an evil wizard who’s the story’s villain. A curse that allows one to control another person's mind and make them like a puppet, a curse that causes horrible agonizing pain to another used for torture, and a curse that instantly kills another are the three Unforgivables.” I said. Amethyst looked… aghast at that.

“I do recall there is a torture curse, learned of it in History of Magic. It was invented during a war and basically you’re charging pain receptors with magic, but its use was banned pretty fast, especially due to its… terms.”

“What kind of terms?” I asked, a little nervous.

“To invoke it… well aside from practice and study… it’d require tremendous hatred for the target, a desire to see them suffer…” The unicorn regarded me a moment. “But sweet Celestia… why would somepony ever want to do something that horrible with magic?” She asked. “Let alone go through the… means of practice… to invoke it at will… I certainly hope you’re not the type to want to learn something like that. As I said, in Equestria learning it is forbidden and deliberate invocation of it is a horrible crime. It can be reflexive though, if a unicorn loses all control over their anger… you’re inexperienced with magic so I guess this is one of the first lessons; be careful with your emotions until you have control over them. Magic can respond to it.”

“I see…” I answered, recalling the time I subconsciously fired a wave of telekinetic energy that knocked over that PAPA thug who was going to kill that filly. I felt a shiver imagining if I’d instead subconsciously invoked some kind of Cruciatus Curse on a human being, as it’d probably only make us look worse in the eyes of people. “So… next lesson, I guess?”

Amethyst seemed relieved to move on from the subject. “Yes, I’d appreciate that.” She said, floating her sandwich up again and taking a bite and chewing a little, with a satisfied swallow. “I’m going to train you in those three magic uses here.”

“Here? But isn’t this like a dream?” I asked.

“Kind of… sorta yes and no, if I’m getting this right. More like a spirit walk, honestly.” The unicorn answered. “So it’s different. We can take as long as we need and slow things down, and you’ll still wake up in time! Hopefully Flitter’s got this kind of initiative with your girlfriend.” She said with a small smile.

I’d have to agree. If Flitter could help Steph fly better and adjust to her new species reassignment we’d have this all down!

“Well, where do we start?” I asked.

“We should probably start with what you’re doing best at; telekinesis.” She explained. “You’re already doing pretty good with it, but I’m gonna help you do a few more complex things, like getting these jars open better, and eating and floating drinks better. Make things a little less messy. Good thing I’ve got my picnic stuff, huh?”

I looked down at the stuff and offered a shrug.

“First, let’s try the jar. It’s harder because, well, you’re using magic to do two different things at once! Your holding the jar up, and you’re trying to remove the lid, so your attention’s split. Now I want you to put your attention on floating the jar.” She said.

I complied, the jar levitated up to me.

“Now, I want you to keep focusing on the jar, but also on the lid. Tap it a few times on the rock and it’ll make it easier so you don’t strain yourself. Remember, don’t think, just do.” She said with a smile.

I turned my attention to the lid… a little too much maybe as the jar began to fall but I caught it in time and floated it to the nearby rock and tapped the lid on the side and floated it back up. Now with my attention on the lid and jar, the lid began to turn slowly, but now I felt less strain. Looking at it intently, making sure the jar wasn’t going to fall, I kept just enough attention on the lid so it’d turn. In a few seconds, it finally popped off.

“YES!” I shouted, and sure enough the jar fell to the ground. “…Oops.”

“Not bad. Just try to remember the jar’s there. It also works for turning doorknobs then making the door open. Let’s try a few other things, you’ve taken to floating multiple things right? I want you to make them move around you. So long as you remember the objects are there, they won’t fall, and they’ll follow whatever pattern you want them to, this may take some time though…

~

What felt like thirty minutes went by, and I stood with a grin as two sandwiches and a jar lid spun around me like orbiting moons at high speed.

“Now put them down. Slowly.” Amethyst instructed. I took a deep breath and looked at the objects, they spun fairly fast but they began to lower. As they were an inch from the ground, gravity finally took over and they fell the rest of the way.

Amethyst stared down at the sandwiches and jar for a second, then back at me. “Guess we should move on. Ready for teleportation?” She asked.

“Heh, am I?” I asked with a grin, trotting in place a little despite myself and earning a small giggle from her.

“Well don’t expect to learn long-distance or the kind of things Twilight can do… this is more for getting out of being cornered then anything else.” She explained. “I’ll also help you be able to teleport stuff with you… like stuff you're wearing. I kinda recall that moment where you ended up kinda clothes-less and I don’t really want to end up experiencing teleportation sickness again.”

“You and me both.” I said, recalling how unpleasant it felt the last times I ever tried this spell. With that, Amethyst got up and walked about ten feet away from me and sat down. “Alright, I want you to look at where I’m sitting. Focus on here, want to be here, and then just do it. But you need to really see where you're going and because of that, well, you're only gonna be able to move to somewhere in front of you or it's just gonna have really bad side effects... and I believe you're familiar with that. Anything past that's way beyond anything I'm capable of” She explained.

I stared at where she was for a moment, closed my eyes, my horn charging up and watched her carefully. Where she’s sitting, where she’s sitting…

POP!

Suddenly I hear a grunt as I land on something soft, turns out I landed right on top of the other unicorn, and I feel just a little bit dizzy.

“I guess this is a start…” Amethyst muttered nonchalantly as she rested her chin on her hoof as I roll off her and try to keep everything in my stomach where it was.

A few minutes later, we tried again. This time I ended up next to her, but three feet off the ground. After that, I ended up on the ground but I was upside-down. The following attempts slowly showed signs of improvement, and I was finding myself less and less nauseated, she explained to me that sometimes it just took some getting used to. Some time later, we finally moved on to the final test for solo teleportation.

“Alright, you’re going to do a sort of teleportation hopscotch here, alright?” Amethyst asked me, gesturing to the spots she’d floated a few small flags she’d brought, all of which were about four feet apart. “This was a test we had to do every day once we’d gotten past the teleporting without getting sick or sideways or off the ground. You’re gonna teleport to each of these spots, one after the other, take no longer then a second between them, you got it?” She asked.

I tried my best not to be too worried and nodded.

“Good. Now GO!” She ordered.

Taking a deep breath, I charged my horn. Don’t think, just do. It's will not imagination. Focus on the spots and--

POP!

One.

POP!

Two.

POP!

Three.

POP!

Fou-DAMMIT! I appeared facing the ground with my plot up in the air, landing right on my face and earning a laugh from her and dizziness from me.

“Hey, don’t take it badly. Everypony messes up the first time.” She said. “Now let’s try again.”

~

A couple attempts later, I finally pulled off all four destinations, and then went through it a few more times for good measure and imagining that song from Mulan playing in my head to keep up my spirits.

“Great!” Amethyst said, clapping her hooves. “Now, how about a break then we’ll move on to the last step. I brought lemonade!” Her horn glowed and out of the basket emerged a thermos and a pair of cups, and she poured the drink in. For a dream or spirit walk or whatever this was, I had to admit it tasted pretty good.

“When this is over, you gotta give me that recipe.” I said, feeling refreshed.

“Sorry, family secret.” She said with a smirk. Once we’d finished, we moved on to our final lesson; magic bolts. This one’s gonna be fun, you basically gotta focus on what you’re aiming at, and sort of… will the bolt of magic at the target. I’m gonna levitate a few things for you to hit and try to take them down before I drop them.”

“Like Duck Hunt?” I asked.

“What?” She stared at me for a moment. “Why would you hunt a duck?”

“…It’s a video game… uh, you’ve seen the tv and stuff I have, but the stuff on the screen you play with and control, it’s like a game on the screen… hard to explain but you have a toy gun you shoot targets with.”

“…I see. Well, whatever helps you out with this. You ready?” She asked, I nodded.

This had been a particularly fun exercise. She levitated a few small rocks into the air for me and ordered me to shoot magic bolts at them. I’d actually picked up on this a lot sooner then expected… sure enough I could chalk it up to a couple years of having an NES and Duck Hunt for that… damn dog… no, don’t think about the dog… think about the rocks.

My aim really sucked. Okay. Imagine the dog, as the rocks. He’s laughing at you for your failure.

And just like that, my aim drastically improved. I doubt I was gonna use this all that often though when I could use telekinesis, but it probably didn’t hurt to have a way to zap someone to stun them if need be. Still, this stuff was pretty much just self-defense, so I’d have to get really creative if I was gonna kick hate group butt with it.

What felt like a good long while passed, the sun had set over the Equestrian horizon as I looked over at Amethyst who gave a nod.

"I think this'll do for now. You're... passable." The other unicorn said with a smile.

“Thanks, Amethyst. I… really don’t know how to repay you for all this.” I said, and in all honesty I really didn’t.

“Just enjoy the rest of the picnic till you wake up.” She said, gesturing to the other things and earning a nod from me. “And maybe dance with me next time! I admit it’s still a little weird seeing another me, but I gotta adjust sooner or later.”

“Right.” I answered, floating out a sandwich. “And hey, whenever this is all over and you’re back in Equestria, you can become a new Mare Do Well, be a superhero and all!”

“Hm, that would be a way to make Lyra pony up the bits she owes me, excuse the pun. Not to mention Dinky’s sure to like that idea…” She pondered. “We’ll see how things go.” 

“I guess we will…” I said as I continued eating, and suddenly I could hear the sound of my alarm, and I was back on the couch of my apartment, snuggled next to the lilac pegasus I’d fallen asleep by. Sure enough what seemed like far longer in the dream world had not exceeded the time limit I'd set.

We’ll see how things go… 
	
> Think And Fly (Steph's Dream)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I awoke, not on the couch but on a cloud of all things! The sky was a perfect blue, birds flew about here and there, along with… pegasi?

I looked down and saw I was indeed still Flitter judging by the hooves and the lilac pony body they were attached to.

Was I dreaming?

“Yeah, you are.” A voice said, apparently having read my mind or at least knew what I was thinking. I turned around and there was Flitter, hovering in the air as her wings held her in place. “Guess there’s a lot to explain, huh?” She asked sheepishly.

~

“Yeah, I’d say there is…” I said, falling on my back onto the soft, plush surface of the cloud. “I still can’t believe this, I mean, I’m a pony of all things!”

“And?” Flitter asked me, cocking her head.

“I dunno… after the shock I sorta adjusted a little quickly. Still working on getting used to having no hands… or having these?” I said, looking to either side and noticing my new wings were fanned out. Having extra limbs did feel a little strange, but then again waking as a whole new species was rather odd too.

“Hey, trust me, once you’re better at using ‘em, you’re gonna wonder how you ever lived without ‘em.” Flitter answered playfully, landing beside me.

“I tried them out, but I don’t really get a lot of practice hiding in an apartment.” I answered.

“Well, that’s a reason why I brought you here.” Flitter said. “Look, I may be a lot less of a tomcolt then Cloudchaser, but aside from Rainbow Dash obviously, me and her are some of the best fliers.”

“How come only she went to the Wonderbolt Academy then?” I asked.

“Different goals.” She said, making me facehoof at realizing the stupidity of my question.

“So… you’ve been through a lot haven’t you?” She asked, looking at me with concern.

“Well, waking up as what I thought till now was a cartoon character has that effect on me.” I said.

“I wasn’t talking about that.” Flitter said, looking more serious.

“How would you know?” I asked.

“I’ve…” She said looking down for a moment. “…seen your memories.” She raised her hooves up as he gave her a look. “Didn’t have a choice or anything! I’m inside your head, like literally, not much of a choice they just sorta appear, like imagines being shoved in my face.”

“I see…” I replied. There were a lot of things in my life nopony but Kyle knew about.

Did I seriously just think a ponyism?

“I barely got through it.” I said as Flitter gave me a hug. “When I saw how others who got ponified were being treated by that hate group, it reminds me of what I went through, and I never want to see anyone else go through that… I wanted to do something, too. Kyle shouldn’t do it alone and I want to help in any way I can. I got some self-defense skills under my belt, and apparently a good right hook.”

Flitter smirked. “I saw the memory, where you took out that jerk the other day. That was pretty cool, wish I could watch it in replay, I mean, the way he even wet himself? Priceless!” She said with a laugh; then shook her head. “Well, I’m not gonna lie, I’m no fighter, so you’re probably on your own there. However, I’ll be glad to help you learn to fly. Like I said, my sister and I are some of the best in Ponyville.” She walked over to the edge of the cloud and looked back at me.

“What if I fall?” I asked.

“If you do, a cloud will catch you. This is a dream… or spiritual visit or whatever you want to call it.” The other pegasus said with a smile. “So don’t worry. You’ll be alright, I promise!”

“I’m still a little inexperienced with getting these things to go… I mean I used to have only two arms and two legs, you know.” I explained.

“I see, well, you just need to give them some extra focus. You know they’re there, it’s like moving your legs, only pay attention to them, they’ll do the rest for you, we’re linked after all, enough that your instincts will help you the rest of the way.

I took a few breaths and looked back at my new wings. “Alright, come on… come on…” I muttered, trying to think about them, somehow move them like I would my arms and they slowly opened. In all honesty? It was a little weird, having the extra limbs! I sighed in relief as they spread completely. Seriously I’d only been a pony for a few hours and practiced a few feet off the ground; most of those practice attempts ended with me on my face with only some brief hovering.

“Come on…” I said again, and my wings began to flap, earning a smile from me. “Yes!” I said, jumping up with a cheer only to fall from the cloud. “OH SHIIIIIT!” I screamed out, falling only to suddenly feel something super-soft underneath me. Turning over I saw that sure enough there was now a cloud beneath me. Flitter hovered down towards me, her wings flapping.

“Okay, may wanna watch where you stand next time.” She said. “Now try again. Try to reach that cloud right there.” Flitter gestured over to a cloud about fifteen feet up.

“Alright, alright.” I said, standing and trying again. My wings unfolded and started flapping. Making a short jump, I didn’t fall this time. Unfortunately I wasn’t gaining altitude either; I was just hovering in place.

“Good start.” She said. “Just try not to think about it too much and your body will do the rest. Think of it like learning to walk, it’s a natural thing and if you want something enough you’ll grow right into it. Tell me, what’s your favorite food?”

“Ohhh roast chicken.” I answered.

