> Yeah, It Needed More Ponies
>  by Shadowflame
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I Ask Her Out On A Date,...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


“Why”
*bang*
“am”
*bang*
“I”
*bang*
“so”
*bang*
“stupid?!”
*bang*


I slammed my forehead against the door of my locker, again and again, out of pure disbelief of my own stupidity. The other high schoolers of Lone Peak just passed by me in the hallways, though I’m sure some did raise an eyebrow or two at my behavior. But then again, this was high school, and almost anything could be considered normal here. They’d just see it as Lyle Anderson being upset with himself over something, most likely a question he missed in American History class, or something else of the nerdy sort.

Now, you might be wondering why I’m trying to give myself a concussion right now… Well, that’s because, at the moment, I felt like the most pathetic person on the planet. You know that girl you heard from me about, Emily Clearwater? You know how I was gonna try asking her out?...

Let’s just say I failed… hopelessly. I was even in pony form for Saint Peter’s sakes; The one form of myself that knows Emily on a name-to-name basis! Gah, I’m so bad with girls that I can’t even get myself to introduce her to my human self, just so I can ask her out on a date!..... Actually, now that I think about it, my life as a high schooler is very abnormal. I’m not sure if I should be worried about my sanity or what, because by now, I honestly think Angela has been putting hallucinogens in my school lunches. (Sorry, that’s a different story for a different time).

I sighed to myself as I slammed my forehead against my locker one last time out of stupidity, “Ugh, what’s wrong with me? This is the fourth time I’ve shown up on Emily’s doorstep as Roman Writ, and I can’t even come out and get her to meet me as a human!” I groaned, “Heck, she was even snuggling me last night…” … That felt amazing though… I shook my head, “Yeah, my life has officially gone beyond the point of sanity.”

“Lyle...” A feminine voice spoke from beside me, a touch of hostility in her tone.

Oh… crap. I glanced up to see Angela, arms folded across her pink T-shirt and scowling at me with a bemused look on her face.

“Oh… Hey, Angela.” I said half-heartedly. I was too bummed out with my own failure to take the borderline-witch as cautiously as I probably should have.

Angela did not look pleased. No, in fact, she looked quite pissed, “I don’t even need to ask what happened last night at Emily’s, do I?” I shook my head, to which her nostrils flared, “This is getting ridiculous, Lyle. When are you gonna buck up and ask her out on a date? You’ve tried to use your pony form to get closer to her and break the ice four times already, without any success I might add. You know that I can only use a circle ritual on one person every 24 hours, and now you’ve put my schedule for experimenting with witchcraft behind by four days!”

Yeah, bad mistake on my part. One thing you learn about having Angela as a friend: Do Not Get Between Her and Witchery. Ever since she figured out she could transform people into animals (ponies mainly) with a spell she found on the internet, she’s been obsessed with it. Half the stuff she talks to me about, these days, are experiments she’s been trying or wanting to try, using circle magic.

I groaned, “I’m sorry. I really am. But I don’t know how to really ask Emily out on a date. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Go up to her as a pony and say, ‘Hey, Emily! I just wanted you to know that I’m actually a human who goes to your school, and I want to ask you out on a date. Does Friday sound nice?’”

Angela shrugged nonchalantly, “Sounds like it’d work to me.”

“No, it wouldn’t.” I groaned again, “Even if it did, I’m afraid Emily will only date me because I can become a pony, not because she really wants to get to know me as a person.” *bang* Ouch! If the previous head-banging I did against my locker hadn’t left a mark, I think that last one did. I winced as I rubbed the sore spot on my forehead, “Now that I think about it, I’m not sure going pony form will work without a risk of Emily going out with me just because I was a pony.”

Angela smirked, “I seriously doubt Emily would, but most of your fears are a bit irrational anyways.” She giggled mischieviously, “Well, if that won’t work, then there’s only one thing to do to fix this. Follow me.” She suddenly grabbed a hold of my arm and started running down the hallway with me in tow.

“Whoa, hey!” I yelped as I was dragged along, “Where are we going?!” Angela paid my inquiry no mind as she weaved the two of us through the hallways, through the crowds of students that acted like corks in the flow of students who liked to show up to class on time.

A few hallways later, Angela slowed down, allowing me to regain my footing on solid ground. I do have to say, despite her being small, Angela certainly had a lot more arm strength than I did… I wonder if she did any witchery enchanting on herself to get that result… Oh, sorry. Mind wandering. Back to the present we go.

Though we did slow down to a walk, Angela did still have a firm grip on my arm. She walked down the hallway, as she then waved to somebody with her free arm. “Oh, Emily!” She called in a singsong voice.

My gut instantly jumped to my throat. Oh, crap! Angela isn’t doing what I think she’s doing, is she?! I glanced past Angela, and sure enough, standing right there was the girl I had been hopelessly crushing on for the past few months. She was by an open locker, with two of her other female friends

Unfortunately, Emily heard Angela’s call and turned towards us. Upon seeing Angela, who she thought of as a semi-close friend, Emily waved to her. But she stopped when she noticed me being dragged behind the full-pink girl.

“Oh… Um, hi Angela.” Emily replied as we stopped just before her. By this time, I was trying to back away, like any sane person whose nerves are on the fritz. But Angela’s grip held me in place, so fleeing wasn’t an option.

Angela smiled in her overly chipper way, “I’d like you to meet a friend, Emily.” She pulled me right between herself and Emily, to which I almost lost my balance again. Seriously, Angela was really stronger than she looks.

Angela smirked in satisfaction as my body froze in nervousness, finding myself only about a foot away from Emily… Probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to her in human form.

“This is Lyle, and he’s got something he wants to ask you.” She promptly elbowed me in the ribs to knock me out of my nervous shock, “Don’t you, Lyle?”

I hesitated. Standing right before me was the girl I had been crushing on for so long now. For the past weeks, I’d been trying to go through an elaborate way to meet her as a person and ask her out, but with no success. Yet here I was, with the perfect opportunity to ask her out, without any fear that she’d only want to date a guy who became a pony… All I had to do was walk up to her and ask?

Of course, there was one problem: I couldn’t get the words to come out.

“I- Um,... Well, I- You-...” As I fumbled with speech, Emily’s expression changed from one of confusion, to one that read, ‘Are you completely alright, or do you need a mental hospital?’

Angela shot me a glare out of the corner of my eye, hissing under her breath, “Come on, Lyle. Do not back down again. Not this time.”

I shook my head, trying to regain some of my flabberghasted composure, “Um… Emily? I’m Lyle…” I felt like facepalming. She already knew that!

But thankfully, that made her confused expression return at least, “Yes… I heard that.”

I chuckled sheepishly. This was getting incredibly difficult for me. I wasn’t joking when I said I was bad with girls. This is the proof of that. I needed to ask her out quickly, before she saw the torrent of sweat running down the back of my neck.

“Oh, yeah. Well…” Come on, you big dummy! You can do this! “I was wondering… wouldyouliketogooutonadatewithme!?” NO, Stupid! Don’t ask her that quickly! She probably didn’t hear that, now you just have to ask her again! Now you have to ask her again, but now she’ll think you’re just a nervous wreck. Way to go.

But to my surprise, Emily did catch the whole outburst. She blinked in surprise, “Oh… A date?”

I only nodded, probably because I didn’t think to use my mouth to speak.

Emily gave me a confused look as she thought for a moment, but then gave the sweetest smile that threatened to turn my knees to jelly when I looked at her, “Sure, when is the date?”

I felt my jaw drop. Seriously?! All I had to do was go up to her and ask her out? Why didn’t anyone tell me it was this easy to get a date with a girl? I guess I owe Angela for dragging me here.

I felt a smile come to my mouth, “Uh, what about this Friday night?”

“Tomorrow night?” Emily frowned as she considered it, pursing her lips in the cutest way ever. She smiled again, “Sure, why not?”

I beamed, “Really? Great!” I couldn’t believe it. This had to be a dream, because it felt too good to be true. Maybe I should pinch myself to see if I’d wake up… Well, I’d actually rather not risk myself waking up from this. I’d be extremely butt-hurt if this was just a dream.

Emily and I spent the next minute exchanging contact information, so we could call each other’s cell phones to fill in on the details of the date.... Oh, yeah. I should probably figure out what to do for the date... Never thought I'd get this far...

Of course, as soon as we exchanged numbers, the school bell rang, signalling the beginning of class. Emily gave me another quick smile, “Oh, I’d better get to class. I’ll see you tomorrow, Lyle!” She walked off down the hallway, waving as she left.

I chuckled, waving goodbye, “Um, yeah! See you tomorrow!” I sighed in relief. I had finally done it! I had a date with Emily, and I didn’t even have to use witchery to help me!

I turned to Angela, who had a big smirk on her face that read, ‘I told you so’. I sighed, “Alright, I guess I owe you one.”

Angela only smiled mischieviously, feigning a sense of wickedness, “Oh, no. You owe me several. I just need to figure out a way for you to pay your debts to me.”

I shook my head as I sighed, “Fine, but I’ve got to get to class.” I ran down the hallways, since I was already tardy. I waved back to her, “I’ll see you after class, Angela. And thanks!”

Angela waved back to me, a bright smile on her face… Of course, once I was out of sight, that smile drooped a bit.

Angela bit her lip, temperamentally, “Hm… Just a normal date?... That’s no fun.” Suddenly, a massive grin grew on her face, “But fortunately for Lyle, I think I know how to make it all better.”


_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_


Angela sat in the School Library, nibbling on the eraser on her pencil as she looked down at her open notebook. Her brow furrowed as her eyes wandered across the design she had drawn on its open page.

The design itself was a a circle of little sigils that formed its round shape, the rune required to use a circle ritual. At the moment, Angela was trying to modify the design in order to slightly change the effects of the ritual.

Angela mumbled the details of the circle to herself, "Hm... Day long transformation, lasts 24 hours... Slower transition phase to avoid pain to transforming recipient... But how do I change it to target two people at once?"

She sighed to herself as she puzzled over her predicament. This was the problem with circle rituals. The one using the spell could only activate a ritual once every 24 hours, after their internal, magical energy (otherwise known as Chi to Asian cultures) regenerates. So, Angela found her only problem was, in order for her plan to work, she needed to find a way to cast the transformation onto two people at once, so they'd both be in pony form at the same time.

Angela sighed, "Messing around with circle designs has always been a pain. Not only is it dangerous if I get it wrong, but it's just confusing to integrate everything together into a working ritual." She grumbled under her breath, "So how do I do this?"

"Hey, I can help." A voice quietly spoke from behind.

Angela whirled around in her seat to see who had spoken, only to find a guy standing there. He looked like he was a Junior, age-wise, and had short, blonde hair that drooped down in disheveled bangs. He wore a black hoodie and dark jeans, as well as a pair of headphones, the cord running up the neck of his shirt, wrapped around the back of his neck.

Angela blinked in surprise at the newcomer, "What?"

"You're trying to double the targets of a single circle ritual, right?" He asked, pointing to her open notebook, "I think I can help you."

Well, he knew it was for a circle ritual, so he either guessed or knew what he's talking about. If he knows what circle magic is, then he probably doesn't have much room to call me a witch around school. Angela thought to herself, I guess there's no harm in it, seeing as I could spot out any mistakes he'd make. I should at least let him try. She nodded to the newcomer, "Um, sure. Knock yourself out."

The boy took a seat in the chair beside Angela, and she scooted her notebook over to him, handing him the pencil she'd been using.

"By the way," The guy said, as he began jotting things down on the paper, "I'm Ben."

"Angela." She replied.

Angela peered over at Ben's hand as he quickly drew in a few things onto the circle ritual's design. To her surprise, Angela noticed he was adding more sigils to the design, as if he knew them like the back of his hand.

She asked in a hushed voice, "So, you're into witchery as well?"

Ben shrugged, "Meh, that among a lot of things, though I haven't used a spell like this before. I write fantasy, so it helps my stories to know the supernatural things. Also, word to the wise, don't ever go down the necromancy path if you haven't yet."