“Ew… what’d a chicken ever do to you?” She asked. Right… herbivore, not to mention a lot of animals in Equestria had some level of sentience to them. I tried to think of something she wouldn’t find off-putting. “I do like strawberry cake.”

“Well guess what, there’s a cake at the end of that trail of clouds now.” Flitter said with a smile. I squinted and sure enough I saw something sitting on a distant cloud now. Huh!

“Fly to it, and it’s yours.” Flitter said.

“Okay, let’s do this!” I said, I do admit I was feeling a little hungry, mostly for a dessert especially when there was something like that at stake! My favorite dessert, how could I refuse? Last time I had any was my birthday after all.

Turning, I was able to start moving in the air. Arcing my body more horizontally, I was able to carry myself better.

“Now catch the thermals and they’ll help send you upward.” She explained.

As I moved, I felt the warm air that rose underneath my wings, giving them a flap and further up I went. Let’s see if I can go faster… I wondered, turning them a little and I moved quicker. Suddenly, it felt more and more… natural to me.

Swooping down and turning to ride the next thermal, I shot straight up, flapping my wings every so often, it was like… I couldn’t even describe what it felt like other then just amazing!

Doing a few turns around the clouds, I landed on one, bouncing slightly from its softness… like being on the world’s softest air mattress. All that remained was the distance up to where that cake was waiting for me. Yeah, a little weird a cake slice could survive this high but I wasn’t going to argue about it; my sweet tooth had survived the ponification after all.

“One more step and you’re there.” Flitter said, landing on the cloud where it awaited. “You want it, come get it.”

“Alright, watch me!” I said, taking to the air again and flying as fast as I could, I wasn’t even thinking but my wings just did all the work as if this was all normal for me. In no time at all, I was landing on the cloud and grinning at the cake slice.

“Nice work! If only Snowflake were here to cheer for ya! Now eat up!” Flitter said. I stared down at it… realizing it was gonna be a lot harder without any hands, and these wings only substituted for them in a limited manner. Fortune has a way of mocking people… or ponies for that matter.

“Uh… how? Am I supposed to just stick my face into it?” I asked, worried the answer might be yes.

To my shock, she nodded. “If you pick it up in your hooves it might be a little easier. Try hovering while you eat it, for practice, ya know? Not to mention you won’t need to worry about balance as much.”

Exhaling, I decided to give that a try. Putting my hooves around the plate I found my forelegs were much more flexible then the average equine’s. Equestrian ponies were very different from actual horses from Earth, honestly… one could argue they only resemble them in the most basic ways; four legs, hooves, tail, mane. Everything else was different, really… their forelegs were flexible enough to function like arms, the wrist could bend enough to crudely grasp some objects(really, it was like trying to hold something in the joint of your wrist). My wings flapped and kept me suspended in the air as I raised it up and tried to open my mouth wide enough to bite from it, managing to get some of the ice cream on my muzzle and earning a giggle from Flitter.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” She said as I finally managed to finish it… only to quickly regret it when I fell onto the cloud hyperventilating from the brain freeze.

“Whoa, you okay?” She asked. “Hang on.” She wrapped her forelegs around me and flew me to the side of the cloud, kicking it with her legs and some rainwater fell from it. “Drink.” She said.

Opening my mouth, I let the water fill and swallowed, extinguishing the frigid feeling in my throat and let out a sigh of relief. “My bad… I have a habit of underestimating that stuff especially when it’s my favorite dessert we’re talking about here.” I said.

“Yeah, I get that, I sometimes get tummyaches when I get carried away with snacks.” Flitter admitted as she carried me back over to the cloud.

Laying down on it, I watched as my double sat beside me… it was a little weird, knowing I looked like that now. I felt my long, sea-green tail flick back and forth on the soft cloud, my wings folding back up as I rested my head on my hooves. Every so often my ears would twitch or turn at the sound of birds; another thing I was slowly finding myself getting more and more used to. How long would I be this way? I was wondering that before I’d fallen asleep. Was I gonna become myself again, or was I going to be this way permanently and be relocated to Equestria?

And would it have been so bad? Equestria drew in a lot of escapist fantasy for a reason, especially with all the hate and war and death that I saw being described every day on the news. Maybe I was just cynical because of the circumstances I grew up under…

“Daddy, please, I’m sorry!” I pleaded, cowering against my bedframe and nursing the bruise on my face, tears flowing freely from my eyes.

“But how am I going to be sure of that, young lady?” The towering man asked me, his insincerely pleasant smile never wavering, his smooth tone never rising as he calmly wiped his fist with a hand cloth while he approached me as if this were a normal, unremarkable thing to him. I was only ten, completely helpless; I remember how I was too scared to tell anyone the truth of where these bruises came from. I fell, something fell on me, I accidentally hit myself with something, whatever excuse I could think of.

I couldn’t answer, I couldn’t even speak as he drew his hand back, I closed my eyes knowing it’d come flying again in less then a second.

I shook my head frantically, clenching my eyes shut as hard as I could to purge those memories. It wasn’t always easy to think of the good people in the world when there were so many bad ones… but it didn’t feel like there were enough, and sometimes it felt like it was just a matter of time before we destroyed ourselves. The hardest part of it all had been to try and keep as positive and upbeat an attitude as I could around everyone, even Kyle. Something I’ve done all my life. I’d hoped eventually I’d become that mask, and be able to enjoy the world as much as I say I did. Kyle and my mom were the only ones I really had that I could share those with, and hoped they could be enough. Was this the reason I was taking to this so quickly? If I ended up this way permanently, and Kyle ended up as Amethyst Star permanently, we’d remain inseparable. Funny in this body I was finding Amethyst to be one attractive mare… my bisexuality survived the switch I suppose… I was glad for that because Kyle was the world to me, he supported me, cared for me, and loved me. I wanted to spend my life with him regardless of how we ended up when this was all over.

Still, with how things were going, there were others like us who needed help, children even! And this PAPA organization clearly didn’t make exceptions with who they were willing to hurt. I’d be more then happy to lend a hoof in putting a stop to this hatred.

“Hey, Flitter?” I asked, causing the other pegasus to look over at me.

“Yeah, Stephanie?” She asked.

“Let’s get back to practice.”

~

Some time later… I’m not sure how much, really, time seemed to be longer there despite the alarm Amet—Kyle had set… I gave a yawn and a stretch as I awoke, and found a familiar pink unicorn mare next to me.

“Heya, Kyle. Have any interesting dreams?” I asked jokingly.

The unicorn just smirked and rolled her eyes, floating the TV remote and spinning it in the air several times before placing it back on the table. “You have no idea.” She answered.
	
> The First Patrol
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	
“So, magic spirit-walk training thing?” Steph asked, smirking at me.

“Eeyup.” I said, floating the remote again. “She’s a pretty cool teacher. Guess they don’t call that school the school for gifted unicorns for nothing.”

“Hey!” Steph said, hopping off the sofa. “How about we go out to Cary Street, check out the bus routes and stuff, maybe grab a bite? And… well… patrol?” She said, winking on the last word.

“Read my mind!” I said, hopping down. "Now where's that backpack of mine..."

~

Within the next hour we were getting off the bus that dropped us off on Cary Street in Richmond, one of the places we loved to go back when we were still human, especially all the food places, the game store that sold a lot of old-school gaming consoles and such, and of course the place that sold cards and tabletop game supplies. For now, though, we were looking for a place to eat at; patrolling could come along later but I kept the costume hidden in a backpack I wore. Steph hovered behind me; ever since she’d mastered flying she couldn’t get enough of it… and admittedly I couldn’t blame her.

“Check it out, my hooves aren’t even touching the ground, Kyle!” Steph said with a giggle.

“Trying to make me jealous, Steph? I can counter that easily when we see how well you manage eating.” I said with a smirk.

“Aw, spoil my fun.” Steph answered.

Grinning as we approached our favorite eating place, the two of us entered and were soon seated without even the slightest hint of disapproval. Noticing a few other ponies here and there; two human parents with a pair of fillies, a mare and a man I assumed was her boyfriend before she ended up all equine. It was moving, really, to see other people who cared for their loved ones enough to stick by them even with such changes. It proved to me that even with wars and prejudice, there were good people in the world, ones who didn’t let fear and hate control their lives. After eating, and sparing no amount of amusement in using my magic for fork-feeding Steph so she wouldn’t have to shove her face into her food, we got up and paid our bill as my girlfriend… or was it marefriend now… grumbled to herself while we left.

As soon as we came out, across the street I saw a far less welcoming sight. People were gathered around a man in a black shirt with the familiar PAPA logo on it. He was toting a megaphone and preaching some hate speech like the man we’d dealt with yesterday. I shook my head and tried to walk onward… out of costume, this wouldn’t accomplish anything. I’d have to deal with him later if he stuck around. Steph and I did our best to ignore him until he suddenly pointed at us.

“Look there! More of these animals! A pattern has shown that most are of this ‘brony’ and ‘pegasister’ movement that the fans of that accursed show call themselves! Is it that much of a stretch to say that they’ve willingly forsaken their kind? Choosing to become these creatures willingly? Don’t tell me none of you can see it!”

“Would you SHUT THE HELL UP?!” Steph yelled suddenly, beginning to fly over before I caught her tail with my magic aura.

“Not this time, Steph. He’s trying to bait us!” I insisted. “I’ll kick his ass later if I see him on patrol.” I added more quietly.

“Better listen to your friend there, animal! Your kind has no place here and it never will! Our esteemed leader will see to that! Look hard, supporters, and you will get to see the first step in mankind’s fight in protecting themselves!” He declared.

That caught my notice, but I couldn’t question him, not here. The people around him seemed likely to agree with him.

“And know this, you filthy abominations, you’re all going to regret your blasphemous decision to betray your former species!” The protestor yelled, and my horn began to glow.

“OOH! Look at that, people! This one’s planning to knock me from my stand and prove how dangerous they are to our very way of life!” He said with a smug grin. “Gonna do it, horsey? Go on! I dare you!”

My horn glowed brighter, a brick next to me began to float off the ground. How I wanted to knock that sneer right off his face like Steph did to the last one…

Don’t. Kyle, please! Listen! If you do, he wins! ....Besides, we can come back for this when we’ve got the costume on.

Well played, Amethyst.

My aura faded and the brick fell. “You’re too pathetic to be remotely worth it.” I said coldly, and gestured Steph to follow.

Continuing on our way and ignoring his threats and insults as best we could, we made our way to the game store to kill time and browse. Spotting an ongoing miniatures game in session, we trotted over and watched.

“No way… ponies?” A zebra stallion running it asked with an amused smirk. “This world gets crazier and crazier doesn’t it?”

“Ran into that jerkass outside, huh?” Steph asked, folding her forelegs and scowling like an angry child as she hovered in place.

“Yup. I’m not that big a brony, but I watched the show with my little sister… weird it was me that changed and not her, huh? Name’s Phil, by the way.” He said.

“Phil?!” I asked, eyes wide. “It’s me, Kyle! I played a changeling warlock on your D&D sessions, remember?”

The zebra stared at me for a moment. Then he promptly burst out laughing. “No… freakin… way!” He said between chortles. “Dude, you’re a chick now?” He asked, pointing downward with his hoof.

I scowled a little. “Yeah, my sausage was traded for a taco. What of it?” I asked, my tail flicking back and forth. “I could still be amused a big guy like you had a zebra OC. ‘Not that big a brony’, huh?” I asked, nudging him with my hoof.

“Hey, I still got my manhood.” He said with a silly grin, causing me to roll my eyes.

“You’re an ass.”

“Nope, zebra!” Phil said, laughing again.

“Hey, we gonna continue here or what?” One of the players asked impatiently.

“Oh, right. We’ll talk later, Kyle.” The zebra said, returning his attention to his game and leaving me and Steph to browse.

Once he’d finished, we decided to join the next game. Some people were less then eager to play with ponies, regrettably, and Phil didn’t hesitate to ban them from his games but only got insults in return. I guess when something shows your closet hobbies to the world you find out who your real friends are. It came with cost though… because on the other hand small children were apparently informed ponies were inside playing Warhammer and soon the place gained a larger supply of spectators, many of which taking out their cellphones and snapping photos that I’m sure were gonna pop up on facebook, tumble, twitter, and any other socially active internet location; eventually we just gave up and posed for a few of them. A few hours went by, Steph mostly watched and had bought herself a sourcebook on how to play and got trained for the second round. It all almost felt like old times again. As I looked outside, I noticed the sun about to set. It was time to start my first ever superhero patrol.

“Well thanks for the game, catch ya later, Phil.” I said, hopping out of my chair. “Don’t be too glum about losing to a girl okay?” I added with a smirk, heading for the door followed by Steph, who chuckled at Phil’s eyeroll.

~

Stepping outside, we immediately ducked into an alley where I pulled out the Mare Do Well costume and quickly slipped it on. “Okay, Steph. Stick to the rooftops and don’t come in unless I call for you, got it?” I asked. Steph nodded and flew up to the emergency stairs and low rooftops as I moved through the alleys, teleporting when I could by short distances to avoid being in one place for too long.

Finally reaching a stopping point, I waited. And waited. And waited. Twenty minutes passed and the place grew darker. Steph peered over and stared down at me.

“Hey, uhh… this is getting us nowhere. Let me scout the area a little in case I see anything. We’ve already seen PAPA here likes to do its more extreme stuff when it gets darker. Fewer witnesses.” She said. Spreading her wings, she flew off, and in less then a minute she was back, landing right before me with a scared look on her face.

“One block west. We gotta hurry!” She said. I nodded and galloped down the sidewalk as fast as I could, Steph right behind me. As we came to a less populated area and turned ‘round the alley, we heard sounds of a struggle. There, within a small vacant area were two men in all black wearing skimasks, but their shirt logos told me all I needed to know of who they were. They were both standing each with their arms wrapped around a large sack containing some struggling form within.

“Bagged ‘em, boss. We’ll have ‘em at HQ in no time.” One said as he held his cellphone to his ear. Nodding a second later, they began to walk towards a parked truck with a closed roof.

I motioned for Steph to stay put and my horn began to glow, opening the pouches in my belt and soon several firecrackers floated out of them, followed by a lighter that switched on and lit them before I telekinetically flung them at the two men, and they exploded right as they reached them, causing them both to cry out and drop their captives.