"I'll keep that in mind." Angela hummed, innocently. She had already researched necromancy, only to find all that was available was hogwash. Oh, well. Witchery was more enjoyable anyways. It didn't require you to be gothic and such, and Angela wasn't ready to give up the color pink from her attire yet.

"There, finished." Ben announced, placing the pencil down.

Angela looked over at the design only to find her eyes widening, "Oh, wow. Why didn't I think of that before? Doubling the sigils inside the circle, but only the ones pertaining to the transformation... This could work." She turned to Ben, "Um, thanks, but why are you helping me with something like this?"

Ben paused for a second, but then shrugged, "Well, I heard around school that you were some kind of witch, or something of the sort. I was interested, so I wanted to meet you."

Angela smiled, "Thanks, Ben."

"No problem." Ben glanced back at the circular design he had made, "But what are you gonna use it for?"

"Oh, nothing. A friend of mine has a date with a girl he's been crushing on for months, so I'm gonna do him a favor and make it fun for both of them." Angela replied nonchalantly.

Ben raised an eyebrow, "And being transformed into an animal is fun how?"

Angela grinned, "Because, they won't be just any animals. I'm turning the two of them into pastel colored, cartoon ponies."

Ben blinked in surprise, "You're a pegasister?"

"Yes."

A small smile twitched at the corners of Ben's mouth, "Could I, by chance, help activate the ritual when you're using it? I think the added sigils will require more than just your own Chi to activate."

Angela giggled, "Sure, why not? But I'm activating it early in the morning. Show up at my house tomorrow morning before school, at around 5:00. Are you a morning person, by chance?"

"Eh, no." Ben replied, flatly, "But I'm used to pulling all-nighters, which actually keeps me more awake than only a few hours of sleep."

"Great, I'll give you my address." Angela beamed, before raising a fist up in front of Ben, "Bro-hoof?"

Ben only smirked, "Bro-hoof."

And so, the two arcane maniacs bumped fists, united in the single cause of screwing over two certain individuals... who were going to have a nasty wake-up call in the morning.
> ... Then we both grow hooves, tails, etc.,...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	My more-than-annoying alarm clock buzzed in hmy ears relentlessly at 6:30 in the morning, calling out to me to get up in the language many teenagers world-wide have come to despise.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BE- WHAM-~

"Ugh... Stupid clock." I moaned, rubbing my now bruised hand as I blinked myself awake. I sighed to myself, "Time to get up... Just wish that alarm clock wasn't so loud."

I rolled myself up and stood up from my bed, stretching as I 'embraced' the morning, "... *sigh*, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that alarm clock was louder than it was yesterday..."

A sudden knock came from my door, "Lyle! Time to get up! I'm leaving for the school now, so I'll see you there! Don't be late to class again!"

My ears swiveled on the top of my head towards the door as I mumbled in response, "Okay, Mo-" Wait... SWIVELED?!

I could hear Mom's footsteps as they descended the staircase and out of earshot... which was considerably farther than it normally should've been.

Both enhanced hearing and full mobility of his ears could only mean one thing... one thing that I had gone through before...

"Uh, oh.... Don't tell me..." I reached a hand up on top of my head, where I felt something long, furry, and sensitive. I looked towards the mirror in the room, only to groan at my reflection.

My hair had turned a familiar shade of neon blue, growing into a long mane that ran down the back of my neck. And protruding out of my mane, two yellow, fur-clad, pony ears stuck up into the air like flag poles.

I facepalmed, knowing full well who was responsible for this, "What the hell, Angela?"


_______________________________________________________________________________________________


Naturally, I wore a hoodie to school, just like any other day at the boring learning institution. Unnaturally, I covered my pony ears under the hood as I made my way through the hallways. Several kids passed by me, an occasional acquaintance greeting me as they walked by, to which I would only halfheartedly give an equal reply. I was more concerned about getting to Angela's locker before class started, so I could find out what the hell Angela was thinking this morning!

Soon, Angela's locker came into view, and luckily for me, its owner was standing in front of it, talking to some blonde guy in dark clothing. I put on a scowl, just to make sure Angela could see how pissed I was at the moment.

"Angela." As I approached, she turned around and smiled,

"Oh, hey Lanky!"

"Angela," I grumbled, ignoring her greeting, "Could you and I talk alone for a bit?" My eyes drifted towards the guy Angela had been talking to previously, who wore a smirk on his face.

The guy spoke, "Let me guess? You noticed the transformation began already?"

I gave him a blank, but slightly startled, stare, "Um... How did you...? Who are you?"

Angela giggled at the confusion written on my face, "Sorry, I forgot you two haven't met yet." She gestured towards the guy, "Lyle, this is Ben. He helped me last night when I was modifying the circle ritual for transformations."

Ben nodded towards me, " 'Sup?"

"Ugh, Angela, I thought this whole witchery business was supposed to stay a secret..." I grumbled. I shook my head, bringing me back to the task at hand. I shouldn't really complain about Angela telling other people about this stuff. After all, it is her secret to keep and give out.

I glared at Angela, "I only want to know why you'd even use the transformation on me today! You of all people know that I have a date with Emily tonight, and I can't show up to it as a pony!"

Angela laughed, "Sure you can! You haven't even seen half of what I've done yet." She giggled to herself, "Though I'm impressed. Ben and I initiated the transformation at around 4 o' clock this morning, so the transformation would finish after school ends today, but you already noticed the changes happening. Did you catch on when your hair started growing a bit?"

"You could say that." I muttered, pulling my hood up so only Ben and Angela could see my pony ears and mane. Ben only chuckled to himself when he saw my ears, since he had never seen a transformation in action before, but as for Angela, the sight stopped her dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide, and the color seemed to drain out of her face.

Angela only managed to whisper, "Uh, oh. That can't be right...."

"What?" Both Ben and I asked, slightly worried by Angela's expression.

Right in the middle of a crowded hallway, Angela began pacing back and forth, muttering to herself, "No, no, no. That can't be right. The total transformation should only take 12 hours, with the ears coming in around the 6 hour mark... The transformations do accelerate near the end... Could the acceleration come early? No, that doesn't make any sense... It's only been three hours since it was activated... How could the ears come early?" She suddenly stopped as a new thought struck her, "Unless..."

She turned towards me, "When did you sprout those ears?"

"Um, when I woke up this morning." I replied, "That was around 7:00 this morning."

"Seven?" Angela shook her head, "That doesn't make any sense. That was three hours after we activated the ritual, half the time it's supposed... to... take..." She trailed off, her eyes growing wide, "Oh, I see..."

Angela turned towards Ben, "When we modified the ritual circle, we basically doubled the circle into a single glyph. We thought it'd double the targets, but do you think it could double other effects as well?"

Ben scratched his head in thought, "Hm... I'm not sure. It could be possible, seeing as we didn't test it until now. Maybe the time-frame sigil was off when we drew it?"

Angela shook her head, "No, I drew it myself, which I have never messed up before."

I stared blankly between them. Whenever Angela started explaining every little thing about witchery to me when we hung out, I always found myself unable to follow half the things she said. Now, when hearing two people talk about it, I must have looked at them like a cow looks at an oncoming train.

"Um, anyone care to explain what's going on? Why do you look so worried, Angela?"

She bit her lip, as if she were wondering how to phrase it, "Well... last night, Ben and I changed the circle a bit so we could transform two people at once, instead of just one person. With mine and Ben's power combined, we activated it, but I guess the power of two people on it was too much for it too handle. It looks like the speed of the transformation doubled as well."

...

"WHAT!?" The speed of the transformation doubled? I was turning into a pony twice as fast?!

Angela winced as my outburst brought back some unwanted attention from nearby students, "Sorry, Lyle. I didn't think this would happen. I tried to activate the transformation later this morning so you'd only turn into a pony by the time you got back home, but it looks like you'll be a full pony before school ends."

I facepalmed. Just my luck. I finally get a date with the girl I like, then I get turned into a pony on the day of the date. Not only that, but I'll be full pony in the middle of school, and everybody in my classes gets to watch me go through a rapid transformation into a cartoon equine. Can things get better? I submit that they cannot; Not at this rate!

But something else came to mind, "Wait... Angela? Didn't you say you were using the ritual last night to transform two people at once?"

She shuffled in place, obviously nervous about something, "Uh... hehe, about that... I was using it to try and make your date more fun tonight., okay? Everything's more fun with ponies, right?"

"It's true." Ben commented from the side.

I deadpanned at Angela as what she said clicked in my head, "Don't tell me... you didn't..."

Angela giggled sheepishly, "I sort of used it on Emily, too."

I groaned, facepalming yet again, "That's just great. Angela, didn't you ever stop to consider how she'd react to the transformations?"

Angela nodded defiantly, "Yes, I did. She didn't freak out when she saw you as a pony, so I thought her turning into one wouldn't scare her. But now that her transformation is running double time as well, she might freak out a bit."

"A bit?" I rolled my eyes, "Angela, she probably woke up this morning to find she had extra long hair and a new pair of furry ears on top of her head, not to mention she has no clue what's going on. I think she's freaking out big time right now. Where is she anyways?"

"I heard from a few of her friends that she didn't come to school today." Angela shrugged, "I bet she stayed home after finding the first of the transformations, like any sane human would do."

I rolled my eyes. Like Angela had any room to call me insane. "Look, fine. I can't risk staying here at the school anyways, so I'll run down to her house and explain what's going on to her, and probably find somewhere to hide until the transformation's over. After all, she's probably scared out of her mind and doubt she'd want anyone to know-"

*Scritch*

I felt a familiar itch and a sudden tightness in my jeans as my backside seemed to bulge. I groaned to myself, not needing to even look at the back of my pants to know what happened.

"Angela? You said you activated the transformation for me and Emily at the same time, right?"

She nodded, and I sighed, "Well, she just grew a tail, and now she's probably losing her mind."

Unsurprisingly, Angela giggled at that, "The tail came already? What time is it now?" She checked her pink, Hello Kitty watch, "7:30, three and a half hours since the transformation began. Usually the tail comes at the seven hour mark." She grinned in satisfaction, "Looks like my double time theory was right."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever. But the only problem with leaving for Emily's house is my Mom. She's gonna kill me if she peeps into my class and finds that I sluffed school."

BRRRIIIINNG!

Angela glanced down at her watch again, "Oh, looks like that's the bell. Class already started."

"Wait! What about me? What am I supposed to do?" I asked.

Ben turned towards me, "Hey, dude, what's your first class today?"

"Physics."

"Good. Here, swap hoodies with me."

I was hesitant at first, but once I saw that everyone else had left for class, I took off my hoodie, letting my ears feel a breeze in the hall. "Why are we doing this?" I asked, as I exchanged jackets with Ben.

Ben smirked at me, "I don't mind skipping my own classes once in a while, and you don't want to be caught outside of class do you?"


_______________________________________________________________________________________________



Twenty Minutes Later...


Mrs. Anderson walked down the school's empty hallways, like she usually did at the beginning of each day. Granted she was a teacher, and that all of her students were waiting in her classroom for her, the law technically allows every teacher to be out of their classroom for fifteen minutes before the students are permitted to leave themselves. Usually for Mrs. Anderson, she only took five minutes, which was more than enough time to peek into Lyle's classes to see if he sluffed or not.

One of the fears she had for her son was that he would continue to indulge in apathetic teenage behavior, such as cutting classes and sluffing school. He had already gotten in trouble for being involved in the spontaneous combustion of a trash can, and his record couldn't risk any other bad marks, lest he be expelled from Lone Peak.

From her memory, Mrs. Anderson recalled that Lyle's first class today was Mr. Hawthorn's Physics class, so she quickly made her way down to the appropriate door. Once there, she peered in through the small window in the door, the kind that almost all classroom doors had on them.

Inside the class, Mrs. Anderson could see a familiar bunch of teenagers in their seats, a few of whom were her own students. But near the back, she spotted Lyle sitting there, hunched over with his hood over his head.