“Who’s there?!” One demanded, drawing out a knife.

Remaining hidden, I looked over at a trash can near me and floated it straight at one of the men, striking him in the chest and knocking him over.

“Unicorn! Over there!” He gasped, out of breath from the impact as his friend drew a gun and fired in my direction, a silencer equipped to it.

“Shit!” I cried out as the bullet impacted just an inch away from me and I began focusing my magic on the gun to pull it away from him. Now that they knew my location, it was time to make an entrance.

“Unicorn? I have a name, you know...” I said in a low tone as I stepped out. “Call me the Mysterious Mare Do Well, and I see you guys didn’t learn your lesson from before? The filly outside the Kroger two days ago you may have heard about? You’re looking at the pony who saved her.”

“Well don’t think you’re saving these two! The boss has special plans for them and every pony we bring in!” The thug I’d just disarmed said, reaching for the tied sack and the muffled cries confirmed to me that a pony was trapped inside. “No freak animal in a costume is gonna stop that.”

“We’ll see about that.” I responded, rushing forward and teleporting right before I reached him, reappearing behind him I bucked him in the back of his legs, knocking him down again. The man cried out and fell forward, landing on his hands and knees which only caused him more pain and resulting in him loosening his grip on both sacks he was carrying. Teleporting in front of him, I drew back my hoof and slammed it as hard as I could in his face as I was now closer to it.

“Ready to give up?” I growled. As I was smaller now and not as used to fighting in this body, I doubt I hurt him as much as I'd have liked to and made a mental note to rely on my magic more in the future.

“Hardly!” The other man I’d dealt with suddenly said, throwing the now-empty trash can at me and knocking me off my hooves. Okay… that actually hurt. A lot. Amethyst's voice said in my mind as I tried to breathe, the wind knocked out of me from the impact. The man picked up his knife and approached.

“Your little superhero costume’s adorable, but you’re not gonna make any difference Mare Do Well or whatever you’re calling yourself!” He threatened, grabbing me and lifting me off the ground and drawing his knife back intending to thrust it forward and gut me. Focusing as hard as I could despite the pain, I teleported out of his grip and his knife met air. I reappeared a few feet away from him, but unfortunately off the ground so I fell a short distance. He turned to his friend. “Get up! Get those animals in the truck, I’ll deal with her.”

The other man cried out in pain as he tried to stand, and after a few tries, he succeeded. I knew Steph was nearby but I’d ordered her to stay out of this. She couldn’t interfere, if she did she’d be identified, and be in danger. I prayed she had the sense to stay put as I glared at the man who was challenging me. “You’re not taking them anywhere I said lividly. My horn began to glow, and several random bricks levitated around me as I then focused on the man, sending them all his way so they’d pelt him in the chest and legs, and one to the groin just for good measure. The man cried out in pain and collapsed, but his partner was already getting into their van.

“Gonna leave your friend here?” I taunted.

“GO! Our orders are more important!” The punk I’d just beaten shouted, and unfortunately, his friend complied. NO! Leaving the one I was fighting behind I galloped after the van, but it was too late, it sped off down the empty streets and took a corner as fast as it could… he'd gotten away with the hostages. I’d never catch up. I hung my head in defeat. I failed to save them… what was I gonna do now? ... I'd failed... unless…

I turned around, facing the injured man and approached, he was on his knees while moaning in pain as I promptly lunged at him, hooves out and rammed him in the chest to pin him down and floated an M80 firecracker from my belt and had it hover above his face. Time to see if all those Batman comics and cartoons rubbed off on me enough to know how to do an interrogation. “Tell me where he took them, or this goes off on your face.” I said, giving my voice a deadly calm tone.

“I-I’ll report assault!” He said, staring right at the firecracker.

“And they’ll also know what you did to earn it, so don't think you'll have a remote chance of walking away. Tell me where he took them, and you’re free to go back to whatever passes for your life. If not… you’re gonna be needing a plastic surgeon!”

“You wouldn’t! Not to a human being!”

“Which, as you and your bunch so proudly claim… I’m not.” I floated a lighter to it, its flame already lit. “Ten. Nine. Eight.” I began, lighting the fuse.

“Oh my god! Stop it!” He pleaded.

“SEVEN. SIX.” I warned.

“Okay! Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you! Just get rid of that thing!” I nodded and let it fall, smushing out the fuse with my hoof and floating it back into my belt.

“Talk.” I said.

“It’s an old warehouse, we got this whole thing set up, those ponies are being brought to our boss, he’s gonna demonstrate some kinda ‘righteous punishment’ as he calls it for you animals!” He said, his voice full of contempt.

“Go on. Where is it?” I asked. “Or do I have to get the M80 out again? ...And remember the fuse is shorter now so you'll have a lot less time to change your mind...” I warned.

“You saw him turn, right? Continue five blocks, right at the traffic light you reach, seven more down. Not the cleanest area but that’s where they are!” He said. “Now please let me go!”

"Okay. " I got off of him and backed away, leveling a glare at him through my mask. “If you’re lying, you’ll pay dearly. And I really suggest you rethink your life a little. Otherwise... you better hope it's the Night Guard that catches you next time and not me.”

“Sure! Sure! Got it!” He said nervously, and finding the strength to stand again he ran off as fast as he could, albeit a little clumsily due to his injuries. Seconds after, Steph flew down next to me.

“Sheesh, Kyle… that got.. kinda dark.” She said, looking at me with concern. “I mean, yeah he totally deserved it, but… you weren’t really gonna blow up that firecracker on him were you?”

“Of course not.” I said. “I was right in front of it too, it’d be kinda risky to teleport away from in time, you never know with those things."

Deep down, though, I did, honestly consider doing that… I don’t know if it would have been the right choice if he didn’t talk or not… I was lucky he was a coward and I didn’t find out that answer. I winced a little, the trashcan impact still smarting from before and I'd had to hold it in to not look weak while interrogating that man.

You wouldn't... would you? Amethyst's voice asked, anxious, and I felt even more uncomfortable.

No... never... I thought, I didn't have that in me, did I? What if I needed to? What was going to stop these guys? Propping up pillows and trying to talk things over? Not likely.

“Kyle…?” Steph asked, looking at me with concern still in her eyes. I took a few breaths, the thought of those ponies getting hurt or killed by these guys, the idea of failing to help them, watching the people who bullied me growing up always get away with it, what Steph had gone through, that filly from before... all were reasons I could not bear to the thought of failing to save those ponies from those who’d hurt them! I had to do this!

“Steph, fly to the police station, tell them everything we heard, but word it like you saw them head that way, they may be willing to help. I’m gonna go to the warehouse and try to help the ponies they took. Don't mention me.” I said. Steph looked at me like I was nuts.

“Are you crazy? I can’t let you go there by yourself you could get hurt or killed!” She protested.

“I’ll be thinking about doing that to myself if that happens to them because I didn’t save them. I don’t…” I took a deep breath. “I don’t want it to be too late when they get there… please, do this, alright?”

With a sigh, Steph nodded and took to the air. Flying she’d have an easier time finding the place. Once she was gone, I took another breath, and as fast as I could despite the pain from earlier without wearing myself down, I galloped off in the directions the man had given me.

“I’m coming… please don’t let me be too late…” I said softly, trying to hold back the trembling in my voice. I had no idea what I'd find there, or how out of my league I could be... but I had to try...
	
> Evil Hidden
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	So here I am, now on the rooftop after climbing and teleporting my way up the emergency fire escape floor by floor. I looked around for any sign of vehicles, but saw nothing. They may have hid it indoors for all I knew. I was certain the man I interrogated had told me the truth; probably because his remaining shred of confidence was I was walking right into certain death if I met his friends or whoever sent him.

One particular building stood out; its skylights and high windows were lit. It was old, surrounded by buildings that no one was likely using except for the occasional homeless squatters. Leaping down, I teleported again so I’d reappear on the ground without hurting myself. The building’s entrances were closed and from the looks of it, probably locked. I couldn’t just teleport somewhere I didn’t know the inside of, for all I knew I could appear inside a crate, some PAPA thug’s arms, or right in the middle of a crowd of those psychos and then I’d really be in trouble. I could handle a few with the right supplies and surroundings, but forget a whole crowd of them especially if they’re armed. There had to be some way to get inside…

Pacing around the building, I found a window with several discarded crates nearby. If maybe I could… I focused my magic on one of the crates, trying to lift and float it to where the window was. After I’d succeeded, I did the same with two more, one after the other, then floated an empty trash can and lay it upside-down atop the highest crate. I took a few breaths, using all I’d had so far was slowly wearing me down and I made a note to enjoy a good meal when I got home.

“Alright…” I said, climbing up one and then attempting a small teleport so I could stand on the big metal can without making it fall on the way up. Reappearing on such a small surface I almost lost my balance but then leaned against the wall and stretched upward as high as I could so I could peer through the window.

Inside were about thirty or so people; all of them wearing black, with the PAPA logo, and skimasks that hid their faces. All of them seemed to be sitting down, listening to someone. There were two boxes on a stage in front of them, both of which were covered in dark sheets. I spotted the van from before parked in a corner, near where a pull-down garage door was closed on the other side of the building.

Peering around, I tried to look for a spot I could move myself to without being noticed. Somewhere away from the group, behind them perhaps? Opening the window could risk drawing attention, teleporting near the stage they might notice the sound or the brief flash where I’d appear.

Suddenly they stood up and began applauding. Now was my chance!

Closing my eyes, I looked at the spot behind some boxes inside that I’d noticed. It was to the side, if they were distracted by whatever they were celebrating I might go unnoticed.

In a soft pop I was behind the boxes, and inside their hideout now. The cheers continued and I moved quietly to the side behind the boxes so I could see what the commotion was.

"Brothers and sisters of PAPA, please welcome the man who has become our savior against this pandemic!" a man at the stage announced, causing another eruption of applause as another person came to the stage.

Facing the audience now, was a tall, lean man also dressed all in black, the PAPA logo on patches sewn onto the shoulders of his overcoat which looked military in nature, with matching gloves, pants and boots. Strapped on his right leg was a bowie knife in its sheath. His face was also concealed by a pewter-colored airsoft mask covered by a black hoodie worn under his coat, but judging from the different outfit and where he stood, I’d take an educated guess this man was the boss the thugs I had met earlier had spoken of.

“Welcome, good to see you all made it, my brothers-in-arms,” the man said, spreading his arms out in greeting. I remained hidden, knowing that showing myself now without a solid game plan to save the ponies, especially when I had no idea where they were would be suicide.

“Tonight, is where we usher in the next step towards humankind's retaliation against this growing threat against our future!" he announced. "As you all know, far too many are just too afraid to take the steps necessary to save the lucky ones from those who have been marked! Some think that..." He paced back and forth, making emphatic gestures. “…sign-waving here, preaching in public there… that’ll get the job done. Hell, vandalizing merchandise associated with that which started this mess?”

He laughed. “May as well be leaving burning bags of dogshit on their doorsteps with an angry note calling them stupid-heads or something equally juvenile!” he said sarcastically, earning laughs from his audience. His tone was smooth and low, yet passionate; like a southern preacher who could mesmerize an entire room the moment he opens his mouth, or someone's grandfather perhaps. It sent chills down my back, and it only grew worse every moment that passed.

“But they know nothing!” he explained, raising his hand up, index finger extended. “Nothing… about how to spread the message of our revolution! Of mankind’s revolution!” He held his hands behind his back as he turned to face his attentive followers again. “Mankind’s revolution against those whose depravity has been brought for all the world to see by being reduced to the form of lower creatures. I speak of course of these equine abominations that have surfaced throughout our world… sure we get a little diversity with other creatures from the heathen mythologies, appropriately enough, but the enemy is the same, my brothers and sisters.”

The members in the audience murmured in agreement, some nodding and some lightly applauding.

“This, is where we come in! We are gonna make an example of them, all of them!” he declared. “We will leave our mark upon them! They will discover they have no one to go to! No one, not even that collection of misguided man-children who call themselves the “Night Guard” who sought to protect them!”

Murmurs of approval again.

“Now I’m sure we all know that old pesky commandment that gets in the way of everything. Thou shalt not kill? It only applies to your fellow man, and are these… animals… human? Absolutely not. Does God condemn you for putting down a dog that’s grown old? For slaughtering a steer or swine or poultry for food? For putting down a horse that’s become a burden to you? Absolutely not.” As he said those words, I grit my teeth angrily. I needed an idea, but I still needed to know where the ponies were, though his words seemed to suggest to me that I was going to find out very shortly.

“And on that note, the wicked are to be punished, they have been marked as animals, and they seek to replace us! Those two in New York who were directly involved in the television series behind it all became some kind of horse-deities! Others who have been converted through this propaganda disguised as entertainment have transformed as well, including the president’s daughter. What more proof do you need that this country has lost its values and its decency? It is up to us to fight back, in a way that will show them we cannot be defeated, that we cannot be driven back, and that we will show them they have no place in our world.” He pointed to the covered boxes. “Now, how do we do that, you ask? The message we send, we demonstrate their weakness, we take away what gives them advantages over man. The impurities, and leave them to be judged accordingly by our kind!” he said. “Open the first one.”

One of the members of the audience stood up and went onto the stage, removing the sheet and revealing a bound and gagged pegasus mare. The audience shuddered in disgust, my eyes widened in horror under the mask. What was he planning to do? What could I do?

“This thing right here, may attempt to deceive you, to fool you with the memories it may have carried as a human into making you think it’s still the same person. But this creature isn’t that person anymore. That you can be sure. Does somethin’ that looks like that in any way resemble a human being to any of you? I have seen the way these creatures break apart families and we lose our loved ones and children when they give into this perverse change!” the man asked. “Now observe, as your leader, your Captain demonstrates the future of these ‘ponies’. Cut her loose, brother!” he ordered.

“Yes sir, Captain!” the other man said, pulling the pegasus out and cutting away her bonds and removing the gag. She remained where she was, shaking and terrified. I needed a plan. I didn’t know what this ‘Captain’ planned to do to her and I didn’t want to find out.

“Wh-where am I?” the pegasus asked, frightened.

“Where you belong, for now,” the man who'd called himself captain said. “Where you are to be judged, and punished for your depravity, animal.”

The audience cheered his cruel words and for him to harm or kill the pony, who remained too terrified to move.

“W…where’s m-my husband?” she asked, looking around. The captain chuckled.

“Oh, he’s already been judged. Show her what we have in the other cage, brother!” he ordered. The other man removed it, and I shuddered at what I saw.

Inside, was a shaking, cowering gray pegasus stallion. He was curled up in fetal position and his eyes were squeezed shut. His wings flapped for a moment and I noticed something… they were bleeding. Bleeding because they were missing their primaries; those really large feathers that help with flight. Without them, a pegasus, or anything with feathered wings couldn’t hope to fly… as the captain laughed again, I realized what had happened, and what he intended to do to this mare.

“Now, does that upset you, miss?” he asked smugly. “Does it make you wanna hurt me? You’ve got a chance, here. You can try and make a move against me. Land one hit on me and I’ll let you go, unharmed with your husband and you'll know I can be fair and merciful when I want to be. You fail, or try to escape, you’ll share his fate!” he said, pointing his knife at the weeping stallion and chuckling again. I hoped she’d try to flee, if she did, I could help her escape, and save her husband. I focused on my belt, floating out every firecracker I had. Looking up, I noticed a sprinkler system overhead, if I could set something on fire, it’d make for a better distraction till Steph got the police here. I couldn’t wait any longer.

The pegasus mare grit her teeth furiously and spread her wings, but before she could do anything else, the other man who'd tended to the cages immediately came up behind her and thrust a tazer into her back, causing her to cry out and drop to the ground as he tazered her some more, his leader laughing at her suffering.

“Wow, you didn't last long against me at all! So like an animal, always falling for such an easy trick!” the captain said with a laugh, his audience clapping in approval as he approached, his knife drawn. The other man immediately held the mare down, gripping her wings as his boss prepared to do the same as he did to her husband.

Taking action, I lit the M80’s and sent them right at the stage, once they landed, both the captain and his thug paused, and immediately backed away as they exploded, causing the pegasus mare to immediately take to the air and fly behind the cage her husband was in.

Lighting two more, I sent them flying at the audience, creating more explosions, and the last one at the sheets, setting them on fire. The confusion set, I made a gallop to the stage, teleporting at the last moment so I could appear in front of the two captive pegasi, glaring hatefully at the man who'd just tried to mutilate her.

“Hm, so you’re that pony in the costume one of my men ran into earlier?” the tall man asked, brandishing his knife. “Unicorn, huh? I’ll look forward to taking that horn of yours in exchange for all the pain you caused him for doing his job.”

“You can try!” I said coldly, looking him up and down. "Good to see someone didn't forget to dress up for Halloween," I muttered. As he approached, I immediately teleported, avoiding the attack from behind that I knew was coming and appeared behind the so-called ‘Captain’, but he turned around instantly and swung his knife, grazing me with it and causing me to cry out; blood drawing from the light cut that was now on my chest. I tried my magic on the knife to disarm him, but he fought back, gripping it as hard as he could until I couldn’t focus anymore as more of his friends began to approach the stage.

“Get her!” he said calmly as he stepped away. Dammit, a bunch of these guys and one of me? No chance, I had to make use of something! As several advanced with knives drawn I teleported away from them, and turned my magic to one of the burning sheets, sending it at them and blanketing several of them. Seconds later, the fire set off the sprinklers, allowing enough of a distraction to give the pegasus a chance to free her husband.

The masked leader then began to approach me again. I glared back at him, my magic levitating the nearest thing available to me… a tiny screwdriver, which in a desperate attempt I sent flying at him, but he swatted it aside before it could reach him. Dashing forward he grabbed me by the neck before I could react and held me off the ground single-handedly, nudging my hat off with the tip of his knife. Up close I could see his mask more clearly; his eyes were hidden behind screen lenses, and a cross was carved into the front between the eyeholes and over the brows.

“I believe I promised myself a severed unicorn horn…” He said softly as he held his knife out towards my horn. I struggled but to no avail, when I tried to teleport the moment my horn glowed he shook me violently, breaking my focus. “I guess no one ever told you that heroes always go down first.”

Before he could do the deed, however, sirens could be heard. Turning in their direction, he dropped me and gestured to his men, and they promptly fled to the back door, escaping and leaving me there alone with the two ponies, who both looked over at me.

“Thank you…!” the mare said, tears in her eyes as she flew over and gave me a hug. I flinched from the pain, but then put my hoof on her shoulder.

“…No problem. The police should take it from here, tell them what happened,” I said, floating my hat back to my head. I needed to get out of here as well. Free of distractions, I focused on the place outside where I’d been and was suddenly there, but the moment I did, I felt the last of my energy leave me and I collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily.

Must have exhausted myself...

Moments later, I heard the door get busted down and police running in, and moments later, somepony putting their hooves around me. “You’re hurt?” Flitter’s voice asked as I looked up at its owner as she held me.

“Steph...” I said with a sad smile as I slid my mask up.

“Let's get outta here. Hope ya like flying!” the lilac pegasus said with a smile as she hugged me tightly, lifting up into the air as I slowly faded from consciousness, shaking from all that had happened.

No… we can’t go to New York… not yet.
	
> Impact and Reprocussion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I felt a soft surface and turned a little, making a small grunt as I woke up. Where was I? How did I get here?

My eyes slowly opened and I saw my living room ceiling above me. “I’m back h—“ I covered my mouth when a female voice came out, and looked where my hand should be, seeing a pink hoof and memories of the fight against that man in the mask came back to me. I was still a pony, and my Mare Do Well costume was nearby on the floor. What I’d done who-knows-how-long ago was real, and I could only hope that pegasus couple were safe. I felt some slight discomfort and noticed where I’d been cut earlier had been tended to, though it still hurt. Thankfully it shouldn’t leave a scar, though ordering some kind of body armor pads might be a good idea in the future.

“How long…” I wondered aloud, watching my thick, purple tail swish back and forth as if to remind me of what I am now. Laying on my belly, my forelegs resting atop the pillow I’d woken up laying against and resting my head on them, I stared out the window the couch was near, noticing the faint form of Amethyst Star’s reflection staring back at me.

“Hey, Amethyst Star…” I said softly, watching my reflection mouth the words back at me like I were being addressed. It made me wonder again, if I’d return to normal or if I’d end up stuck this way permanently. Ponies weren’t meant to live in this world, we—no, they… belonged back in Equestria… a harmonious world where they could live without fear of things like stupid wars, political pissing contests, and hate-mongers like PAPA. Why did I think ‘we’? I wasn’t one of them! I’m human, dammit! Just… in a different body, just like…

Stephanie… she lay sound asleep next to me, looking so peaceful as she lay there, her wings tucked in and her tail curled to the side near where her head was turned. I slowly put my hoof over her, gently brushing her long, teal mane and she cooed a little in her sleep. The pegasus that was, no still is my girlfriend nuzzled up to me a little and I hugged her tighter.

“Thanks.” I whispered, giving her a kiss on her soft cheek. Having had to fly me must have worn her out badly. “I dunno how I can say this…” I began, looking at the window again. “No matter what happens, if we both end up stuck this way on earth, or just one of us, or one of us ends up in Equestria or something… I love you. If this hadn’t happened, a week from now I was…” I stopped myself. I couldn’t tell her I had a promise ring in my drawer. If she knew, and fate decided to be as cruel as it had been, it’d only make things harder… at least that’s what my gut told me.

Steph’s eyes fluttered open and she looked over at me. “You mean that?” She asked, looking a little downcast. “Sorry, she’s asleep right now. It’s me, Flitter.”

I was taken aback by this, I shouldn’t have been after the dreams I had made it pretty clear I wasn’t alone in this body but it was still jarring to see someone who until now I’d idenfitied as my girlfriend claim to be someone else. “How?” I asked.

“Hey, it’s weird for me, too. Imagine seeing somepony you know acting like a total stranger.” Flitter answered. “What you did was really brave. Kinda… reckless… but brave.”

“The man leading them… he was having those who turned into ponies kidnapped so he could cleanse them.” I explained.

“Cleanse?” Flitter asked me.

“Or that’s what his sick mind called it. More like clipping a pegasus’ wings or cutting a unicorn’s horn.” I said, causing the lilac pegasus to cringe, her wings tucking themselves in a little tighter as she looked at me aghast.

“What kind of monster would do something so horrible to a pony?! What’d they ever do to deserve such a thing?” Flitter asked indignantly.

“Exist.” I said softly. “Him and his kind think we’re a disease and he’s punishing us for it… wants us to be too afraid to stand up to them and inspire others like him to get more forceful towards ponies.”

“That’s awful…” Flitter replied.

“Far from the only thing some people in this world will act that way towards.” I answered. “Plenty of times there’s hate and intolerance towards someone or something just for being different, or harder to understand. They decide they want it gotten rid of, or decide it’s bad because it’s not something on their terms, and they convince people who need something to blame their problems on to blame whatever it is they hate.”

Flitter sighed. “I saw a few of Stephanie’s memories… I get she’s had to deal with that first-hoof.” She looked over at me. “But she’s still able to keep on going! You humans are better then you give credit for. You’re brave, determined, adaptable, and when things get bad you work together to fix it as best you can.” The pegasus smiled at me. “And I can see how much Stephanie loves you.”

“Thanks.” I said. “It comes with being in a way harsher world then Equestria, I suppose.” I looked down at my right hoof and raised it up, staring at it. “So… how did this happen? You and… Amethyst able to just take over at random?” I couldn’t help but wonder if Amethyst had taken me for a drive whenever I slept.

“Just happens from time to time I guess. This is the first time for me, honest!” Flitter said, looking as if I were accusing her of something. “I just want to see Equestria again.”

“I don’t blame you. After what I just went through I’d want to be anywhere but here.” I said. “But I can’t stop now. Not while that man and people following him are still out there.”

“That’s really brave… Amethyst is the same with protecting her sister.” Flitter said. “I’ll bet if we make it back she won’t be so ready to part with the costume.” She giggled a little then winced. “Oh… I think Stephanie’s waking up now.” She shook her head a little and closed her eyes for a second, then when she opened them she looked down at herself, then at me. “Kyle?” She asked, confused.

“Good to see you back, Steph.” I said, putting my foreleg around her to give her a hug, then cringing a little from the wound on my chest.

“Careful. I took care of it when I got you home. It’s not too bad just needs a day to heal I think. Still, though… not having hands made it tougher for me.” She ran her hoof through her mane to brush it from her face. “What… was that, anyway?”

“I met Flitter.” I replied. “I guess since that’s her body, every now and then you fall asleep she ends up in control. I don’t think it was intentional, though.”

“Huh…” Steph replied, looking down at her lilac hooves. “The dreams are a weird enough experience already. Am I gonna… become more used to this? Like will it feel more natural to me to be a pony?” She wondered.

“Steph, I’ve been stuck this way longer then you, and I’m still kinda freaked out from it, so until I show any signs I think you’re safe.” I said with a smile as I hugged her a little tighter. She giggled and nuzzled my neck, then glanced at the window with a small smile.

“We really are very cute, though.” She said.

“You’re cuter.” I said, playfully bapping her muzzle with my hoof.

“Says the pretty pink mare.” Steph answered. “The pretty pink mare who saved two ponies and is now the first pony superhero on Earth.”

“Oh, stop.” I said with a sheepish laugh.

“Make me.” She answered in a soft tone, drawing closer as I felt her spread one of her wings and drape it over me.

“I doubt I could…” I said, feeling myself blush heavily as my forehead suddenly rested against hers, and slowly we tilted our heads upward till our muzzled touched one-another. Stephanie’s eyes slowly closed, as did mine, and our lips met.

There are times in our lives, when things get so messed up, things turn so completely upside-down that our emotion and need for something in our lives that still makes sense draws us all the more to those we hold the closest to our hearts. Stephanie was that to me; human or mare. I was the same to her. I drew my hoof up and brushed her soft cheek as I kissed her. Her wing remained draped over me, almost protectively like I was hers. I felt her soft lips press against mine as her own passion rose. The kiss was gentle at first, but as seconds ticked by it grew stronger, more loving. I felt her slowly turn sideways then onto her back, beckoning me. My earlier injury no longer stung at all, the adrenaline rush that was brewing up inside me had seen to that as I knew what she wanted next, what I wanted next.

~

Somewhere over a half hour or so later by my guess, I was laying on my back, staring at the ceiling as my breathing slowed back down.

“See, Kyle? Being female is not so bad, is it?” Steph asked with a giggle as she snuggled up to me.

“I’m not confirming or denying anything.” I answered, looking over at her and putting my foreleg around her, running my hoof through her mane, causing her to sigh in relief.

“I like that. I can see why you enjoyed it when I did it.” She said, turning her head a little and making it easier for me to stroke her mane, at least as best as I could with a hoof.

“See if something’s on TV…” I said, looking over at the remote on the coffee table and floating it into the air, using my magic to press power and do a little channel-surfing till I could find the news. I wasn’t sure how much time had gone by, but maybe it’d have covered what happened now. Possibly re-run it or have it in the papers tomorrow.

Okay, maybe I was being a bit eager for attention on my antics, but I needed to know if I’ve accomplished anything so far. I’d saved lives, but I needed to know if I was doing anything to put fewer in danger.

A few channels later, the usual shock-humor crap they put on Adult Swim, the comically-biased stuff on a news network that was not remotely balanced, and some old black and white movies that weren’t my forte outside the horror genre, I found our local news.

“—reports of two pegasi who claim to have been kidnapped by an extreme branch of PAPA. The pair have stated gratitude towards a mystery pony in a costume who had saved them. The search continues for the suspects responsible in the kidnapping, though none of which have been identified…” 

“Hey, Steph, check it out.” I said, gesturing to the TV. The pegasus’ eyes fluttered open and she stared at the screen, watching as the pegasi were then interviewed, discussing what had happened.

“He was gonna clip my wings… just like he did to my husband.” The mare said, putting her hoof around the stallion, who looked downcast and now had bandages over the ends of his wings. I didn’t know pony biology and I couldn’t imagine if they’d grow back or they’d need to see a decent unicorn who specialized in healing magic. “But still, she saved us, and helped drive them off.” The mare continued. “She wore a blue and purple costume, anyone who watched the show probably knows. The Mysterious Mare Do Well is back, and she’s fighting these guys. About time somepony is giving them what they deserve.”