Mrs. Anderson sighed, both in mild relief and annoyance. At least her son wasn't skipping school, but she just wished he didn't wear his hood inside class. It was bad enough he did it at home, though the mother happened to notice he'd been wearing his hood much more frequently as of late.

Mrs. Anderson sighed, wondering when this hipster trend of wearing hoods would go out of style, as she made her way back to her classroom.

Meanwhile, back in the physics classroom, Ben sat in a random desk in the back of the room, wearing Lyle's hoodie. He was hunched over his phone, reading a random pony fan fiction.

Ben muttered under his breath, shivering slightly as he scrolled to a new story on FIMFiction, "Okay... Note to self: Never read Cheerilee's Garden in class again."


_______________________________________________________________________________________________


Okay, I'm glad that I got out of the school alright, but I was still worried if Ben's plan would work or not. Oh well, nothing I could do about it now.

It didn't take long for me to hop back into my car and drive down to Emily's house. I knew exactly where it was.... No! Not like that! I-I'm not a stalker or anything like that! It's just that I visited Emily here the last few times I became a pony.

When I reached the house, and parked my car right outside on the street, I found it sort of strange that I was coming here as a human for a change... er, mostly human anyways.

Making sure my hood was secure on my head, I walked up to the front door. When I reached it, I lifted a hand to knock on the door, but I stopped before I actually did.

You all know that I'm terrible with girls, so you can imagine I never expected myself to come knocking on the front door of the girl I'm crushing on.... albeit I wasn't actually there for a date, but rather to help calm Emily down from growing pony ears and a tail. But hey, they're basically the same thing, right? Heh heh... right...

Once I pulled myself together, I knocked on the front door. For a moment, it was completely silent. Although, the silence extended for quite a while, so much that I almost thought that no one was home. Maybe Emily ran off and found somewhere else to hide? My guess was probably not. I don't think anyone's first reaction to becoming a pony-human hybrid would be to show yourself off to anyone if you can help it.

I knocked again, louder this time... Again, nothing.

It was then that I realized she wouldn't come to the door in her current state. If she was still here, she'd want to lay low, not matter who came to the door. So how was I supposed to get her to open up?

...

OH! Urgh, I'm so stupid. I forgot, I have her cell phone number on me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed her up. Immediately, I was faced with a little problem: My ears weren't quite in a good position for me to easily use my phone. I had to resort to holding the phone up on top of my head, placed against my furry ear. My phone rang for a bit, but thankfully Emily picked up on her end.

"H-hello?" Emily's voice rang out through the phone, though I could hear it was a bit shaky. I guessed I was right that she'd be spooked by the transformation.

"Um, hi Emily. This is Lyle. I'm, uh... standing right outside your door. Could you open up? I need to talk to you about something." Wow, I haven't even been on a date with her, and I tell her I'm right outside her door. In hindsight, not the best move on my part. Cree-ee-eeper.

"Oh..." There was a pause on her end, "Look, Lyle, I can't talk right now. I'm, uh, really sick." I could tell Emily wasn't a great liar, both cause her voice was shaking, and the way she said it just shouted 'I don't want to talk to you right now! Just hang up!'

I sighed, "Emily, you're not really sick, are you?"

"Yes, I am." Emily retorted quickly, "And why are you even in front of my house? Shouldn't you be in school? If you don't leave now, I'll call the poli-

"What color is your tail?"

Yes, I know it's a bit rude to interrupt somebody, but this instance called for it. Firstly, she wasn't working with me. Secondly, the longer I stayed out on her front steps, the more likely I could've been seen by somebody else. Oh well, as the internet says, I regret nothing!

I heard Emily give a small gasp, as well as a small pause, "... It's pink."

"Mine's blue. Can you please open the door?"

A few seconds passed before I realized that she had hung up her phone. I was about to redial her number, but I stopped when I saw the front door to her house swing open a crack.

Emily peered through the ajar opening, eyes wide and face pale. She definitely looked like she had seen better days. On top of her head, she wore a blanket like a shawl, covering her ears and mane, no doubt.

Emily looked at me with disbelieving eyes, "H-how did you..."

I winced. I was definitely going to have to get over my inability to talk to girls right now, otherwise I wouldn't be much use to Emily at the moment. I sighed, "Can I come in? I'll explain everything, I promise."

She hesitated, but eventually Emily nodded and opened the door more for me enter. I walked inside, and she closed the door behind me, locking it as well.

Once we were safe inside, I looked at her, grimacing a bit, "Can you take off the blanket?"

Emily didn't say anything. She just clutched her blanket tightly, as if she were worried that I'd call her a freak or something like that. She didn't look like she trusted me just yet, so... I needed to convince her.

Sighing, I took off my hood, letting my mane flow freely in the air and my ears stretch skywards. As soon as my blue hair and yellow ears were visible, Emily's eyes widened and the color drained from her face even more. But to remove any other doubts (though they be unlikely), I reached behind and pulled my out my tail as well... well, as much as I could. Trying to pull a tail all the way out while wearing jeans was actually really uncomfortable.

Emily clamped a hand over her mouth in shock as she saw my blue tail in my grasp. I had to admit, I probably looked like some guy cosplaying a pony for a convention (Don't ask me how I know. Angela was tempted to use the transformation as an impromptu costume for Bronycon).

I tried to give her a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, I'm in the same boat as you are."

Emily paused for a moment, before regaining her composure. Quietly, she replied, "Okay. Just don't..."

What? Just don't freak out? Believe me, I'm well beyond that point, Emily...

Unless she had meant to say 'just don't laugh'... oof, that almost seemed like a Fluttershy line.

Either way, Emily pulled the blanket off of her head. It dropped to the floor, and I got a good look at the rest of her appearance that had been covered under it. She wore some scruffy pajama pants and a T-shirt. Her appearance made a clear statement that she hadn't been planing to leave the house that day. And looking at her hair held good reason for it.

Her hair, though it had been brown and cut down to her neck just yesterday, now reached down past her shoulders, colored in a bright pink color that would've made Angela jealous. On top of her head, two bright cyan pony ears stuck up out of her mane. A bright pink tail, just about the same length as her mane, stuck out from the waist of her pants, trailing out behind her in the open.

Emily looked back at me, unsure what to say.

I grimaced to her, "Here, you might want to sit down. This explanation might take a while."
> ... I Prevent Her from Having a Heart Attack,...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Angela made her way down the hallway, happily humming to herself as she waded through the current of students in an over populated school. First period had ended, so she decided to pay Ben a visit before moving onto her next class.

Despite the current predicament of Lyle and Emily, she was still her overly cheerful self. But that was only because she believed this was helping Lyle more than it was harming him. After all, she had basically given him a first class ticket to spend the whole day with Emily. If everything turned out alright, Lyle owed her, big time.

Soon Angela spotted Ben in the hallways and made her way over to him.

“Hey, Ben!”

“Hey, Angela.” Ben replied, a bit happily since he had gotten out of his own math class by covering for Lyle. Speaking of which,

“How was Lyle’s Physics class?” Angela asked.

Ben shrugged, “Kind of boring, but at least I had my phone to entertain me.”

“That’s good.” Angela grinned, “Although, I couldn’t focus in my class last period. My mind kept drifting back to Lyle and Emily. I wonder how they’re doing…”

“Me too.” Ben paused, “Oh! That reminds me. I was thinking about it lately, but why does the normal transformation take 12 hours? Wouldn’t it be less of a hassle if it only took an hour or so?”

Angela paused, “Hm… I didn’t really think about that. It’s just how I found it online. But maybe…” Thus began the witch’s pacing in the crowded hallway, much to the chagrin of the bystanders trying to make their way past the pink blonde.

Angela tapped a finger to her chin, oblivious of everything, “Hm… Well, the transformation is actually kind of uncomfortable to the one being changed. I’ve used it enough on myself to know that. But maybe the transformation was drawn out purposefully. Having your body and your bones shift would actually be really painful, so maybe the transformation was drawn out so the pain was dispersed into nothing less than an uncomfortable feeling.”

Ben, trying to follow her ramblings, as well as her pacing, asked, “So, you’re saying if the transformation went faster, then it’d be more painful?”

Angela, finally stopping in place, nodded to him, “Yeah, it seems so.”

“…”

Noting Ben’s silence, Angela asked, “What?”

“Shouldn’t we tell Lyle about this?”

She tapped a finger to her chin, “Hm, I guess you’re right…” She then dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand, “Nah, he’ll figure out soon, anyways. Besides, his transformation should finish within another hour.


____________________________________________________________


“Ouch!”

“Ow!”

Both me and Emily grabbed our own feet at the same time. I had no idea what just happened, but it felt like I had stepped on a pin… underneath each of my toes. Maybe I stepped on a lego? No, wait, I’m sitting down on a couch right now, so that doesn’t make sense. And neither does the fact that Emily felt the same pain I did.

I kicked off my shoes (another piece of evidence showing that I didn’t step on a lego), and noticed that my socks had become loose around the toe part. I sighed as I knew what this stage of the transformation was… But why had it hurt so much?

“Well, it looks like we’re growing hooves now.” I announced to Emily, who was fingering her sock-clad foot.

She looked at me incredulously, “Seriously?”

I nodded, “Well, yeah. I mean, you already grew a tail and pony ears, so I doubt this is any more different.”

I watched as Emily gently pinched her ear. She obviously wasn’t used to the fact they were there on her head. Well, at least that was a step up from before I got here. She was scared out of her mind by the ears and the tail, but at least my explanation helped ease her somewhat. At least she now knew what the buck was going on.

Emily sighed as she pulled her socks up higher, to get rid of the saggy part where the toes disappeared, and to hide the result, “I really don’t think I’m ready to see any more changes just yet.”

She glanced back towards me from her seat, “So, let me see if I’ve got this straight; Angela is actually a witch of some kind, who used you as a test subject for her spells?”

I nodded, “Yes, but I never knew about it until she came across a spell that actually worked.”

“And that was a spell to transform people into ponies?”

Again, I nodded, “Yeah.” Much to my surprise, I was actually managing to keep my cool in this conversation… wait! No! Don’t say that! I probably jinxed myself with that! Crap!

Emily sighed, muttering under her breath in slight bitterness, “Great, thanks Angela.”

You know how people say girls are cute when they get angry… okay, some girls are cute when they’re angry? Well, I can testify that that is true. Hrgh! (heart attack) Man, Emily even had a cute pair of pony ears to go along with it. Talk about friggin’ adorable!

Wait… if I find Emily incredibly cute now, how would I react when she became a full pony?

… Yeah, I’ll need to be careful, unless I want to actually die of a heart attack from diabetes. Too sweet!

Emily looked back towards me, “So how long do you think it’ll be before we’re both fully transformed?”

“Emily said it’d probably finish by 10:00.” I glanced towards a clock hanging in the living room, “So, it looks like we have a full hour until it stops.”

Emily groaned, slumping onto her couch, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to take anymore. You’ve already blown my mind with everything that’s happening, and I just need a rest.” My ears perked up as we both heard Emily’s stomach growl.

“Um, I think you need a meal, actually.” I replied.

Emily giggled sheepishly, “Sorry. When I woke up with a pink mane and pony ears, I was freaking out too much to eat breakfast.” She stood up from the couch, “I guess now’s a good time as any- Whoa!” Emily’s yelp rang out through the house as she pitched forward onto her hands and knees.

Crap, I forgot to mention how hard it was to walk on two hooves. Four hooves were fine, so long as the pony leg structure came with it. But walking on two hooves at the moment would be like walking on two bare stumps. It was extremely difficult, but luckily for Emily, I was experienced at it.

I quickly took off my socks and jumped to my hooves. Once up, I helped Emily stand up off the floor.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I pulled Emily up by the arm.

She was a bit unstable, and latched onto me for support, “Yeah, thank you. I didn’t think it’d be this hard to walk on hooves.”

“That’s only because you’re walking without your feet…” My speech faltered as my mind registered what was currently happening. Emily was holding my arm, and leaning against me. Sure, it was to keep herself upright, but it was enough to bring a blush to my face.