I couldn’t help but smirk, the last part satisfied me the most somehow. I hated bullies, I dealt with them growing up and these guys were among the worst now, and deserved every kind of horrible thing. How long were ponies going to be left having to cower and cave into them? That was gonna change… so very much. Just let them try again…

My thoughts were interrupted when suddenly the anchorwoman mentioned something else as she froze in place, looking at a black envelope. “This just in, an envelope of some kind. Message on it requests to play at once.” She looked to her co-anchor. “Can we do this?” She looked towards the screen. “Should we do this?” She seemed to receive an okay and passed it to someone out of frame, who opened it revealing a CD. “We have received a message, the PAPA logo is on it and has requested it be played at once. We will be on standby to cut if this material becomes unacceptable to air.”

I grew uneasy. The news station didn’t seem to know for sure what to make of it, but appeared to be prepared should things go wrong.

The screen became black and scratchy, and a voice I recognized suddenly spoke. One that sent chills down my back. Stephanie froze in place, cowering as soon as she heard it.

“Good evening, brothers and sisters of PAPA, this message goes out to you from your captain in Richmond, Virginia…” My breathing grew rapid as memories of the fight with the man who called himself the captain came back. The adrenaline had long-since worn off, and the horror of what I had gone up against began to seep in. “This past meeting, we’ve experienced a rather… alarming setback in our message we sought to give the people of this community, our message we sought to give to… educate these lowly creatures our friends, our family members even, have turned into by some baleful yet righteous curse…. but I assure you, my fellow humans, you need not blame yourselves for this show of impurity.” He explained, his tone now like that of a doting parent. “As God marked Cain for his sin, so to have the degenerate of this decaying country that has lowered its bar on a decent and proper society been marked with a form that reflects how far they’ve strayed from what mankind was meant to be! They have been marked, and it is up to us, my brothers and sisters, to punish them!” The video suddenly cut to the pegasus stallion from before, crying for help as several masked men held him down, the captain approaching with his knife drawn to do the damage I’d just seen earlier on the interview, thankfully it turned to black again before that could happen.

“And this message goes to you; the vigilante who resists my attempts to educate your kind of your sins and guide my fellow man to what must be done… do not think that this is over.” The black screen cut to the captain, sharpening his knife with a whetstone. “Understand that your… no doubt well-meaning, but extremely reckless actions are a declaration of war… I will hunt you down, I will see to it you are judged accordingly, and that is a solemn promise before man and God...” With that, the video cut off, and returned to the now admittedly astonished anchors.

“Please… Kyle… turn it off.” Steph said, whimpering. I switched the TV off and looked over at her, I’d not seen her look this terrified in some time and it prompted me to throw my forelegs around her and hold her close as she cried into my chest. It was unusual, seeing my normally bold and upbeat girlfriend like this, and this and the threatening message had left me afraid now, too.

Afraid of if I had done the right thing, or just made PAPA and this man who was leading a group of them here stoop to more extreme lengths then before… afraid that they would go to those lengths to get to me… afraid because Stephanie was now frightened… and afraid of if I’d be able to protect her…
	
> Dreams and Fantasies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was late when I slowly stirred awake again. Stephanie was sound asleep against me once more and as before, we were still two pony mares. My costume lay discarded nearby on the floor, my girlfriend… or was it marefriend now... lay snuggled up to me.

I must have lost track of time but I knew it to be late. Pitch black outside, the apartment windows’ blinds barely opened from where Steph and I lay on the couch. Turning a little, I kissed her on her soft forehead, the pegasus mare shifted a little, and snuggled some more.

As I used my magic to float the blanket over us, a loud crash came as the window by the couch was smashed open, prompting Stephanie awake and me on alert. Before I could even react two men covered in black climbed through, one firing a net at me and another immediately tackling Stephanie and restraining her with a bear hug.

“STEPH!” I cried out, focusing my magic and teleporting out of the net, then immediately blasting the man holding her in the face and causing him to drop her. Before I could do anything else, however, two more men were already in the room, and they promptly jabbed me with tazer rods, causing me to go numb and collapse to the floor. Shaking my head and trying to fight off the numbness, I watched helplessly as one of them went and opened the door, and two more of the men in black entered, followed by the captain himself.

“YOU!” I yelled, absolute fury in my voice as I attempted to teleport away from my captors but I was immediately tazered again before I had the chance. I suddenly heard Steph scream out as one of the other men had gotten to her and was holding her down while another chuckled to himself as he tazered her over and over again.

“Mystery solved, wouldn’t you say?” The captain asked, his hands behind his back as he approached us, looking down towards where my costume lay. “I promised I’d hunt you down… didn’t expect it’d be this easy, to be honest.” He said, kicking the costume aside in amusement and turning towards me. I struggled to charge my magic up, but the numbness in my body made it impossible now. Steph was in tears, shaking, cowering, pleading as the men continued to torment her.

If only I could see under that hood, behind that mask, any idea of the twisted zealot underneath, but now I could do nothing…

“You stood in my way, sought to oppose mankind’s effort to fight back against the invading, lowly abominations that are threatening this world's people. Now, you’ll face retribution from the truly righteous!” The captain said, drawing out his knife. “I believe last time, you cost me a pegasus…” He explained, and he let out an amused chuckle. “…so it’s only fair I make up for that loss, now… hold that animal down!”

“NO!” Stephanie cried out, two more men joining as they restrained her, and two others pulling her wings outward and pressing them against the floor.

“LEAVE HER ALONE YOU MONSTER!” I screamed, struggling as hard as I could but my body wouldn’t obey. The captain simply ignored me and brought his knife down; Stephanie’s whimpers could be heard as her wings had been clipped. “NO!” I cried, as the captain stepped away, revealing what he’d done to my girlfriend. The tips of her wings were gone, cut clean off. She lay there, sobbing as the men released her.

“Don’t worry, she has been judged so now I’m done with her. Now it’s your turn, Mare Do Well... to be, as I promised, also judged accordingly for your crimes...” He said, grabbing and holding my head down firmly. Struggling, I could see him bringing his knife ever-closer towards my horn to cut it off.

~

I don’t think I’ve ever screamed so loudly in my life as I sat straight up, the room dark but otherwise devoid of anyone but me and Steph, who jumped up into the air and hovered in place, staring down at me with a worried look.

“Kyle! Shhh! It’s a bad dream! You were having a bad dream!” She said, slowly flying down and landing next to me, putting her hooves around me and kissing me softly once I’d calmed down enough.

“Oh god, Steph!” I quickly returned the hug, probably a lot more tightly then the one she gave me. It had all been a dream! Just a bad dream!

…a dream that could still happen if they found us out… I realized, causing me to freeze up. “Steph… I…” I stammered, tears forming in my eyes. “I won’t let them get you. I promise. I won’t let them get you!”

“Shhh, it’s okay, baby.” Steph said with a smile, prompting my ears to droop at being called ‘baby’ but I let it slide; anything to help me ease up.

“It’s okay, the dream’s over, Kyle. I’m right here and I’m fine, you’re fine.” She kissed me softly, then more passionately till I felt my anxiety melt and I returned it.

“That’s right, there we go.” Steph said softly with a smile as she broke off the kiss, then promptly bopped me on the muzzle with her hoof. “And that was for nearly deafening me. Next time give a warning.” She said with a playful smirk. I still felt a little bit of anxiety left over from the nightmare, but in the corner of my mind I had enough sense now to realize what she was trying to do for me probably for the best if I was to avoid a psychotic breakdown over it. Still…

“How do you do that?” I asked.

“Do what?” Steph asked, cocking her head and her ears drooping. Oh jeez, now she just looks adorable like a sad puppy… I thought, wondering if she was still doing all she could to ease me up or if she just didn’t completely realize how adorable Equestrian ponies really were.

“Manage to handle me like that… I’m sure you had a good idea what I was dreaming about.” I said, my head downcast.

“Yeah… was it about that man?” Steph asked, putting her hoof on my shoulder, and I nodded quietly.

“We'll stop him, I know we will. If the law won’t do it, we’ll do what we can till they do.” She said. “In the meantime, I don’t think we actually had dinner, did we?”

“No, I don’t think we did. Problem, though…” I replied. “You’re the better cook but you kinda don’t have hands anymore. I can only reheat stuff and maybe boil things but I’ve got the best substitute for hands.”

“Do we have anything frozen?” She asked.

“Nothing that I think we can eat anymore.” I answered.

“Darn. Maybe just salads, I guess?” She offered.

“Best we got, I suppose.” I replied, hopping off the couch and heading to the kitchen. Using my magic to open the fridge up, I looked at what was inside, seeing if I had any produce left over. Eggs or cheese were fine too, but meat was out of the question.

“Guess it’s… uhh… does this sound weird? Fried eggs, with a side of salad?” I asked.

“Yes.” Steph said. “Really. But I guess we don’t have much of a choice.”

“Guess not.” I said, floating the chosen foodstuffs out of the refrigerator and setting to work.

~

“STUPID JAR!” I protested angrily, trying to make the peanut-butter jar open with my magic. Seriously, I was the gorram Mare Do Well now, I practiced with this sort of thing! Steph noticed my growing frustration as I’d decided salads and eggs just weren’t enough to fill me and a sandwich was an order.

“Uhhh, Kyle? I think you’re trying too hard.” She said.

“I’m trying just hard enough!” I said, glaring at the jar as the lid stubbornly remained where it was. What I’d give to be me again and have a set of hands once more. Seconds later, my head started to hurt and I felt dizzy.

“Alright, calm down.” Steph said, flying over to me and rubbing the back of my head with her hoof. “Try tapping against the table or something.”

Oh… right… I thought to myself, letting the jar float over to the countertop, turn sideways, and tap against it a few times. Floating it back over, I tried opening it again and sure enough, it popped right off.

“Ha! Play that Final Fantasy fanfare!” I said proudly. Steph just shook her head and continued eating.

The rest of our late meal was much quieter, pony tastes definitely did improve my opinion of salads, and the eggs did help curb my disdain for having had meats removed from my diet. Steph made a few attempts at using her hooves to manipulate silverware, but proved unsuccessful to the point she just dug right in face-first while I settled for just using my magic. After the threatening message on the news and the scares I had to endure, a tub of ice cream shared between us for dessert felt like a good idea.

With V For Vendetta on, the two of us snuggled on the couch; as much as a unicorn and pegasus pony could, and a the blanket over us, we’d found an easy way to cope with the troubles going on around us. While we were hardly up against a dystopian government like the titlular vigilante, there was still enough going on that the law wasn’t preventing. The captain and his thugs were still on the loose, and could find a number of ways to get their own twisted message across. And worse, they could use what Steph and I have done as a scapegoat. I had to be just as active… no, moreso. Ideas are unkillable, after all, so long as they’re believed in.

Looking over at the discarded Mare Do Well costume, I floated it up and looked it over, then at Stephanie.

“Kyle, something occurred to me.” Steph said suddenly. “They’ll be looking for a unicorn as the identity of Mare Do Well, right?”

“Yeah.” I replied.

“Remember how Rainbow’s friends managed to throw her off when she was trying to identify the pony under the mask?” She asked.

“Yeah, they all wore the costume at different times. There was no way she could tell who… or what Mare Do Well was! Earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, alicorn…” I said.

“Exactly.” She explained with a smile. “We got spare costumes, right? Maybe we both ought to—”

“No. No. NO.” I said sharply. “Steph, I can’t put you in danger like that!”

“Kyle, I’ve got a lot more close-hand combat skill then you did, self-defense classes for years, kinda comes with the crap I dealt with growing up and all…” Steph protested.

“But are you used to it in a pony body?” I asked. “You don’t have enough experience that way.”

“How hard can it be?” Steph asked with a shrug. “Even if it is, I’ll figure it out. You just said you can’t put me in danger like that? Well I don’t want to sit on the sidelines while the captain carves you up like coldcuts because he got a lucky hit in!” My girlfriend stood up and looked down at me. “I’ve kicked the asses of a lot of bullies and creeps in high school… and adorable little pegasus or not, I can do it again. I don’t know if Flitter’s as willing as I am, but I’m gonna do what I can to help out, this is my fight too, Kyle.” She reached her hoof under my chin, tilting my head up.

“They may have guns…” I said.

“We knew the risks when we got into this, Kyle. You saw the news, it’s too late to get out. Not you, we have to play this game to the end, until that man and his followers are dealt with once and for all.”

I had to admit, be it human or cute pegasus, Steph knew how to be intimidating when she wanted to be. “Steph… I promised I’d keep you safe. That I would.”

“And who’s gonna protect you? You made your move against PAPA, now the captain’s making his against you. Hold that promise best you can, Kyle, and I’ll hold mine to keep you safe.” She said, giving me a kiss on the muzzle.

Some arguments, you couldn’t win without making things worse, as Odysseus was forced to risk the loss of few or all when passing two great sea monsters, I had to make the less selfish one. I loved Stephanie dearly, but I couldn’t put more lives at stake by denying the extra help if she was capable of providing it. If we could work together, maybe we could stop the captain sooner, before more ponies were hurt. 

As the movie came to a close, I felt sleep creep in on me again, and my last conscious thought was that slow realization of how oddly silent Amethyst Star had been in my head for this entire time...

~

I woke, but not on the couch, or even my apartment. Rather it looked to be a hotel bed of some kind. As I sat up I realized, looking down at myself, I was me again; wearing the clothes I’d had on the day before I’d changed. Any joy of being myself again, however, was muted by my confusion of where I was…

“Happy?” A rather curt but female voice asked from behind me. I turned and there on a standard-issued hotel armchair was Amethyst Star, her forehooves crossed one over the other, her tail flicking back and forth, and giving me a look that could freeze the earth’s core.

“Amethyst… what’s going on?” I asked. Immediately after, the unicorn’s horn light up and a magical aura covered me, lifting me off the bed and into the air, upside-down as she floated me over to her so I was now staring right into her large eyes.

“I think you know. MY body, Kyle. Just because you’re steering ninety percent of the time doesn’t mean it’s yours.” She said icily. “Care to recap what you and your girlfriend did earlier with my body and... to an extent Flitter’s that I just might not feel so inclined to approve of?”

.....what did she....?!

....Ohhhh crap…
	
> Talks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I, Stephanie Rourke Talbot, have been through a lot in my life. As the song goes “the little things, the little things, they made me who I am today.” Ah, such a controversial band if there ever was one.

I’d left Kyle asleep in the living room as I’d wandered into the bathroom and took out a few spare pillows, carrying them in my forehooves as I flew awkwardly down the hallway and into the spare room we used for making our cosplays back when we were still human. Dropping them in a pile, I headed over to the closet and grabbed up some nylon rope… amazing how capable these pony hooves could sometimes be at picking stuff up. With a little effort I was able to tie the pillows tightly together and prop them against the wall, like a dummy of sorts. My next course of action was to get a piece of paper and draw the PAPA logo on it; a trial in and of itself when you had only your teeth to grasp a marker with, and taping it to the ‘face’ of the pillow dummy I’d made. Smiling at my handiwork… or was it hoofwork now? I brushed back my sea-green mane and felt a small spark of pride. Kyle could stand to have one of these when she woke up.

Did I think ‘she’? Why did I think that? It hadn’t been long and for some reason my mind registered my boyfriend as female. Then again another weird part was I found… her… attractive as a pony when beforehand I’d never found ponies remotely so.

Okay… now my mind’s getting weird on me. I wasn't attracted to ponies, I wasn't one of those weirdos... it was more like I saw him... her... as another pony. And a reasonably good-looking one at that.

Okay, what the hell's going on here....

I flew as fast as I could to the bathroom and hovered in front of the mirror. Flitter stared back at me, wearing the same confused look as I was no doubt making right now.

DAMN I’m adorable. I thought. “So… yeah, Steph… you’re a pony. Are you starting to think like one all of a sudden?” I asked my reflection, speaking in Flitter’s adorably sweet voice. Was I gonna turn back whenever Discord was beaten? Was I gonna be stuck like this even after? Was I gonna be a pony stranded on earth or a human trapped in a pony body living in Equestria? What would happen to the original Flitter? Was she going to fade away and be replaced by me? I don’t think I’d live with myself if that were the case. I couldn’t imagine how scary it’d be to have someone invade my body and slowly override my consciousness till I ceased to exist. Did Flitter know anything? Maybe I could ask.

“Hey, Flitter?” I asked my reflection, leaning in and staring into those big purple eyes that now belonged to me. “Are you awake in there?”

No answer.

“Hello?” I asked.

A few seconds went by.

 Hello?

I smiled. “Hey, Flitter!” I said, happy to see my brain’s roommate was awake, though the question at hand quickly changed the mood. “Uhhh… I got a question I need to ask about.”

You don’t have to talk, just think it and I can hear you, silly. Flitter joked.

Hmm, okay, that probably would be easier and I can do other stuff. I thought, flying out of the bathroom. Do you… have any idea what will happen to us? I’ve felt… different lately. Like I’m feel more at home in the air, I’ve wondered about clouds, and I find Kyle as Amethyst attractive, though I’ve never been into ponies that way before. I said in my mind.

Well, Ammy is a very pretty mare. Flitter said in my mind with a laugh.

“Ehhh… reminds me…” I said aloud, putting my hoof to my mouth and thinking again. Are we… okay about earlier? Kyle and I… kinda…

…kinda what? Flitter asked innocently.

Well, crap…

“We… uh… maybesortafooledaroundabit.” I trailed off, this time out loud.

Sorry, didn’t catch that. She said, why’d she have to sound so cute and innocent? Now I felt so guilty and awful! I collapsed to the floor and onto my haunches in the kitchen, putting my hooves to my face and falling over. I never asked! I wanted closeness, solace, love, comfort, something positive from the one who meant more to me then anyone else and I didn’t get Flitter’s permission to use something she albeit involuntarily but was still sharing with me for the time being for my personal pleasure! How am I gonna live with this?!

Then came the laughing, quickly and hysterically. Okay, now THAT level of panic I can say it’s even now! she said with another laugh.

“Wait, what?” I asked, too shocked to remember I didn’t need to speak aloud.

I’m a pretty forgiving pony. And I understand and saw why what happened did. her voice told me. …And look, we got bigger problems, don’t we? she asked me.

Yeah, I guess we do. PAPA, this ‘Captain’ who was leading a group of them here, and… now this confusion I’m dealing with...

Yeah, I’m feeling it, too. It’s weird but I’ve felt… attracted to Amethyst more and more over this past day. First I wondered if I was bisexual, too… but then I remembered you are, and it’s gotten me to wonder if we’re… Flitter seemed to drift off.

What? I asked in my mind.

Nothing. I don’t… I don’t want to put you in a spot to take that lightly, okay? She asked, her voice as sweet and yet filled with concern now. I’d feel bad if I pressed on it so I decided… for now… to let it go. I’d be me as much as I can, and be there for my mar—boyfriend.

“Hey, Flitter?” I asked.

Hm?

“Wanna lay a few into that training dummy I just made earlier?” I asked. I could hear some giggling in my head.

Yeah! After the stuff with those PAPA humans, I could use a little relief! She said joyfully.

With a grin, I flew into the room where I’d set the dummy up and stood before it, a confident smile on my face as I prepared to let out my life’s frustrations on it.

~

"Had enough?" Amethyst asked me.	

I was amazed there was any furniture left due to that Amethyst had used her magic to throw me into virtually every possible surface and piece of furniture she could see, among other things like soaking me in a bathtub, throwing stuff AT me, emptying the mini-fridge over my head, and bombarding me with pillows. As it was a dream it couldn’t hurt me, but I sure looked about as good as the victim at the ending of a creepypasta story often does at the moment and felt a very uncomfortable numbness all over. The unicorn had not left her spot the entire time, and regarded me with a look that spared no expense of disapproval. "Yes..." I muttered weakly.

“So, what have you learned?” She asked flatly.

“N…not to… do things with my girlfriend when I’m in your body?” I asked, feeling like I had weights strapped to my hands and feet.

“Very good.” Amethyst said. Her horn stopped glowing and she let out a sigh as she rolled her eyes a little. “My steam’s blown now, and I knew I couldn’t hurt you in a dream anyway.” She said, and when I looked myself over, I was good as new. “So I guess we’re cool, now.”

Then next thing I knew, I was a pony again, prompting an involuntary, exasperated sigh from me.

“How am I ever gonna get used to this?” I asked, looking over my now pink forehoof.

“Being a pony or being female?” She asked, amused.

“Both, I think.” I said, sitting in a ‘Lyra-slouch’ against the side of the bed and staring down at myself. “Look, I… what Steph and I did? We weren’t really thinking about that, we weren’t like some creepy fans who read clop and thought it’d be super-hot or something.” I said.

“Clop?” She asked, eyebrow rising.

I sighed, rubbing the back of my head with my forehoof awkwardly. “How do I put this? Uhhh… does Equestria have… adult entertainment?”

“I dunno… maybe?” Amethyst asked. Either Equestria didn’t, or Ponyville and Canterlot were incredibly chaste communities.

“Look, it’s probably beside the point. Thing is, we just…” I felt my ears droop as I looked down again. “After fighting that man… I was scared. Stephanie was scared. When I saw what that man sent to the news, I was even more scared. I was worried what he’d do because I fought back, and now I’m scared of if Stephanie’s gonna get hurt, too.”

Amethyst’s expression softened as I spoke.

“We needed eachother. It’s what a relationship is; it’s about supporting eachother.” I said. “Or at least I like to think that’s an important part of it. Have you… ever been in one?” I asked. The pony shook her head.

“Okay, a pretty mare like you’s never had a coltfriend… or marefriend?” I asked; managing a smile despite all that had just happened.

“Can’t say I have. I spend most of my time taking care of my little sister, and I do the occasional foalsitting jobs for extra money. Then there’s my studies at CSGU... so yeah, not really spending a lot of time in the special somepony-searching.” Amethyst replied with what I swear was a blush.

“I see…” I said, realizing I’d been wearing the body of someone who may not have even had her first kiss before. Awkward…

“Amethyst?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“What I’d said… have you ever had those moments where you wished you had someone to just… be with? To hold on to? To just comfort you and do something for you to make it all go away, even if it’s for a little while?” I asked.

She didn’t answer.

“I’m not trying to excuse myself, I’m just… explaining it, I guess. I promise I’ll try and be more careful and mindful next time.” I said. “I don’t wanna go through a full room smackdown again.” I said sheepishly.

Amethyst hopped from the chair and approached me, placing her hoof on my shoulder.

“I… I forgive you. It’s not really a thing among ponies to really bear long-term grudges, and I guess you didn’t really know… or were thinking. I’ve got… other things on my mind anyway.” She said, suddenly trailing off for a moment.

“What?” I asked, unable to hear what she said after the mention of other things on her mind.

“Kyle… do you feel different at all? In your mind, I mean?” She asked.

“Not really.” I said.

“You don’t or you don’t notice?” She asked.

“Wait… I was attracted to Steph AS Flitter. Like… as a pony I was finding her to be really attractive.” I said. “I mean, I assumed it was because I saw my girlfriend but she was physically attractive too…” The curvature of her barrel, her firm flanks, those slender legs… those enticing purple eyes, that silky mane and tail... but not like I was human and her a pony but like she was... another pony.

Amethyst turned away, looking uncomfortable. “It’s weird but the more I think about it, so do I.” She said. “Then it’s… true.” She muttered.

“What is?” I asked. “That you’re into mares?”

A two second awkward pause and a roll of the mare's eyes followed.

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about.” She said with a deadpan tone as if I’d asked the stupidest question. “I mean… nevermind. Look, just—”

“What’re you hiding?” I asked. “Am I… becoming you? Or am I fading away?”

“N-no! Nothing like that!” Amethyst said. “But… look, drop it alright? Unless something really bad happens, I’d rather we stay as we are, okay? Or as best we can.” She explained. “Until then… just… drop it. You be you, I’ll be me, deal?”

“…Deal.” I said, though admittedly wanting to know more. Was there something she was hiding? Did she know more then I did and felt I wouldn’t want to know? Or was there something she was trying to keep from happening? Since I didn’t want to relive the experience she put me through for earlier, I chose to not press on the subject regardless of how much I wanted to. “Guess I gotta get the hang of being a mare till this is all over, huh?” I asked.

“Hey, I’ve been one for a good while, how hard can it be for you?” Amethyst asked. “Unless you get some stallion’s attention, or some changeling’s.” She joked with a playful wink, though the mental images of being hounded by a stallion or worse a changeling made me cringe all over and I had a feeling that's exactly what she wanted to get out of me.

“Kyle, last thing as payback… I want some time out, can I have that?” Amethyst asked.

“Yeah, I guess so…” I said, climbing up on the bed of the hotel room that the strange dream took place.

“Hey, Kyle?” Amethyst asked, getting my attention again.

“Yeah?”

“…Did you mean it when you said I was pretty?” She asked.

“’Course I did.” I said with a smile, tossing my mane back in a demure manner. “I should know, now, right?”

Amethyst giggled a little and even blushed a bit. “Thanks.” She said, and everything slowly faded into blackness.

~

“Yeah… never touch me AGAIN!” I yelled lividly at the offending pillow mass that was now bucked into the wall.

Uhhh… Steph? I think you won. Flitter said in my mind.

“I know… I guess I had a lot of steam to let off, huh?” I wondered aloud as I took a couple breaths to calm myself down.

“Definitely.” The pink unicorn standing in the doorframe said.

“Hey, babe. Have a good rest?” I asked.

“Yeah… uh… look, Kyle’s asleep right now. It’s me, Amethyst Star at the moment. Just… wanted some out time I guess.” Amethyst said, shifting a little.

It was… to say… weird. I wonder if this was how Kyle felt when Flitter was in charge.

“So, Kyle’s girlfriend, huh?” She asked.

“Yeah, that’s me.” I said, not sure how to act around the pony, especially after… well…

“Hey, if you’re thinking about… back there…” She said, looking to the side for a moment. “I’m over it. For the most part. I just want a chance to get to know you a little more. Not like what I’ve been told, but just… get the hang of you, I guess. I mean, you and Flitter are together and…” She shifted a little, oddly a lot like Kyle did around the time he started having a thing for me, I noticed her tail swish back and forth a little and my attention became briefly fixed on it

That tail… I thought as I watched Amethyst’s tail swish about. She really does have a beautiful tail. My eyes traced along to those flanks of hers… I winced and squeezed my eyes shut for a second.

No! Bad thoughts! I insisted, ignoring Flitter’s giggle fit in my head.

“You alright?” Amethyst asked.

“Yeah! I’m fine!” I said, managing a big grin. “So… uh… how about a sparring round, huh?” I asked, gesturing to the pillow dummy next to me.

“If I’m… or Kyle and I… if we’re going to be Mare Do Well, I guess a little training can’t hurt.” She said, floating the dummy to the middle of the room and giving it a look. Drawing back her forehoof, she balanced on her hind legs for a second and swung with all her might. Hitting the dummy, she moved back and fired several magic blasts at it; thankfully they appeared to be concussive in nature so the pillows didn’t suffer any damage. Charging forward, she delivered a flurry of hoofstrikes and then turned and bucked the dummy into the wall.

“Wow…” I muttered, staring agape at her.

“I had a bit to work off too…” She said, rubbing her head sheepishly.

“Still… I really think we can do this.” I said. “Stopping this ‘captain’ I mean. Making sure PAPA doesn’t hurt any more ponies here.”

Amethyst grit her teeth and fired another series of magic blasts at the pillow. “Makes me sick any…one… would do something to a pony. I remember what they were going to do to that filly… and I saw what that human had intended to have done to those pegasi.” Amethyst hissed, firing more blasts.

“I know…” I said, feeling my wings tuck in a little at the mention of what I saw had happen to one of the pegasi when it was on the news. “We’ll stop him. Together.”

“Yes. We will.” Amethyst said firmly. “You and Kyle… and Flitter… and me. We’re all in this together, regardless of what life throws at us, I understand, we’re in this together.” She said, turning and firing one last blast at the pillow dummy, stronger then the last few… and probably stronger then she expected.

“Sorry… I’ll fix that.” She said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly and laughing a little in embarrassment.
	
> Looking Back
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“So… what’s your story anyway, Amethyst?” I asked. She’d since gone to sleep and now we were both once again in the dreamscape which was, this time, one of Canterlot's parks where the two of us were seated and having a picnic.