“Uh…” I managed to stammer.

“Hm?” Emily blinked a bit… with those long eyelashes, “Lyle, are you alright?”

“Um, yeah, sure. I-I’m just fine.” I looked away, hoping she might not see the redness in my cheeks that I’m sure was very prominent.

Thankfully, I think I got lucky. Emily didn’t mention it, instead saying, “Okay. Well, I can’t exactly walk at the moment… Could you help me into the kitchen?”

Walk her arm-in-arm into the kitchen? The red on my face only increased in vividness, “Uh, s-sure. I’d be glad to, um, if you don’t mind that is.”

Emily smiled, “Not at all. It’s fine.”

So, while Emily directed me towards the kitchen, she held onto my arm as she used it as a brace for her unfamiliar footing. But every once in a while, particularly when we reached the wooden floor of her kitchen, Emily would slip and fall into me. I’d catch her, thankfully, but every time she was just so… close. Each time she tripped that way literally brought the blush racing back to my face.

I never imagined I’d be this close to her, not to mention even before I went on a single date with her! I wasn’t sure whether to be estatic or nervous. Heck, maybe even nervouscited. And yes, I’d call that a real word, because I actually like the Equestria Girls movie. It sort of felt like my own life but in reverse.

Anyways, when we reached the kitchen, Emily transferred her weight from me to the kitchen counter, where she held herself up just fine.

Emily gave me a smile, “Thanks for that. I think I can handle walking by myself now. You can go back to living room if you want, unless you want something to eat too.”

“Um, oh! No, it’s fine. I already had breakfast.” I replied, albeit a bit too fast. I honestly wanted to get out of sight, just so she wouldn’t see me blushing. “I’ll just wait in the living room until you’re done.”

“Okay.”

I quickly turned and speed-walked back to the living room, where I plopped back down onto a couch in relief.

I sighed to myself as I recounted what had happened. I had held Emily as she walked… She had even fallen onto my chest once… Yet, she smiled at me when she let go of me?

Di-… Did that mean she liked me? Oh my gosh! I think she actually likes me! She-

No, wait… I can’t know that for sure. Maybe she just smiled because she was being polite? Maybe…

Gah, I don’t know. I don’t know a thing about girls, much less how I’ll know if Emily likes me or not! Sometimes I wish romance didn’t have to be this confu- “Gah!”

I yelped as I felt pins and needles rack up my legs, as if to say, “Hey, dummy! You’ve got bigger problems to deal with than your nonexistent love life!”

I sighed as I remembered that the next change would be the fur, which would grow up my legs until it covered every part of me. After that, my bones would change, starting with my legs up to my skull.

But more pain started to come from my legs, where the current change was happening. As fur sprouted over my legs, it felt as if somebody was stabbing me with tiny little toothpicks, though not hard enough to draw blood.

“Gah, why’s it so painful now? Does it have to do with the transformation going twice as fast?” I wondered, “I seriously hope it isn’t this painful for the rest of the transformation.”


_____________________________________________________________


To make a long story short, it did.

An hour later, I groaned as I picked myself off the floor, so I was standing on four hooves. I had to admit, the pain throughout the transformation wasn’t bad enough, but I got dropped to the floor when it reached my… er, ‘pelvis’.

I always hated when that region changed anyways. I remembered as I took a good look at myself.

The rest of the transformation had finished, and I found myself back in my earth pony body. Down my neck, my blue mane waved proudly towards the floor, and beneath my now-oversized clothes, I could see my bright yellow hooves.

Of course, like every transformation to a pony I’ve been through, I immediately took off my pants… in the living room of my high school crush… er…

Ah, screw it! If I have to choose between letting my tail air out and embarrassing myself in front of no one, the tail comes first. So, I pulled off my pants and let my tail breathe in the fresh air. Just having it out always calmed me down. In fact, unless you guys already figured out, having a tail was one of my favorite parts of being a pony.

… That sounded like what a furry would say… oh well. I ain’t no furry, so it doesn’t apply to me.

I decided to take off my shirt and ‘my’ hoodie as well. It’s not that I suddenly become a nudist when I become a pony. It’s just that you get really hot with a fur coat sometimes. The extra layers aren’t really appreciated in those instances.

I smiled a bit as I took a last glance at myself, towards my flank, where my cutie mark now showed proudly. My cutie mark, the book with the SPQR symbol, cried to the world that Lyle Anderson was out to lunch and Roman Writ was here to stay.

“Too bad both versions of myself are terrible with girls.” I muttered to myself, “Speaking of which, I should check on Emily.” Hopefully she hadn’t dropped anything on the floor when her front hooves suddenly grew.

“Emily?” I made my way to the kitchen… stark naked… Ugh! No! Don’t think about that, Lyle! You have a fur coat now, so it’s fine!

I opened up the kitchen door, and I stopped in the doorway when I saw Emily on tile floor. Sure enough, she was now a full pony too. She was a cyan mare, with a bright pink mane. Her pajamas hung loose on her pre-shrunk form, so I couldn’t see her cutie mark or anything like that.

But Emily was laying on the ground next to her kitchen sink, and she was moaning to herself. Why was she moaning? Maybe she was in pain from the transformation?

Suddenly a small waft of a certain stench assailed my nostrils, causing my stomach to go queasy as I registered the scent. I knew that smell, having enjoyed it many times as a human, though my pony body didn’t agree with it. I looked towards the kitchen countertop, only to find a small plate of sausages… and one of them had been bitten in half.

My eyes strayed to and fro between Emily, the half-eaten sausage, to the sink, and then back down to her moaning form, until the pieces connected in my mind. As soon as I figured out what had happened, I couldn’t help be start snickering. I had to cover my mouth with a hoof to keep from laughing. I had thought Emily would’ve thought ahead to what she was becoming and eaten something accordingly, but I guess not.

I trotted up to Emily’s form on the floor. She must have heard me, because hooves on wooden floor aren’t exactly the quietest things in the world, but she didn’t pay me any mind. She just kept her eyes closed and her hooves sprawled out to her sides.

“Yo, Emily… You alright?” What? I couldn’t help but play the reference. It was too perfect!

Emily merely moaned in response, obviously catching the reference, “Haha, very funny.”

I chuckled a bit, “Let me guess… You ate the sausages?”

She nodded.

“And they made you want to vomit?”

Emily grumbled under her breath, “Yes…”

I laughed a bit, “Well, I guess I can’t blame you, but the transformation literally changes everything in your body.”

“Yeah, so I hear.” Emily sighed, “I’m going to miss eating meat.”

I laughed, “Well, miss herbivore, just be glad that this transformation is temporary.” … But then again… “… I hope.” I looked back at Emily on the floor, “Do you need help up?”

“Um, sure.” It was then that Emily opened her eyes.

…

“Oh my gosh…”

They were beautiful. Her eyes were big, with eyelashes that seemed to flap gracefully as they blinked open. In the center of those almond shaped eyes were shimmering pink irises that gazed up at me… I think I might have let my jaw drop, because I was star struck.

But as Emily opened her eyes, they widened when they saw me… the pony me.

“Roman Writ?”

I facehoofed. I completely forgot that I never told Emily who I really was when I was visiting her as Roman.

Without even needing my help, Emily stood up onto her hooves so she was eye to eye with me. One hoof rose up to her mouth in shock as she took a closer look at me, “Oh my gosh. Lyle, you’re Roman?”

“Um, yeah…” I answered, in a bit defeated tone. I had never intended for her to find out. Heck, she found out before we even went on a date! Well, that failed.

Emily still couldn’t believe it, “The pony I found in the hallways at school, the one who visited me those nights… that was you?!”

Following her tone, I wasn’t sure whether she was happy or angry, but I could definitely pick up the surprise in her voice. I nodded, “Yeah, that was me.”

Emily’s face looked like she was a bit conflicted, “All this time, you were just another guy from my school? Why did you never tell me?”

Looking at her right then, I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I didn’t want to tell her the truth, yet have her get the wrong idea. But… what else was I supposed to do? If I was going to tell her sometime in the future, now was as good time as any.

I sat down on my flank, looking down at the floor. It could have been out of shame for hiding my identity from Emily or embarrassment for what I was about to say; maybe even both. I sighed, “Look, Emily, if I’m going to explain why Roman Writ did what he did, or rather what I did, you need to know one thing first…”

I gulped, “I-I… sort of have… a crush on you.” Wow, I didn’t know my heart could beat this fast. Is that my adrenaline acting up too? I guess that’d be the reason why I suddenly want to gallop out of the room right now! I just told a girl I had a crush on her! What was I thinking?! That’s probably the only rule of high school dating I know!! Wait, is there such a thing as dating rules? I don’t know! I’m panicking and I can’t calm down!!

Emily looked slightly taken aback, probably out of disgust with my luck, “Wait, what?”

I rubbed the back of my neck with a hoof sheepishly, “Um, I- Before I ever became Roman Writ, I’d always been admiring you from far away, but I could never really bring myself to come up to you and ask you out on a date. B-but after you first saw me as a pony, you treated me really nicely… like I was one of your friends. So I thought, if I became a pony, I could get you to go out with me… but…”

“But what?” Emily’s voice sounded more concerned now. That couldn’t be good.

I sighed, “Even after all the times I visited you, I was too scared to get you to go out with Lyle Anderson, so I never did it.” I shook my head, sighing again, “Of course, that changed when Angela dragged me to you to ask you out. At that point, I realized I never really needed to become a pony to ask you out.” I paused, “It sounds kind of silly, right?”

I looked up at Emily’s face to see her eying me for a moment, an unreadable look on her face.

And then she burst into giggles, “Aw, that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!”

I looked down at the ground dejectedly. Usually when people in high school, or at least my high school, said that, it was kind of degrading. Dang it! I blew it!

Seeing my expression, Emily quickly added, “No, no, I meant that as a good thing.” She giggled again, “That’s the most flattering thing anyone’s told me.”

My ears perked up in surprise, “It is?” Okay, I was confused. How did that whole explanation not make me seem like a creeper? Is it possible that I didn’t botch it? Wait… now that I think about it, nothing about it seemed like creeper material… well, besides the visiting her at night part… er, remind me to never let anyone else hear about that.

Emily smiled and sat down in front of me, “Really, Roman, or Lyle, whichever you go by, that’s so sweet of you to tell me that.” She giggled, “Whenever someone has asked me on a date, it hasn’t been as adventurous as this.” She looked down at her hooves, finally looking comfortable with their existence, “I mean, getting turned into a pony was surprising, but I think I might like it… albeit I can’t eat meat at the moment.”

“Um, thanks?”

Emily smiled, “So, you really had a crush on me?”

My face probably grew a tint more red, “Oh, um, yeah. Well! I, uh, still have a crush on you. It’s just, uh, I, um-“

Emily looked at me again, from head to hoof, before giggling again, “Well, to be fair, I think you’re a cute boy, both as a pony and a human.”

“Oh, um, thanks.” I smiled nervously. I can’t believe I had gotten this far without having something blow up in my face. Back there I thought I was overly screwed, so you can’t really blame me for thinking that.

Emily’s smile faded as she glanced around the kitchen, unnerved by the fact that she now stood as tall as her kitchen table, “So, what now? You said the transformation was only temporary, right?”

I nodded, “Yeah, it should wear off by early morning tomorrow.” Though big emphasis on ‘should’. With the double speed, who knows what other effects there’d be. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned us into alicorns in the middle of the day.

“Oh, then I guess we should hang out here until then?” Emily suggested, “I mean, the only ones who would get home tonight are my Dad and my little sister, but my sis has piano practice, so they both won’t get here until late afternoon.”

“Um, great.” I smiled, “That sounds good. And before they get here, we can leave and hide out at Angela’s house. After all, she’s the one who got us into this mess, so she owes me.”

Emily looked down at herself again, and more specifically her clothes, “Well, now that I’m a pony, I guess I don’t need to wear these right now.”

So, she stripped right there in the middle of the kitchen.

Immediately, I looked away. My face was probably glowing red, because it sure felt like it. Man, it was both funny and cruelly ironic how mundane civilized standards got thrown out the window with Angela’s transformations. Exhibit A: The wearing of clothes (now optional).

I heard Emily giggle behind me, “Don’t worry, Lyle. You can look. Besides, now I’m wearing a nice fur coat.” She joked.

I rolled my eyes, “You know, Angela always made that joke whenever she turned herself into a unicorn.”

I turned back towards Emily to see her… er, naked. Yeah, there was no way to say that without it sounding weird. Just remember the context please.

With her pajamas off, I saw the rest of Emily’s body. To my surprise, a pair of wings were folded against her sides. This was the first time I’d actually seen a pegasus in real life. Her feathers looked more life-like than the show animated them, bright cyan and there were quite a few of them.

I also caught sight of her tail, which was styled similarly like her mane, bright pink, long, and seemed to twirl in place as it drooped towards the ground.

My eyes wandered down to her cutie mark, which was depicted by a clear pool of water. I wasn’t quite sure what it meant though. I’d have to ask Emily sometime, but I didn’t think to at the moment because… um, my eyes continued to wander.

My eyes drifted over her body, enchanted by just about every feature. Those curvy hips, her eyes, her mane, down to her… alright fine, I was looking down at her plot too. But I was surprised that I even found Emily attractive as a pony too. No, I’m not a clopper, and I think the transformation also gave me pony hormones, so it’d make sense.

“So… what do we do now?” Emily asked, rubbing a hoof with her other one.

Unfortunately, the question quickly shook me away from checking her out anymore, “Oh, um… Let’s see here.” Right now it’s about 10:00, and we should leave Emily’s house around 4 or 5. So, that leaves us with 6 hours to kill. “Well, whenever I have extra hours to kill as a pony, I always go to the next best thing to do: Video Games.”

Emily raised an eyebrow, “What? How do you play video games as a pony? Isn’t it kind of hard to do with hooves?”

I chuckled a bit, “Surprisingly not. I just don’t think about the fact that I have hooves now, and they suddenly work like hands. It’s kind of weird, but useful.” I glanced around her home, “So, do you happen to have any video games?”

Emily nodded, “Yeah, just an old Gamecube.”

I beamed. The Gamecube had been my favorite system, other than the N64. What can I say? This history geek likes the old stuff better. Ironic, right? “Sweet, lead the way.”

So, Emily directed us out of the kitchen, though she stumbled a bit on her hooves. But after giving her a few pointers, she began walking fine. She led us upstairs to a room she called, ‘the den’. Actually, it was a room full of entertainment stuff, including a large TV, a desktop computer, a couple of game systems, as well as a few books in the back corner.

But as we made our way into the room, Emily gave me a curious look, “So, you said the transformation would wear off late tonight, right?”

I nodded, as I began leafing through a stack of Gamecube games, “Yup.”

“Well, then what’s the plan for our date tonight?”

I stopped with a start, turning towards Emily with wide eyes, “What?”

Emily giggled at my expression, “You did ask me out on a date tonight. After you told me about your crush on me, it’s the least I could do for you.”

I blinked in surprise, “You seriously want to go on a date, like this?” I gestured to our pony selves.

Emily nodded, “Yup. Besides, I think it’d be more fun to go as a pony.”

I stared at Emily in disbelief. It wasn’t because she still wanted to go out with me, but because her reasoning was exactly like Angela’s... Maybe Angela really did think these things through, sometimes. Very big emphasis on ‘sometimes.

Of course, the problem was that I had no idea what to do for a date. I had no plans whatsoever.

I sighed, “Um, I don’t really know what to do for our date tonight. But… I’ll try to think of something, preferably over a few matches of Super Smash Bros.?” I pulled said game out and held it up to Emily.

She giggled, “Sure, but I won’t lie, I’m pretty good at that game.”

That brought a grin to my face, “A new competitor? Let’s see what you’ve got.”

> ... We Get Chased By Wiener Dogs,...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I breathed in ragged gasps as I tried to catch my breath. Honestly, right now, my heart was beating faster than it ever had in my life before, most likely from adrenaline rushing through it. I slumped back on the futon in Emily’s den, feeling more than worn out, but feeling so good at the same time. I must have really exerted myself if I was this tired now, but heck, it was a blast!

Beside me, Emily took the same position of me, breathing hard as well. She glanced towards me with those big almond eyes, blinking as she recalled everything that had happened in the past few minutes, “Whoa, that was…”

“Fun?” I ventured.

She giggled, stretching her cyan wings, which she had sat back on more than once, “Definitely.”

I chuckled as I massaged my mildly aching hooves, “Man, I’ve never had to use a controller that hard before. You weren’t kidding when you said you were good at this game.”

Emily smiled back, reaching for her own controller, “Well, I do play with my sister on it quite a bit. She’s part of a Smash Bros. club at her Middle School, so I have to help her practice when she wants.” She blushed a tiny bit, which was adorable with her Pegasus face, “Even still, she’s only beaten me a few times out of a hundred other matches.”

I blinked at her in surprise, Wow. She’s not only adorable, but she’s a pro at Smash Brothers too? I think I’m in love…

I looked back towards the title screen of the game again, sighing a bit. When we had first started, doing stock elimination rounds, Emily had needed a few practice rounds to get used to using her hooves on the controller. During that time, I’d been going easy on her. But as we progressed in rounds, she turned more and more into a challenging opponent, up to the point where I had to go all out to keep from losing. Sometimes she beat me though.

The end result of wins came out to be 10-10. We had been perfectly matched.

I glanced towards Emily, “Hey, I think we need a break.”

She nodded, “Yeah, you can only smash for so long before you get bored.”

“What time is it?” I asked, looking around the room for a clock.

Emily knew where it was, and answered, “About 1:00. But both my little sis and Dad won’t be back for another four hours or so.”

I nodded, as Emily turned the Gamecube and the TV off, “Right. So what should we do till then?”

Emily scratched a hoof to her head in thought, “Hm… well… I don’t know.”

Momentarily bored, I glanced out a nearby window in the room. Emily’s den was on the second floor of her house, which meant when I looked out it, I got a pretty good view of the neighborhood. Although, there was practically nobody out on the road, since it was the middle of school and work hours.

But then, something caught my eye. It was a black Honda, coming down the street. I would’ve just thought nothing of it, had it not suddenly pulled into Emily’s Driveway!

“Um, Emily? Who’s that?”

She joined me by the window as I pointed a hoof at the car that just pulled up.

Upon seeing the car, her eyes instantly widened and her wings flared in astonishment, “Oh no! That’s my Dad! He’s not supposed to get home until five! What’s he doing here?” She quickly bolted away from the window and out the door of the den, “I can’t let him see me like this!”

I chased after her as she ran through the house panicking, “Wait, what?”

She quickly led us to another room, which Emily flung open, ushering me inside, “Quick, inside my room.” 

I quickly complied, and she slammed the door shut behind us. Her bedroom wasn’t too fancy, just like any bedroom, but that wasn’t really important right now.

On the edge of hysteria, Emily explained, “T-this morning, after the first transformations happened, I told my parents that I was sick and that I should stay home from school. They never saw the parts of me that had changed, and I don’t think my dad’s going to be happy to find I’ve been turned into a small talking horse!”

My ears, as did Emily’s, swiveled towards the door of the room, where behind it, we could hear the front door downstairs slam shut, and footsteps echoed through the house. 

“Oh no! What do we do?” Emily whispered.

“Shh, calm down.” I reassured her, “So long as he doesn’t look in here, we’ll be fine. We just need to keep quiet and-“

“Emily? Are you up there?” a distant voice called, whose I guessed was Emily’s dad’s.

Emily’s hooves flew up over her muzzle as she squealed in fright, “Oh no.”

Her Dad’s voice called again, closer this time as his footsteps could be heard travelling up the stairs outside the room, “Emily?”

Emily’s legs were frantically pacing in place, no doubt looking for a place to hide, “Oh, no. Oh, no! What do we do now?”

I glanced around the room, searching for somewhere to hide… but then my eye caught sight of Emily’s bedroom window; it was wide open. Outside, I could see a similar sight of the outdoors, much like the view from the den window. Both rooms were on the same floor, after all.

An idea suddenly came to mind. I quickly grabbed Emily’s hoof, “Come here, I’ve got an idea. Let’s hope those wings of yours work.” I pulled her over to the window, which would serve as the means of our escape… most likely.


______________________________________


Meanwhile, Emily’s father, Roger Clearwater, ascended the staircase up to his daughter’s room. He had returned home to retrieve something he had forgotten for work, but he thought he’d check in on Emily before he headed out again. After all, the poor girl had wound up sick just that morning. Even worse, she said she had plans for a date that afternoon, which she would have to miss so she could recover.

Upon reaching Emily’s door, Roger knocked on it gingerly, “Emily? Are you awake?”
Receiving nothing but silence, the father opened up the door, only to find a completely empty room. No sign of Emily anywhere in there.

“Hm, I guess she’s not in here.” Roger muttered to himself, as he closed the door, “She must be somewhere else in the house.” So, he began searching through the rest of his home for Emily.


____________________________________________________


“Did he see us?” Emily shouted worriedly.

I just clung onto her, arms around her neck as I held on for dear life. Gah, what was I thinking?! “Don’t worry about it! Just watch where you’re going!”

“Easy for you to say!” She replied, equally as worried for her life as I was, “I’ve never flown before!”

Her wings were extended out from her sides, the only things keeping us airborne. But her worried outbursts made her wings twitch, causing our glide from her bedroom window to wobble. I clung onto her even harder than before, but I was careful not to hurt her, lest we drop out of the air and onto a painful landing, “Neither have I!”

“Then why’d you even suggest-“

“Watch out for that-!”

*CRUNCH!*

“-ugh… bush.”

We both groaned as our descent abruptly ended on top of some decently soft vegetation, a couple of bushes in a flower bed.

I rolled myself off of Emily, groaning as a few loose twigs scratched my fur, “Ugh, no offense, Emily, but I don’t think I’m ever trying that again… at least not until you’ve learned how to fly.”

Emily moaned as she ran a hoof through her mane to get all of the leaves and twigs out of it, “Ditto. I’m just glad we landed in the shrubs and not the rose bushes.”

I winced at the thought of it, “Yeah, me too.” I stood up to get a better look at where we landed. From what I could tell, Emily’s house was now on the other side of a giant white fence (well, giant from my perspective, having shrunk quite a bit from the pony transformation). We now stood in the backyard of what seemed to be her neighbor's house, which meant we were basically home free.

“Well, the good thing is we don’t have to worry about your Dad seeing us now.” I mused.

Emily blinked as she looked around, her eyes growing wide again, “Um, bad news. Now we’re in Old Lady Wilkin’s yard.”

“Um, how is that bad? Is she some kind of crotchety, old lady?” I asked.

Emily bit her lip, glancing around the yard warily, “Well… yes, she is a bit cranky. But she loves dogs… and when I say that, I mean, she really loves dogs.”

Suddenly, dozens of barking noises emanated from the other side of the yard, and I suddenly wondered if I wanted to look at whatever was making the noise, or start running for the hills.

Peering over the bushes that hadn’t been crushed, I saw what seemed to be a legion of short, long, stubby legged dacshunds, all running towards us at breakneck speed. By the look of their bared teeth, I could only imagine that they'd never seen multicolor ponies before, and therefore wanted to find out just how chewy we were. In other words, it seemed like we were going to be mauled by a horde of wiener dogs.

Man, I’ve heard of crazy cat ladies before, but a crazy dog lady really took the cake. Emily wasn’t kidding when she said this Old Lady Wilkin loved dogs.

Emily grabbed my arm with her hoof in a hard tug, “RUN!”

“On it!” I galloped as fast as I could, with pegasus Emily right beside me, as we ran for our lives from a vicious mosh pit of wiener dogs. Could my life get any weirder and not include immanent doom?