“What do you mean?” Amethyst asked.

“Like… tell me about your life. How you got where you were before all this craziness.” I said as I floated a peanut-butter jar to her. The other mare eyed it for a second and smirked at me. “How you got your…” I said, the word ‘cutie mark’ was still way too… girly… for me to want to say out loud. “You know… ‘cause I’ve looked at it a few times and I still can’t figure out exactly what it means or says about you.”

“I guess since we’ve bonded so well, I can tell you.” She said, struggling with the jar for a moment before tapping it against a rock then unscrewing it.

“I’m all ears.” I said, floating a plastic knife into the open jar to scoop out some peanut-butter for my crackers and sandwich.

Amethyst took a deep breath and looked up at the sky for a moment. “Well, I was born in Canterlot. My dad was a royal guard and my mom did a lot of dancing in her day so she taught dance classes. We weren’t rich but we weren’t poor either, we always got by.” She explained. “My dad… I didn’t see him often due to his job, but any free time he had, he always spent time with me. He even taught me some of the combat spells I showed you so I would be able to defend myself. Yeah, imagine teaching a little filly… not the best student in the world.” She said with a laugh. “It was like… soon as I could use magic. He was just so excited and wanted to have a way to spend time with me, you know?”

I smiled and took a bite from my sandwich. I admit, when I had to tell my folks they were… well… in for quite a surprise.

“Mom did most of the raising as a result, she’d show me how to dance and I do love to dance when the music is good.” She said, smirking. “Then right around when my little sister Dinky was born, I was old enough and out of Magic Kindergarten, I was already a fast learner… and that got me accepted into CSGU.”

“Right, you mentioned you even had Lyra as a classmate.” I said.

“Yup. Next I see her, she better have those five bits.” Amethyst replied. “There were some others, too, when I first started. Seaswirl, Minuette… Sunset Shimmer…”

“Who?” I asked, the last name drawing a blank.

“Ugh, Celestia’s golden filly before Twilight. She was always alienating everypony else, and a few of us tried to invite her to parties in hopes of getting her to open up a little, but she always treated us like we were… well…” Her ears drooped a little.

“Beneath her?” I asked.

“Exactly.” She replied. It was odd, I’d never heard of that pony before. She wasn’t on the show and Twilight and Celestia had never made mention of her on the show.

“I take it something happened to her?” I asked. “I never saw her in the show.”

“That’s the thing, she just disappeared one day. Nopony knows where or why, and hasn’t seen her since. Then, not too long after, Twilight replaced her as Celestia’s new student.” Amethyst said. “Twilight was also… not very social, but she wasn’t rude about it, so she was much more likable.”

“I see…” I replied, wondering what could have happened to this Sunset Shimmer pony.

“But I think we’re a little off-topic.” Amethyst said, brushing back her mane and then taking a bite of her own sandwich. “Anyway…” She said after eating. “I made some friends, and I studied magic, like I said I was a fast learner. A gem of sorts, I guess.” She said.

I looked at her cutie mark for a moment, and she laughed and rolled her eyes. “No, that’s not what my cutie mark means.” She said. “If it did, I’d have had magic as a specialty, but I don’t. I was just lucky to have good teachers and a creative mind for what I could learn.”

“Same here.” I said. “I’ve always enjoyed drama classes and stage work, it always gave me a chance to be creative and make things.”

“Something we have in common, I guess.” Amethyst replied with a small smile. “But even that’s not it. Anypony can be creative, have hobbies, but we all have a distinct special talent or destiny of some sort that a cutie mark represents.”

“So what does yours represent, then? You a jeweler or something?” I asked.

“No.” Amethyst explained. “I’m just… somepony who likes to shine, like my name. I try to be as creative as I can be; I want to make a difference for myself and for my little sister. When I got older, I decided to move out to Ponyville. Dinky was having a really hard time with her upper-crust classmates at Canterlot's school so I figured a quieter place would make it easier for her to make friends so I brought her along. Plus, it was where my cousin Ditzy lived. Dinky loved it there.” She said with a smile.

“Ditzy’s your cousin?” I asked.

“Yeah, what’d you think she was, my mom? We’re practically the same age!” Amethyst said sarcastically and giving me the feeling she must have read the rather bizarre fanon theory I'd heard of in my mind. “But yeah, grandparents on mom's side were a unicorn and pegasus, so they had two different foals… anyway… my cutie mark...” She explained. “I like to dance, and I like finding ways to do things with my magic. Stuff that makes me stand out.”

“So that’s what it means?” I asked.

“Not quite. Dancing’s just a hobby, but being creative with magic led me to finding out my special talent. See… there’s one more spell I have that's exclusive to me. See, unicorns can use a number of different spells they're taught in Magic Kindergarten or by their parents, but everypony has a unique one that corresponds to their cutie mark, unless magic is their special talent, in which then they can learn high-level spells. For me… I can create gems from rocks, provided I have the right ones on hoof.”

“Like alchemy, the whole lead-to-gold thing?” I asked.

“I guess, but as a spell.” She said.

“Heh, diamonds in the microwave.” I said, snickering.

“Excuse me?” Amethyst asked, offended.

“There’s this myth that if you microwave peanut-butter covered coal, you can create small diamonds.” I explained.

“…Why would anypony waste peanut-butter and I’m assuming a ‘microwave’ like that?” Amethyst asked me.

"I guess when making gems is an option some find it worth it. But I'm not gonna spend the money to test that theory." I said.

“Anyway, I found with the right three-rock combinations I can create various types of gems.” Amethyst continued. “It was a nice way to make some extra money to help support the family, in between the foal-sitting jobs, though I mostly did those just because I adore fillies and I’m good at it.” She said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

“I… see.” I said. “Any way I can learn it? Might help pay for the rent and the landlady’s probably not gonna buy the ‘stuck as ponies so can’t make money’ excuse for long.” I explained.

“I suppose I could compile a list and show you in case you’re in control, or just wait for me to be in control again and I’ll remember to give it a shot if we can find the right rock combinations.” Amethyst explained.

“I’m all for that.” I said. “I gotta admit though, you’re a natural for this Mare Do Well thing.”

“Saw me lay onto that pillow dummy, huh?” Amethyst asked.

“I caught a bit of it.” I said. “We keep at it, those bastards won’t stand a chance against us!”

Amethyst laughed. “I can only hope.” She said. “Even in Ponyville, Dinky got picked on a bit in school from time to time. I don’t like bullies and these PAPA guys are the worst I've seen.”

“You went to Diamond Tiara’s party though.” I pointed out.

“Everypony was told to come. I went to make sure no one teased Dinky. They also paid real well to help out… truthfully I can barely stand Filthy’s little brat. Seriously, he's nice and all, but he really needs to figure a way to discipline her.”

“That yellow saddle outfit looked ridiculous, though.” I remarked.

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “I guess I can’t argue with that. I dunno what I was thinking at the time, really. I’ll just have to consult Rarity for something next time I’m going to a fancy party.”

I snickered a bit, then she did, and soon we were both sharing a laugh.

“You’re an interesting pony, Amethyst Star. Cider?” I asked, floating the thermos over to her.

“Sure.” She replied, unscrewing the top and pouring some into a cup with her magic.

“It’s weird, but the more I think of it, the less I mind… all this.” I said, gesturing at my pony body that mirrored hers.

“What’s not to love about being able to use magic?” She joked.

“Well, not that. Just… ever since I became Mare Do Well… I’ve been scared, worried I won’t make a difference, and worried about what consequences the differences I did make would cause… but also… it feels worthwhile now. I feel like I can be a lot more then I used to be. Even the gender-switch feels pretty trivial compared to that… especially when I remember that filly, or the two pegasi I saved.” I explained. “Don’t get me wrong, being a different sex and species still weirds me out a bit, but…” I managed a smile “Not as much as it used to.”

“And you got your girlfriend… I can see she really loves you.” Amethyst replied. “I think we’ve been a good team… most of the time, anyway.” She said, it was obvious what she was thinking about. “Oh if Rainbow Dash could see us now, I bet she’d be so jealous.” She said with a smirk as she sipped some cider.

“Totally, since you're an up-and-coming superhero now.” I said with a laugh, pouring some cider for myself and raising the cup. “So… friends?” I asked.

“Friends.” The other unicorn replied with a genuine smile as she floated up her drink, and our makeshift toasting was complete.

~

That glorious Threesday late morning  that followed, Steph and I spent much of the day getting photos of one-another and putting together… after some uncertainty… our own facebook page we decided we’d share. Amethyst Star-Flitter it was dubbed, with a picture of the two of us, forehooves draped over one-another’s shoulder as our avatar picture. Naturally, we did not have to wait long till the requests came in.

“Wow… people are really nuts about this pony thing.” I said.

“Duh.” Steph said dryly, skimming through and accepting the ones that weren’t creepy or weird. “I wonder who else has one.” She asked, looking at me as she couldn’t really type anymore.

“I guess it doesn’t hurt to find out.” I mused, entering random pony names to see what results I got and checking a few over to see if any were actually legit.

“Looks like Fluttershy has one, and it’s pretty popular.” I said, smirking at how adorable the yellow pegasus was, just like in the show. “Pinkie Pie has one, too.”

“No surprise there. Is her friends list maxed out?” Steph replied jokingly with an amused eyeroll.

“OHMYGOSH!!!!” I yelped in a sudden and entirely justified burst of ecstatic joy, startling my girlfriend enough to make her fall from the couch.

“What? What’s so important you had to scare me half to death, Kyle?” She asked, rubbing her head as she sat up.

“I don’t believe this!!!” I squealed a little as what I assume was a huge grin spread across my face. “LOOK! LOOK!” I said, waving my hoof at the screen and Steph flew over and landed beside me. When she saw the screen, she smiled and shook her head.

“Should have guessed your favorite background pony having a page would do that to you.” She said, smirking at Vinyl Scratch’s facebook profile.

“Hey, Cloudchaser’s your favorite… ironically enough.” I said. Very ironic indeed she’d wind up Cloudchaser’s sister. “So let me have my favorite.”

“Hey! Look at this!” Steph said, noticing a ‘fanpage’ tab with the “Like?” button on it.

“Mysterious MDW Sightings?” I asked, reading it aloud. Steph moved the mouse with her hoof and clicked. Sure enough, it was Richmond-based. People were already talking about last night’s adventure… and apparently the one at the food store days before that, connecting the two. A few blurry photos here and there of a shape hopping across rooftops and such, peoples' takes on the news report that had happened after the rescue mission, and of course lots and lots of vectors from the controversial tv episode. I couldn’t help but smile at what I saw.

“Well whaddya know? We’ve already made a splash!” I said, giving Steph a hug.

“I guess so… think we should troll ‘em?” She asked with a grin.

“Sure, why not?” I asked as I looked at one brony post going “MDW: What kind of pony do you think she is???

“Changeling. Totally a changeling.” She posted in response with a mischievous grin on her face.

We realized the folly of our action when we were hit by another wave of friend requests with “OMG MORE PONIES!!!” comments, and a load of questions.

“No, I’m not Derpy’s daughter. Ditzy is my cousin, Dinky is my sister.” I posted hurriedly.

“I’m not Cloudchaser’s lover, I’m her SISTER.” Steph had me post for her.

About six more headcanon debunkings later, we decided to close out of the social network and find a movie to watch, since there was still plenty of time before we’d head to Richmond for another nightly patrol.

“So… what movie, Kyle?” Steph asked with a smile as she looked over our DVD collection.

“Hmmm… I haven’t seen Darkman in awhile.” I mused. For some reason when I thought about those extremists… this movie just sorta called out to me.
> The Second Patrol
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’d decided to start my patrolling early. After lunch and Darkman I couldn’t help but feel a little restless, not to mention there was also the events from last night.

I rushed across a rooftop and leaped to the next, teleporting halfway across and reappearing atop the one before me to insure I didn’t end up going down instead. Landing, I turned and looked back… admittedly I didn’t know if I was gonna make it across… but having succeeded filled me with a bit of a rush. Amethyst Star was in great shape; which made sense given she did dancing, and ponies did things more actively then humans did, so I imagine they got a lot more exercise in their daily routines.

Leaning against a chimney and ‘Lyra-slouching’ against it, I stared up at the sky. “Hmmm…” I sighed aloud. I haven’t done half-bad as an amateur superhero lately, and have gotten more accustomed to wearing this body over these few days then I expected, despite a few things that took longer then others to get completely used to. I’d helped others… a filly and a pegasus couple… maybe more as time went by… In some weird way I’d accomplished more this way, become more this way… then I had when I was human. Kyle was someone just getting by with a crappy job and did a lot of stagework and performances on the side as a hobby, and a love for superhero comics and movies. Amethyst Star may have been ‘just a background pony’ but she felt like so much more to me then that now that we were sharing a body and she’d told me a little about herself. She was a unicorn who went to a school for gifted magic-users, had a life where she had all she needed, she got to do her hobby for dancing when the chance came, and was now an up-and-coming superhero.

But was the last part my doing? Maybe… but it was only because I had Amethyst’s power at my disposal… or what I was able to learn, anyway. Or was this something she could have done all along if she felt a need to? It wasn’t to say I had planned on being a superhero, but who hasn’t imagined that at some point in their lives? Granted no one’s ever suddenly gained super-powers but I’d like to think if that existed the world may have been a better place. True, there were bad people who’d become supervillains, but there were good people who could become superheroes as well. Then again, people didn’t need super-powers to do good or evil, X-Men proved as much to me. It wasn’t the powers, but the soul wielding them. Yet here in my mind I wondered who between me and Amethyst was more to thank. 

“Funny… one of the most popular escapist fantasies has become reality for me… and I have no idea how to feel about it.” I muttered aloud with a small laugh, as if expecting an answer, even from the pony in my head.

Getting up and rushing across the rooftop, I repeated my earlier actions, but paused on the rooftop when I heard noises down below. Cautiously peering over into the alleyway, I noticed a young man being dragged into an alley by three men who did not look the least bit friendly.

“Messin’ around in our hood, sport?” One man said to their captive as they kept his mouth covered, forcing his head to nod and prompting chuckles from the others.