______________________________________________


Emily and I ran for what seemed like an hour, though it probably had been exactly that long, from the legion of wiener dogs. Thankfully, it was still early in the afternoon, so I don’t think anybody witnessed a dozen dachshunds chasing two colorful ponies through the neighborhood. Well, anybody who wouldn’t pass it off as them going crazy. Even thinking about it, the sight sure seemed bizzare.

Soon, I spotted a very large bush, and leading Emily to it, we took cover underneath its leaves.

Sitting my thankful rump on the dirt beneath the bush, I gasped as I tried to catch my breath, “Do you, uh, think we, hugh, lost them?”

Emily took a glance through the bush leaves, her own breathing returning to normal, “Hm, looks like it.”

I groaned as my legs whined a bit from using them so hard, “Man, I could have sworn those dogs were wearing shock collars.”

Emily rolled her eyes, “You should have told them that. Those dumb dogs probably would’ve remembered they had a few volts running through their body ever since they left Wilkin’s property.”

I let out a light chuckle, “You know I’m joking, right?”

“I wasn’t.” Emily laughed back, “Those dogs wouldn’t know if they were hit by a car unless you showed them a slow-motion, action replay of it.”

Not sure how to respond to that, I nodded slowly, “Right…” To distract myself from an incoming awkward moment, I looked around at our surroundings through the bush leaves, “Where are we anyways?”

Emily took a look, perking up slightly when she did, “Oh! It looks like we ran all the way to the park!”

The park? I frowned, “Is there anyone around?”

She shook her head, “Not that I can see.”

I sighed in relief, “Phew, that’s good. I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of dead right now. I really need a break.”

Emily nodded as she fell flat on her back onto the soft dirt, her wings unfurling out in a lazy manner, “Yeah, me too.”

So, there we sat, not even talking to each other for a while. Needless to say, it got kind of… awkward. But even if I thought it, Emily didn’t seem to care. She just seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.

I made an effort to break the silence, “Um, so what do you think of being a pony?” Albeit wasn’t the best question, it at least got her to respond.

Emily sighed, “Along with all of the craziness that comes with it? Let’s see here… I woke up terrified out of my mind, and then you came along and explained what was happening, I grew wings, we played some video games, ran from my dad by jumping out a window, crushed my neighbor’s bushes, and ran from her dogs for who knows how long. And now we're hiding from about a dozen wiener dogs by taking cover under a bush.”

I kind of winced as she spoke that. I had to admit, it wasn’t the best of days, and most certainly not the most normal.

But to my surprise, she started laughing, “I’ve got to say, this has been really fun!”

I blinked in surprise, “Really?”

She nodded, with the brightest of smiles, “Yeah! I’ve never had a day as adventurous as this, and truth be told, I can’t wait to see what comes up next!”

A nervous chuckle escaped me, “Heh heh, right… Um, don’t jinx it.”

She only rolled her eyes, “Whatever, the laws of karma don’t apply to me.” Giggling slightly, she asked, “Well, now that we don’t have an absurd amount of dogs on our tail, what should we do now? Head over to Angela’s house and hide out there?”

I shook my head, “No. If I’m guessing right, it’s not even 2:00 yet. School doesn’t get out for a little while, and even then, Angela doesn’t usually get home till about 3:00. We’ll need to stay hidden until she gets there before we can hunker down at her place.”

“Then what should we do till then?” Emily asked.

I paused. Really, what could we do to kill time? Here we were, two ponies, hiding beneath a bush at a park, with nowhere to go without a risk of someone seeing us. The result of which would most likely wind up with them either calling Animal Control or the FBI. If the transformation didn’t wear off by then, I’d guess they’d deport both of us off to Area 51 and put us in a deep storage unit right next to the green man from Mars… wow, I really need to lay off the comic books. Well, either that, or cut down on the alien-themed video games.

I sighed, “I have no idea what to do for now. Any ideas?”

Emily paused, biting her lip for a moment. Her eyes wandered around outside the bush, until they came back and rested on her own wings. She turned to me with a nonchalant grin, “I’m gonna go learn how to fly. You can come watch if you want to.”

Yelping a bit, I tried shouting against it, but Emily had already galloped out of our cover giggling. I quickly followed after her as she led me further into the park, “Wait, we shouldn’t do anything out in the open like this! What if someone sees us, or even worse, you flying in the air!”

Emily just laughed, shouting back over her shoulder as her wings stretched from her sides, “Don’t worry! This park is bigger than you think! I know a great place with plenty of trees to hide us."


_____________________________________________


I had to admit, the place where Emily led us was extremely convenient. It was a fairly large area, with nothing but soft grass on the ground. The entire place was circled about by giant trees, which must have stood at 30 feet tall at least, giving the small grove a perfect cover for Emily when she was flying, and a decent cover on the ground for me. There was a path of the park nearby, but not close enough to make me wary.

It was the perfect place for Emily to learn how to fly.

Emily stood on all four hooves, her legs bent and wings flared in anticipation to lift off.

Meanwhile, I sat at the base of one of the trees, an unsure look plastered to my face, “Um, are you sure you want to learn like this, by just trying?”

Emily paused, cringing slightly, “Well, I know it’s not ideal, but unless you suddenly learn how to fly with wings, I think this is the only way I’ll be able to learn how to do this.”

She did have a point, so I couldn't really argue anything else. I mean, we were in a concealed area, which meant there was very little chance that anyone would see us, and we had nothing better to do. I sighed, “Alright, just… try not to crash.”

“Heh heh, right…” Emily gulped down her worries, mustering up a bit of fading courage, “Here we go.”

Her wings thrust down in a powerful flap, which instantly shot her up into the air. Emily yelped in surprise as she suddenly found herself ten feet in the air. Her wings wobbled as she tried to right herself in the air, but only for her body tilt sideways and drop back down to solid ground with a thump.

“Ow!” Emily groaned a bit before standing back on her hooves again, massaging her side she had landed on.

I winced as I watched, “You okay?”

After a moment, she nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine.” She spread her wings again, “I didn’t think I’d get it on the first try anyways…”
And so she tried again… and again… and again.

To say the least, watching her try and try again, only to crash on the ground was both kind of comical, but a bit worrying as well. I admit, it was funny to see her crash spectacularly, but I did worry if she was hurting herself. Even if she was, she wasn’t letting me on about it. Every time I asked, she would only say she was fine and right away try again.

But with more and more tries, Emily managed to get more comfortable with flying, to say the least. Her wings were finally starting to flap in sync with each other. Pretty soon, she was progressing from crashing into the ground (or tree) after every attempt, to hovering wobbly ten feet in the air. After that, she was gliding around in the grove, and even landing up on top of the tree branches.

After Celestia knows how long, she was flying around in circles with a giant grin plastered to her face, “OH. MY. GOSH! This is amazing!”

Really, all I could do was smile as she swooped here and there inside the small area we were confined to. She was content to fly in the small air space, and she looked like she was having the time of her life, after all of that trial and error work. I know I would be too, if I had wings too.

Emily giggled as she lighted down onto a low hanging branch of one of the trees, “Wow, I can see why Rainbow Dash is a huge fan of flying. It’s awesome!” She laughed even more, “Hey, look at me! A horse in a tree!”

We both had a good laugh here and there, despite the constant need to look out for anyone who happened to be passing by. Emily kept flying like before, while I watched from the ground. Truth be told, I was kind of envious. But I didn’t let it bother me too much. Emily was having the time of her life, and it was fun to watch her glide like a giddy filly.

But after quite some time, I spotted a few kids wearing backpacks walking by through the trees of the park on their way home, signaling that school was over for the day. In order to stay out of sight, Emily and I retreated to another hiding place. You could probably guess where that was.

“Ahh, have I ever mentioned how convenient these bushes are?” I asked, slumping down onto the dirt hidden by the cover of leaves above us.

Emily, though disappointed that she had to come back down to the ground for a while, gave me a smirk, “No, but you’re right. They are convenient.”

Yup, it was official: Considering they were able to cushion a crash landing from a second story window and hide the two of us from sight, bushes were the best plant in existence.

There we sat beneath the bush again, keeping watch for any school kids who happened to walk by, just in case we needed to make a speedy getaway.

Next to me, Emily was absentmindedly flapping her wings slowly, as if  she longed to flap them more, out in the open air again.

“Anxious to fly again?” I asked.

She looked towards me, nodding, “Yeah, but… my wings were getting tired anyways.”

I shrugged, “Well, if it means anything, you looked great up there.”

She raised an eyebrow, amused, “Really?”

I nodded, “Yeah, you can definitely fly now, that’s for sure.”

Emily blushed a bit, smiling cutely, “Huh, thanks.” Her gaze drifted down to the ground, staying silent for a while. I wasn’t sure if she was just avoiding eye contact with me, or if she was just lost in her thoughts.

But after a few moments, it turned out to be the later. Emily glanced towards me, still smiling, “You know, you’re not all that bad with girls as you say you are.”

“Oh, um…” Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. I rubbed the back of my neck, nervously, “No, not really.” 

“And what makes you say that?” Emily persisted.

I sighed, “Well, if I was good with girls, t-... then I would have already tried asking you out on a date the normal way. Heck, if I did that, we wouldn’t even be in this mess.”

Emily raised an eyebrow at me, shifting her sitting position so she was facing me, “Can I ask why you didn’t?”

I paused for a moment, looking at Emily. She didn't look like she was demanding an answer. Her features made her look more sincere and curious, which was enough to slightly calm me down. Of course, the truth was, I hadn't really thought about it. All I knew was that I never asked her out because… “Well, I was scared.”

“Scared of what?” Emily asked, a smile appeared on her face, probably trying to reassure me it was fine to tell her anything.

“I- Well… I-I was afraid of what you’d think of me. I thought I’d mess up somewhere, and I’d come across wrong to you. It happens to me all the time when I get nervous.”

For a second, I swear a saw a certain gleam in Emily’s eye as she asked, “And what made you nervous?”

I frowned as I looked away from her gaze. Heck, I thought I got all of the embarrassing parts off my chest back at her house! I didn’t realize there was more!

“I-I don’t know. You know that I had- no wait, still have a crush on you, and I was nervous! I wasn’t sure if you’d like me, or if you would just blow me off cause of something else. I-I was scared that I wasn’t good enough to even ask you out. What if you had someone else you liked instead of me? What if I wasn’t good looking to you? What if you didn’t even like guys? What if you just shot me down and wouldn't let me speak to you again because- mmph!”

I was stopped short as Emily gently place a hoof over my mouth to shut me up. She had a warm look on your face, both radiating comfort and a hint of satisfaction, “Lyle, I think I know why you say you’re bad with girls.”

I blinked in surprise as Emily lowered her hoof from my mouth, “You do?”

Emily nodded, “Yes. You see, your problem isn’t that you’re not good with girls. Your real problem is that you overthink things.”

I frowned, “Overthink things?”

She nodded, “Yeah. You see, I tend to talk with my friends about love-lifes quite a bit. I'm pretty much a teenage Dr. Phil for them, and I help them when they run into problems in a relationship. But whenever I asked them why they were nervous around their crush, they only said things like, “He’s really handsome” or “She wouldn’t like me”. But when I asked you that same question, you had a lot of answers, a few of which are a bit irrational, I might add.”

I stared blankly at her, to which she expounded on her reply, “In simpler terms, when you overthink things, you get nervous, and that’s what makes you think you're bad with girls. But I know that you are good with girls, at least when you're not thinking about it. Just look back on today.” She grinned, “It’s been really fun, and you never tripped over yourself or ‘messed up’ in any way. And you even complimented me on my flying without a single stutter. What were you thinking before you gave me that compliment?"

I paused in thought, "I was..." I blushed a bit, "I just thought you were pretty amazing to get flying down that fast."

Emily covered her mouth with a hoof as she giggled, "Aw, thank you for that." She smiled at me, "But you weren't over-thinking that, and you went ahead and gave a compliment. If that doesn't prove my theory, I don't know what will. Besides, you're great friends with Angela, and she's a girl."

"I meant I'm not good with girls romantically." I deadpanned, "I definitely don't have any romantic feelings for her."

Emily giggled a bit, "I could guess that, but I will say you two would make an interesting couple."

Rolling my eyes, I brought us back to the original topic, “So… You’re saying I only trip over myself when I overthink things?”

Emily nodded, “Most likely, going by what you’ve told me so far.”

I scratched my chin with a hoof, Hm... Do I really overthink things? I mean, I know I do when it comes to school. Heck, I probably wouldn't love history the way I do if I didn't over think it... I still wonder what Emperor Nero was singing while Rome burned to the ground... I shook my head, Whoa, focus Lyle. Okay, I can definitely say I overthink things... and that carries over into a my... er, somewhat nonexistant love life. I'm not sure if it's nonexistant anymore, but- Focus! focus, right. I sighed as I mentally facehoofed myself.

I glanced over at Emily, who was idly peering out of the bush leaves for anyone. But even as she did, she looked so relaxed. I sighed to myself as I looked at her. She still looked as beautiful as any other time, even if bits of her hair had a few stray leaves in it from crashing during her pursuit of flight. 10 out of 10, I'd definitely want to go steady with her.

Well, if I want to be anything more than friends with her, then I need to stop overthinking things. I might as well start now. I frowned, Hm, but what should I do? I should at least thank her for helping me figure out my problem, but how should I do it? Should I just say thank you and leave it at that?

I frowned as I made a mental struggle to not think anymore than that, but then something caught my eye. Just outside of the bush was a flower bed, which had several different flowers dotting out of the soil.

A smile came to my mouth as an idea came to mind, Oh, I know. Reaching a hoof out of the bush, I wrapped it around the stem of a nice, orange tulip, and plucked it from the ground.

I turned towards Emily with the flower in hoof, but once I saw her, I froze.

I'm giving Emily a flower... just to thank her? What if she doesn't like it? What if- One mental slap to the face later, I took a deep breath to calm myself down, Don't overthink this. Just give her the flower, say thanks, and if she doesn't like it, tough luck.

Gulping a bit of nervousness down, I held out the flower in front of Emily, who blinked in surprise as she took notice of its sudden appearance. I felt myself tense up when she looked at me curiously, but I managed to not freeze up.

It's fine. It's fine. I smiled, which came surprisingly naturally, "Here, I wanted to say thanks for helping me figure out my, er, overthinking problem. I'm glad I know what's wrong with me when it comes to these situations."

I chuckled nervously, to which Emily innocently smiled, a bit of blush coming through her cheeks, "You're welcome, Lyle." She gingerly took the tulip from my hoof with her own. She smiled warmly as she looked down at it, admiring the tiny plant, "I love these flowers. They look so pretty."

"You think so?"

Emily nodded, before bringing the flower up to her nose, "Mm, it smells nice too."

If there was even a moment of any romanticism there, it was abruptly killed as Emily's stomach suddenly growled.

I stared at Emily in surprise as she smiled sheepishly, "Um, oops. Sorry, I didn't really get to eat a full breakfast today." She looked back at the flower in her hooves, "Actually, this flower seems more delicious than it looks pretty. I wonder..."

That's when Emily ate the flower. The token of appreciation that I had mustered up the courage to give to her, only for her to gobble it down.

But hey, even then it made her smile. Emily laughed as she chewed on the tulip leaves in her mouth, "Oh, wow. This actually tastes really good."

"Really?" I wondered.

She nodded, "Yeah, didn't you ever try eating flowers all those times you were transformed before? Go ahead, try some."

A bit unsure, I grabbed another tulip within reach of the bush and plucked it for myself. I had never tried eating a flower before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Once my arm withdrew back into the bush with a tulip in hoof, I took a large bite out of it.

The taste was amazing, surprisingly enough. I had always known that the transformation into a pony changed your taste buds as well, meaning you couldn't eat meat. But I never really stopped to realize that a new world of tastes opened up as well. As a pony, you lose meat, but you gain just about every kind of vegetation that isn't toxic to a pony... Well, a cartoon pony, but hey, who wants to argue with nature when you have the advantage of ignoring it.

"Mm, these taste great!" I chuckled a bit, "Forget the salad at home. Next time I become a pony, I'm feasting on my mom's flowerpatch!"

Emily giggled as she finished munching on her flower, "Yeah, totally." She glanced out of the bush, to where some other flowers were waiting to be plucked, "Although, they aren't that fulfilling alone. I'm gonna get some more." She gingerly trotted out of our cover.

I quickly got up and followed after the cyan mare, "Hey, save some tulips for me! You may have missed breakfast, but both of us need some lunch!"

Emily laughed back, "First come, first serve, pony boy!"


_________________________________________________________


Roger Clearwater was not happy.

No, in fact, he was quite worried, hysteric even.

His eldest daughter was supposed to be at home, sick from school, yet she was nowhere to be found.

Roger slumped down on the sofa in the living room, fervently rubbing his hands together to calm his nerves. Where could Emily have gone. He had tried calling the school, in case Emily had decided she was feeling better and gone there in the middle of the day, but they said she never checked into any of her classes.

She wasn't at home, and she wasn't at school. Roger had tried reaching any of her friends, but none of them who had picked up their phones knew where she was.

Dozens of possibilities raced through his head. Had Emily lied about being sick, just so she could run off when no one was home? No, that didn't sit right with him. Emily was a terrible liar, so she would've been caught trying to play sick. Maybe some one broke in and abducted her? But there weren't any signs of a break in either.

Roger sighed as he placed his face in his hands. It was bad enough that he had to call his work to say he probably wasn't going back for the day, but not knowing his daughter's whereabouts was racking his head with fear and worry; fear that she might be in danger, and worry that she might not come home again.

Roger bit the inside of his cheek in frustration. He knew he should call the cops and report that Emily was missing, but what if he was taking this all wrong? What if Emily had just stepped outside for a moment, met some friends, and had full intention on coming back? He didn't want to call the police if that was the case... but...

Roger looked towards the front door of the house, as if he were expecting Emily to suddenly walk through with a bright happy smile, just like she always did when he came home from a long day at work... but that wasn't the case now.

The worried father sighed to himself, "I'll wait a few more hours, until it gets dark. Then I'll call the police."

Suddenly, the front door creaked open. Roger turned to see who came in, clear hope that it was Emily. But his expectant smile drooped when he saw that it was only Liz, his youngest daughter.

She was a bright, smiling 14 year-old, who looked just like a miniature version of Emily than anything. Liz walked into the house, carrying her backpack from school. Upon seeing her dad home early, Liz beamed at him, "Hey, Dad! I'm back from piano lessons!"

Roger blinked in surprise, Piano Lessons? He glanced down at his watch, which read 4:30. Had he really been home that long? But then again, he had lost track of time while searching for Emily.

Trying to hide the worry in his voice, Roger smiled at Liz, "Hey, Lizzy. How was piano?"

"It was good." She gave her dad a curious look, "Did you have a day off from work today?"

He hesitantly nodded, "Yes, I thought I could use a day off, so I just took a small vacation day." He paused, "Hey, Liz?"

"Hm?"

Again, Roger hesitated. He didn't want Liz to have to worry about her sister too, but she could know where she went. "Have you seen Emily anywhere?"

Liz frowned, "No, I thought she stayed home sick today."

Roger sighed, shaking his head, "Oh, that's right." It wasn't a lie, but... he just didn't want her to worry. "Glad to see you home, Lizzy." Without another word, Roger retreated to his study to try some more phone calls and find where Emily was.

Meanwhile, Liz frowned at her Dad's actions. He seemed... off, like there was something bothering him.

But, the girl shrugged it off as she towed her backpack into the kitchen. She had homework to do, and she knew she couldn't be much help with any of Dad's problems.

She made her way into the kitchen, setting her backpack on the kitchen counter. But as she did, something caught her eye, down on the tile floor. Something blue.

Liz paused before bending down to grab the small object.

When she picked it up, she found that she was holding a bright, cyan feather.
> ... Get Stuck Under A Bush For A Few Hours,...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Yes... Maxine?" Roger spoke through the phone in his study, "Hi, this is Emily's father. Have you by chance seen her?"

A small pause as the voice on the other end answered.

Roger's frown only deepened, "Are you sure you haven't seen her today? She's gone missing, and if I don't find her soon, I'll have to call the police for help."

Another pause.

"Yes, thank you anyways. Just tell her to call home if you can find her. Mm-hm, goodbye." Roger sighed as he hung up the phone. He had called just about everyone who could've been with Emily today, but still no sign of her anywhere.

He, however, didn't notice the eavesdropper crouching right outside his study door.

Liz frowned when she heard her dad's phone call, cringing her teeth slightly, "Emily's... missing?"

As quietly as possible, Liz crept away from the door and made her way back to the kitchen. She didn't want her dad to know she'd listened in on his phone calls, but something had seemed fishy about it. Back at their conversation when Liz got home, just from the way her dad was acting, she could tell he was hiding something from her, and whatever it was wasn't good either.

Liz entered the kitchen scratching the back of her head in confusion, looking towards the kitchen table where she had collected a small assortment of items on top of it. Namely, the strange, blue feather from the kitchen floor, a change of women's clothes from underneath a kitchen chair, and a set of boy's clothes she had found wedged behind the couch in the living room.

Back when she found the feather, Liz had been both confused, but pleased to have found it. But not knowing where it came from didn't please her, so she went searching, only to find these changes of clothes in the process.

Liz puzzled to herself as she looked down at the items, as if they were some kind of jigsaw puzzle waiting to be solved, "I found these clothes, and the feather... and Emily's missing. Hm... I doubt these are just coincidences... could these be related somehow?"

She proceeded to inspect the clothes again.

The woman's clothes were obviously Emily's pajamas. Liz would know those filthy drabs anywhere, no offense to her sister's taste in comfort and style. These were the same pajamas Emily had worn last night, Liz remembered.

But the men's clothes were what unsettled Liz. It wasn't the fact that they didn't belong to the only male who lived in the house, her dad, that unsettled Liz. It was the fact that every piece of clothing was there; a shirt, jeans, socks, a hoodie, and all the way down to a pair of boxer shorts. Why the heck would these be here?

Liz frowned as she recalled that was the same question she had asked when she found the feather, "Why would any of these be here? Emily doesn't leave her clothes in the kitchen, there's no reason that a guy's clothes would be here, and I don't think a blue feathered bird ever came swooping through the house." She bit her lip in frustration, "All these things appeared today, right when Emily was supposed to be home sick, only for her to disappear too... These have got to be connected in some way, but how?"

Glancing towards the men's boxer shorts on the table, Liz shuddered a bit as a new thought came to mind. Could have a guy broke into the house, stripped himself and Emily, and ran off with her to-

LIz shook her head, "Whoa, way too disgusting for me." She sighed as she refocused herself, "Besides, even if that did happen, how would the feather play into this?"

She inspected the men's clothes again, which seemed to be the only thing that could really provide solid clues as to what the heck was going on. Liz picked up each article of clothing (except the boxers), looking through pockets, or for tags anywhere on it.

To her surprise, Liz noticed that all of the insides of the clothes had bits of hair stuck to the fabric; the weird part was the fact that the hair looked seemed pure yellow. Not just blonde, but pure yellow.

Liz kept up the search, until she found one solid thing that could be considered as a clue. On the inside of the hoodie, she found a small, white tag, which read, "This coat belongs to Ben Heuer. If found, please return to 1335 Pleasant Drive."

Liz read the name again, "Who's... Ben 'Hue-Er'?"

Nobody was around to answer, so Liz figured the only way to find out who this guy was had to be by going to the address on the hoodie.

Liz grabbed the hoodie and slung it across her shoulder, "So, if I find this guy, then I'll probably find Emily too." She paused though, "Should I tell Dad about this?"

She paused to think. If she were to tell her dad, then he'd probably go ballistic once he found both a guy's change of clothes and Emily's pajamas strewn across the kitchen table. If that happened, then overprotective father would go and call the police for some kind of rapist kidnapping... But there was always the chance that wasn't the case. After all, the house hadn't been trashed or had any sign of a struggle, so there was always a chance that something else happened...