“Looks like you made a huge mistake.” The gang leader said. I grimaced; in all this stress of dealing with a pony-hating group I’d forgotten all about one of Richmond’s other problems, especially with this part of town, and even the daytime wasn’t immune to it. “So! Got anything of value and we might forget we saw you. I’ll let ya talk, and if ya don’t scream ya don’t end up dead!” The man said, drawing his knife out and I looked right at it, prepared to take action. “Anything you can think of that might cost a lotta money?”

I focused on the man’s knife with my magic and forced his arm so that he stabbed himself in the thigh. His friends and their captive stared agape at what they saw as the man collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain and trying to pull his knife out and their grip on their captive loosened noticably. Focusing my magic again, I engulfed one in my aura just long enough that I was able to fling him headfirst back against the nearby wall. One shouted something about a unicorn and the remaining gangster drew a knife of his own and grabbed their captive as a hostage.

“Come on out, unicorn!” He yelled angrily. “You got two seconds!”

Teleporting, I appeared before him. “Unhand him.” I said firmly.

“Why should I? Not till I know you’ll let me go!” He said, visibly shaking at the sight of his unconscious and incapacitated friends. “The cops shoulda cracked down on your kind a long time ago!”

“I can say the same for yours. Since I doubt I can take you physically magic’s about all I got going for me.” I replied coldly. I could see without his boss this guy was feeling a lot less sure of himself. “Unhand him and I let you go. You have my word.” I said softly.

His boss looked at him disapprovingly in between his cries of pain as he struggled with the knife in his thigh.

“I don’t trust you! Not your kind!” He said, drawing the knife back and preparing to kill his hostage. My eyes widened and panic overtook me immediately.

“NO!” I cried out, and my hat suddenly flew off and a burst of magic shot out, hitting the man right in the face and knocking him over. The gang member looked terrified now, realizing he’d dropped his knife and crabwalked away from me, absolute horror on his face.

“There! I don’t got him anymore! Let me go!” He pleaded. My surprise kept me from responding as the man scurried to his feet and fled as fast as he could. As realization came over me, I narrowed my eyes in disgust. 

I let him get away… I thought, disappointed in myself. Glaring at the gang leader, who’d just managed to make his knife budge, I approached. “You know, any medical book would tell you that you should leave it there, or you’ll only make the bleeding worse.” I said as I watched him tear up from the pain. “You want something that’ll cost a lot of money?” I asked. “How about your hospital bills!” I said viciously, hitting him in the chest and face with my hooves as hard as I could. The gang leader grunted in pain from the blows, and to finish it off, I fired a blast of magic, sending him tumbling back. Letting out a sigh of relief at the close call with the captured boy, I turned and looked over at him.

His reaction was not the one I had hoped for, instead he looked scared.

“Y-you’re one of those things!” He said, backing away. “S-stay away from me!” He cried out, running out of the alley and away from the scene as fast as he could.

I could feel my ears droop under my hat, a mix of annoyance and disappointment came over me. “…You’re welcome…” I muttered with a sigh as I walked out of the alley to find someone to call the authorities on the ones I’d subdued.

~

“Figures…” I muttered to myself as I crossed another rooftop. “I ask for help I get the damn paparazzi…” Sure enough when I’d found a group of college students they immediately snapped photos of me. While I suppose a little publicity was good for me, it was a little low-priority right now. One even asked me to pose with the two gang members I’d trashed when I made mention of them. Thankfully one was good enough to call the police and another knew the person I’d saved enough to tell the police about as well since they’d have a witness against the attack. Mixed results, I guess.

Still… his fear of me was somewhat unsettling, and made me feel all the more like I didn’t belong here on Earth anymore. One didn’t even need to be a part of that PAPA organization to express fear or hate towards our kind.

…Heh, ‘our kind’… again I’m thinking of myself as a pony and not a human in a pony’s body. It caused me to pause on the rooftop I was on and look myself over for a moment, staring at my costumed forehoof, brushing the side of my masked face and feeling the muzzle underneath.

Hey, for what it’s worth I think we did pretty well back there. I heard Amethyst’s voice say, which startled me for a moment as I hadn’t expected to hear it.

“We, huh?” I asked.

 Come on, you think you were able to pull those magic stunts completely on your own? Amethyst’s voice said.

“I guess we do make a good team.” I said aloud, smiling. “Still… back there, I didn’t get a thanks or anything. Even the random photo shoot didn’t water down the effect it had.”

The pony in my head sighed.

Don’t start sounding like Rainbow Dash on me. She teased.

“Hey, I’m not acting like a glory hound or anything. It’s just… the way he reacted, I felt like I did something wrong by helping him.” I protested.

He’s alive, that’s what matters. You’re the bigger superhero fan then me, and here I am being the one to remind you that! Amethyst’s voice replied.

“…I guess you’re right… still bugs me a little, though.” I said. “One of the prices of being a costumed vigilante, I guess.”

A moment of silence passed. “Well, better continue!” I said, trying to push those thoughts out of my mind for the time being.

~

“This can’t be good…” I muttered as I peered over the rooftop of the elementary school I’d landed on. A couple kids that I assumed were fifth graders… held back maybe twice by my guess… were cornering a scared filly. On closer inspection I recognized her right away.

Mary Geller? That girl who’d become a filly, who’d been my first rescue? What was she doing here? I wondered. She seemed to be trying to fly away but she wasn’t fast enough as one of the bullies slapped her out of the sky.

“You know, my dad says your kind’s trying to take over! What made you think you could come here?” The main bully asked.

“I go here! I’m still the same pon—person!” She protested, catching herself. It seemed Steph and I weren’t the only ones who were experiencing personality changes. This had to have been frightening for her, she was just a filly, a helpless one against three bullies who she was clearly no match for… and judging from the other gawking students it didn’t look like they intended to do anything.

“Naw, you’re just an animal now, like my folks say!” The second bully said smugly as he threw a rock at her, causing her to start crying.

Okay, that does it. I thought lividly. Leaping from my perch, I flung a set of firecrackers from my belt at the bullies’ feet, and teleported before I hit the ground. The explosions drove the bullies and their spectators back, and Mary just cowered. Appearing in the smoke the explosions left behind and hoping they’d alert staff, I glared at the group of bullies. “Wanna go find something else to do?” I asked in a low, firm tone.

“Hey, it’s that pony we heard about on the news!” One kid said. I ignored it and kept my attention on the bullies, who just stared at me.

“Why don’t you mind your own business!” The main bully asked. 

“She’s off-limits. ANYONE ELSE who turns into ponies is off-limits. The last thing ANY of us need is waste like you adding to the problems we’re already dealing with!” I ordered.

“We haven’t even done anything!” The second bully claimed, prompting an eyeroll from me.

“Do I look like a teacher? I don’t fall for the I-Wasn’t-Doing-Anything crap you bullies love to pull whenever you’re reported like they do!” I snapped. People wondered why bullying was so bad; because no one who was supposed to do anything about it cared. That was about to change here. “I saw you hit her, and throw that rock, and I suppose you’ll tell me those bruises came from her tripping?”

“I’m not scared’a you!” The main bully said.

“How old are you? Probably could have been in 7th or 8th grade by now, right?” I asked. “All I need to know you’re an idiot.” I said, suddenly sending him tumbling backward with my magic.

“H-hey! That’s not fair! You’re using magic against a human!” He protested.

“And the bunch of you ganging up on a helpless filly IS fair?!" I demanded, my anger only getting higher. It was true, I was technically attacking a minor, but at this point I didn’t care anymore. No one was going to hurt this filly again if I could help it. I’d dealt with enough bullies growing up to not want to see it happen to anyone else! With another telekinetic shove from my magic, the bully was sent sliding across the grass again, other kids parting out of his way and Mary staring in amazement while the bully now looked absolutely terrified. “Go hang with the rest the sacks of crap.” I snapped, sending one last magical shove that pushed him into a sack of manure bags the groundskeeper had left stacked, causing one to tear and spill onto the bully and prompting a chorus of laughter from the audience of schoolkids, a few older ones even getting pictures on their phones while he started crying. Turning, I glared at the other bullies. “Unlike some others, I don’t tolerate bullies. Keep that in mind next time any of you decide to do something stupid…” I warned. The remaining bullies immediately nodded and went over to their friend, avoiding going near me as I trotted over to where Mary was.

“You alright?” I asked softly as I put my forehoof on her shoulder. The filly nodded and immediately hugged me. Why do they have to be so adorable… I thought to myself as I felt my heart melt. “It’s alright, now. What’re you doing here anyway?” I asked.

“My mom… decided to let me go back to school.” She said, and the tone of her voice suggested she’d not entirely been supportive of the idea.

“It’s probably best to stay home and have your parents get your schoolwork for you.” I said. Suddenly her eyes just… widened; if that were even possible for a filly.

“Oh my gosh… you’re her aren’t you?” She asked, staring up at me. “The one who saved me last time!”

I smiled lightly under my mask. “Yeah, that’d be me.”

Another hug followed.

“Am I..." She looked down at herself, then back up at me. "...Am I gonna be a pony forever?” She asked, I could tell she was worried.

“I don’t know…” I muttered before realizing I may have made it worse. “But look, it’s not all bad.”

“Why’s that?” She asked, shifting a little as she looked downward.

“Well, you’re still you where it counts.” I said, giving her a playful nudge and prompting a giggle from the filly. “Your parents care about you, and you got me watching out for you.” I said.

“Thanks.” She said shyly.

“It was brave of you to be willing to try going back here, even if it didn’t work out.” I explained.

“What’s going on out here?” A man I assumed to be a teacher or even the vice principal demanded as he came outside and immediately noticed us.

“Just me doing your job.” I replied.

“Excuse me? What gives you the right to come in here and attack my students?” The man demanded.

“I just saved her from a couple bullies in case you didn’t notice the bruises. I’d have thought if you had any students who became ponies you guys would have been more on alert for something like this.” I said, not caring if what I did was right by procedure and ethics or not anymore. The bully I’d subjected to a manure bag looked nervous for a moment, realizing the teacher was now glaring at him. I assumed this kid had a history and I sure hoped suspension was going to be part of the disciplinary action now that there was no way he could deny his way out of it. “I suggest you call this girl’s parents and have them take her home right away.” I said.

As another teacher stepped out, the first one looked over at her and quietly ordered the filly be taken to the clinic and have her parents called before returning his attention to me.

“Alright, but I don’t want to see you around here anymore. Next time I’ll have to call the police. Those are still kids, you know. Next time there might not be so much evidence in your favor.”

“Agreed, just don’t give me any reason to.” I said with a nod, hopeful they’d keep an eye out for bullying if any more ponified students showed up, or if any changed while at school… I wouldn’t put it past such a possibility after all.

“Well, Mary, guess this is goodbye.” I said, mussing the filly’s mane with my hoof.

“Thanks so much again!” Mary replied, much happier now as she trotted over to join the two faculty members, the man giving the bully covered in manure dust a stern look that suggested this wasn’t over for him. Satisfied, I gave a wave to the filly. Ignoring the stares I got from the other kids, I quietly left, relieved things turned out marginally better this time. A sharp growl in my stomach, however, told me I should probably eat soon, so I went to find a place to change out of costume and head back to the Starbucks Steph was waiting for me at…

~

“Well, looks like ever since schools let out, the MDW Sightings page exploded.” Steph said as she clicked the mouse a few times with her hoof and looked at the ample supply of new pictures that dominated it, as well as rants, praises, and the occasional flame wars.

“I look ridiculous in that pose…” I muttered, laying down on the couch and staring at one that had my cape raised and my hindquarters more visible then I would have liked. The “clop clop clop” and “dat plot” comments only annoyed me more.

“Still, it means an impact’s being made here!” Steph said with a smile as she scrolled through more pictures. “Keep this up and you might make ‘local legend’ status!” She joked.

“Ha-ha.” I muttered dryly, still annoyed by the creepy brony comments. Seriously! I’m a horse! What kinda human who’s still 100% human finds that attractive?!

“Ohhh… hey!” Steph said, suddenly getting my attention again. “There she is!” She said, recognizing Mary in the pictures. Seeing the filly brought a smile to my face that made me practically forget about earlier.

“I’ll bet she’s really thankful for you.” Steph said, giving me an affectionate nuzzle.

“I just… I really don’t like bullies.” I said, my girlfriend’s gesture hard to ignore.

“Well, I think me and her got one thing in common, Kyle.” She said.

“What, that you’re both turned into pegasi?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“No, silly.” She said with an eyeroll. “That you’re our hero.”

My ears drooped a little at that. "Let's just worry about dinner, okay?" I asked with a sheepish smile. "I still got another patrol tonight when it gets late. "As flattering as what she'd said was, I still wasn’t entirely sure I was ready to believe it. Not while I was still fairly green, and definitely not until I found the captain and his PAPA pals…

~

“So they brought them in, Alex?”

“Yes, Chief. They did. Still on lookout for the last suspect.” The policeman named Alex replied.

“I see… and they say a unicorn in a costume matching the one seen in those photos did this to them?” The police chief asked.

“That’s what they said. But according to the kid we brought in for questioning, he says they were mugging him. The unicorn showed up after.” Alex replied.

“Great… first these ponies think we’re supposed to go easy on them, now they think they can take the law into their hands… or should I say hooves?” The chief asked, smiling bitterly at his own joke.

“Uhh, sir? With all due respect, if this unicorn didn’t step in when she did, that kid could have been seriously injured or worse.” Alex protested.

“Dumb luck.” The chief said. “The last thing we need is more of these… ponies… going around doing this sort of thing and getting themselves hurt.”

“Speaking of that…” Alex replied. “We still have no leads on this ‘Captain’ that those two pegasi from the other day discussed.”

“We have a lot of cases to worry about, Alex. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in Richmond.” The chief answered. “There’s been no sign of PAPA activity other then a few scrawny protestors that I doubt fit the bill of the guys that pegasus couple described.”

“Still no reason not to have them investigated. They might know something.” The policeman suggested.

“Remember your place, officer. If I have reason to suspect these low-class naysayers are in league with this man, I’ll have it looked into. Otherwise, do your damn job before that costumed vigilante decides to.” The police chief answered coldly. “You’re dismissed.” He said, though the officer showed reluctance in complying but the stern look from his boss prompted him from pressing the matter.