Liz glanced back at the address on the hoodie. The house for it wasn't too far away, probably a ten minute bike ride there, tops. She glanced towards the kitchen clock, which read 4:47. Outside the kitchen window, she could see that the sun was already about halfway across the sky between noon and sun set.

Liz shrugged, "I should be back before it gets dark, unless something else comes up. And by then," She plucked the feather up off the counter, "I'll know what the heck is going on here."

She pocketed the feather, slung the hoodie around her waist and tied the arm sleeves together, and ran out to the garage to fetch her bike.


______________________________________________________


A few teenagers ran through the park, laughing and playing, without much of a care in the world. They were throwing a frisbee between each other, laughing with each other whenever they dropped the pass, or just carrying on whenever they caught it. They looked really happy, but it's probably because they were doing one thing that I wanted to do myself.

No, I'm not a big fan of frisbee, so that's not it.

Those teenagers got to roam free, without fear of being seen. They didn't have to hide under a bush because somebody was nearby, and could possibly see them.

Ironically, it was those teenagers preventing us from leaving the bush. They were all in the grassy area about ten feet from the bush we were hiding in.

I sighed as I slumped back deeper under the cover of the bush, "Well, one thing's for sure, I don't think those people are leaving anytime soon."

Emily held a similar expression as me, "Are you sure we can't slip out and use the trees for cover?"

I shook my head, "Well, maybe you could, since you can fly and hide in the tree branches. But as for me, I can't even set hoof out there without the chance of one of those teens turning at the wrong moment and spotting me."

"Then what do we do for now?" Emily asked.

"Hm... I guess we'll just have to wait until they're gone, I suppose." I groaned slightly as I laid back against the base of the bush, "But who knows how long that'll take."

Emily shrugged as she took the same position as me against another side of the bush's base, "I think they should be gone once it gets dark. Even if they don't, it should be dark enough for us to slip out unnoticed."

"And until then, we just hang out?" I guessed.

"Yup."

We sat in silence for a moment, just idly watching the frisbee game outside our bush. Man, having to wait here until dark? Talk about killjoy. So far, this entire day has consisted of running and hiding. I think the only thing that made it better was having Emily along for the ride. But did I really miss a normal date with her just for all of this?

Not to mention all of this will be over tonight, and then I'll have to return home before Mom starts worrying-

My eyes widened in realization, "Oh, crap. My mom is gonna kill me once I get home."

Emily blinked in surprise, "Why?"

I groaned in reply, "Well, she's just sort of overprotective of me. She doesn't like it when I get home late after dark, but that's only because she worries about me."

She giggled a bit, her beautiful eyes fluttering, "Aw, it sounds like your Mom loves you a lot. Why does she worry? Have you gotten in trouble before?"

I paused.

I was kind of unsure if I should answer. The answer itself was a sore topic for me and Mom, and neither of us really liked to talk about it. But...

I glanced back at Emily, whose expression faltered when she saw me pause, But... she really seems kind and loving. I think...

I sighed, "It's just... my mom acts the way she does... because of what happened last year."

Emily blinked in surprise, concern in her voice, "What happened?"

Well, might as well tell her. I cleared my throat, "Back during the school year, my Mom and Dad took a holiday trip to see some of my relatives living out of town. The only ones home were myself, and my three younger siblings. I'm the oldest sibling, so I was in charge of the other three. But I got help whenever I needed it from the oldest of my siblings. His name was Rowan.

"Rowan was 16, and he usually helped out by driving the younger siblings to wherever they needed to go, while I did just about everything else." I chuckled a bit as a memory came back to mind, "You know, he was a brony too, but he could never get me into the show when he tried. Angela had already tried, but never succeeded, that is until she first turned me into a pony.

"Anyways, it was only myself, Rowan, and our little brother and sister at home one night, during my parent's trip. Everything went fine, up until we all headed to bed... well, almost all of us. I was still playing some Xbox games downstairs with my youngest brother, Kale.

"When it was time to put Kale to bed, I did, though he didn't like it. But... I went ahead and checked on Rowan afterwards..."

I closed my eyes, biting my lip, "But he was gone."

Emily stared at me, confused, "Where did he go?"

I shook my head as the memories came rushing back, as if they had just happened. My panic when I couldn't find him or get a hold of his cell phone. The call I had with Mom and Dad... By then I was sure that Rowan was hurt or even dead. My parents had returned the next morning, and I had stayed up the entire night, trying to find where my brother had gone. I remembered the police, when we filed a missing person report.

But yet, we never found him.

I sighed, holding back a quiet sob. It didn't hurt so much to think about it now, but it still made me feel gloomy, "I don't know where he went. Nobody does. It was like... he was just snatched up into thin air, out of existence. My family hasn't heard from him since."

Emily looked at me in surprise, a hoof covering her mouth, "Oh, I-... I'm so sorry."

I sighed, "No, it's fine. You asked, so the least I could do was answer." But still... I shook my head, noticing Emily's concerned expression, "Besides, it's been a year since that happened. I've learned to live with it, so don't go worrying about me."

Emily opened her mouth to protest, but quietly sighed as she leaned back against the bush again, "Having a sibling go missing... I can't imagine how it must be."

Silence drifted between us for a moment, only the rustle of leaves above us prevailed as a gentle breeze passed through them.

Emily glanced towards me again, "Were you and Rowan close?"

I paused, before nodding, "Yeah, we were. He was my video game buddy, the one I always competed against whenever I wanted a challenge. Despite our own interests, we were basically best friends." I didn't want to make it known to Emily, but I wasn't to anxious to dwell on my lost brother any more than I had to. It just brought back painful memories. "What about you, Emily? Are you close with any of your siblings?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I mean, I'm close with my only sibling, my sister, Liz. She's into just about everything I am, but she can be a bit..." The pegasus scratched her chin with a hoof, as if she were searching for the right word, "Independantly adventurous."

I raised an eyebrow, making Emily giggle as she clarified, "I mean that she will always want to handle a big problem by herself if she can. The bigger the problem, the more likely she'll try to jump head first into it without telling anyone else." She chuckled to herself, "If I ever went missing like your brother did, she'd probably jump on her bike and ride across town looking for me."

But that was when another thought occurred to me, "Wait a minute... Emily?"

"Hm?"

"Your dad was at the house before we left, and he was looking for you."

"Yes..."

"So, what would he do if you were no where to be found, when you were supposedly staying home sick from school?" I honestly didn't know why neither of us had thought about that, but then again, we had been running from about twenty wiener dogs ever since we left Emily's house.

Emily's eyes widened and she shot up from where she sat, "Oh, no. They'd think I've gone missing, like I'd been kidnapped or something like that! Oh, they must be worried about me if they've found me gone. Not just my dad, but my mom and Liz too! I- I've got to tell them I'm alright!"

I quickly placed a hoof on Emily's shoulder, both to keep her from galloping out of our cover, and to reassure her and calm her down, "Emily, it'll be alright. I'm sure they'll be worried, but you can't exactly go running home like this." I poked one of her wings to emphasize my point, "Ignoring the fact that we can't even leave the bush right now without being seen, I think you'd make your family worry even more by showing up on their doorstep as a cyan pony."

Emily stayed silent, as if she were still debating what to do. I sighed, "Look, Emily. It'll be alright. At the end of tonight, the transformation should wear off, and we'll both be human again. Then you'll be back in your house to get rid of your family's worries, okay? We just have to wait until then."

Again, Emily hesitated. Sighing to herself, she leaned back against the bush again, "Okay, you're right..."

I could make out a pang of uncertainty in her voice, which made me reach out to her shoulder again. I smiled at her when she turned towards me, "Don't worry, Emily. I'll make sure you get home safely. And if your family asks where you've been, I'll handle it... and even take the blame if they don't like my answer."

Emily blinked in surprise, "But what are you going to tell them?"

I gave her the goofiest grin I could muster, "I have no idea."

She just gave me a blank look, before a smile crept up around the edges of her lips. Pretty soon, she burst into a fit of giggles.

I chuckled at her reaction, "You trust me, right?"

Emily laughed, calming herself down from the giggles, "Okay, fine. I trust you."

We both smiled at each other, not even speaking. For me, it didn't really feel like I needed to say anymore. All I really wanted to do was gaze into those big, beautiful eyes of hers, as well as her dazzling smile that sent my stomach through a flock of butterflies. Heck, neither of us couldn't stop smiling. It was like... it just felt so good to be with somepony you counted as a friend.

I leaned my head back against the bush's base, a tiny yawn trying to breathe through my mouth, "Awh, man, I'm actually kind of tired. A lot has happened today, hasn't it?"

Emily nodded, settling back into a comfortable position as well, "Yeah. Now that I think about it, I could use a quick nap."

I chuckled in reply, "Yeah. Not much else we can do at the moment anyways, so why not? Right, Emily?"

There was no response.

I sluggishly glanced back towards my companion in fleeing, only to find that she had her eyes closed as she rested against the bush. She was already clocked out, so I decided to follow suit. My eyes closed, and I found myself drifting off until I fell asleep as well.


__________________________________________________________


Liz stared at the door in front of her, glancing back down at the hoodie to make sure she was at the right address. Sure enough, she was. There she stood on the doorstep of 1335 Pleasant Drive, supposedly the home of this Ben fellow.

Liz reached up and rang the doorbell, though as she did, she was slightly worried as to what she'd find on the other side of the door. The image of Emily bound and gagged while an insane creeper stood over her with wandering eyes drifted into Liz's thoughts, making her gag in disgust.

But those thoughts were quickly blown aside as the door swung open, revealing an older woman, probably in her 40's.

The woman blinked in surprise when she found the 14 year old girl standing on her doorstep, "Oh, may I help you?"

Liz cleared her throat, seeing that there wasn't any threat there, "Um, hi. I came to return this to Ben." She held up the hoodie, "Do you know where he is?"

The woman obviously recognized the sweater, judging from the sigh she made, "Hmph, that boy is always leaving his things everywhere. If it weren't for me, he'd probably have lost everything he owns. I thought I'd raised him better, but I guess not."

Liz guessed this lady was Ben's mother.... and she was starting to wonder about his mom's comment about him leaving his things everywhere. Did that include his clothes in random peoples' houses?

Ben's mother sighed, "Well, I'm sorry, but he's not here at the moment. He said he was at his friend's house, last I heard from him."

"Who's his friend?" Liz asked, hoping she knew exactly who it was. After all, Emily knew a lot of kids at school, and Liz knew where most of them lived.

Ben's mother paused in thought, "I think it was his friend he just met yesterday... some girl named Angela Ravendale."

"Oh, I know Angela." Liz knew Angela quite well actually. She was one of Liz's favorites from Emily's friends. The crazy blonde reminded her of her favorite pony, Pinkie Pie.

"That's good, I suppose." Ben's mother shrugged as she took the hoodie from Liz's grasp, "I'll just hold onto this until Ben gets home."

Liz nodded and thanked the woman, before turning back to the sidewalk where her bike stood on its kickstand. She hopped on the bike and began pedaling away through town. She knew exactly where Angela lived, and this Ben fellow was supposedly there as well. And if he was there, then it was more than likely that Emily was there too.

All Liz could do was breathe a tiny sigh of relief at knowing Angela was there too. If either of the two knew where Emily was, then it couldn't be bad, not if Angela was in on it.


__________________________________________________________


Angela paced furiously around the edges of her basement, her lips tightened in a grimace. The reason behind her pacing was because, like always, she had a problem and she couldn't seem to figure out why it was there.

She scowled a bit at the cement floor in the center of the large, but unfinished room. The whole basement, save her own room and the bathroom, was just sturdy wood beams for walls, and pure, smooth cement for the floor; perfect for using circle rituals.

At the center of the basement, on the cement floor, was chalk circle, with hundreds of lines, glyphs, sigils, and other things; all components of the leylines for a circle magic ritual. Of course, the problem was, at the moment, the white chalk circle was glowing with a rainbow of colorful lights... it didn't normally do that unless it was being used.

Emily frowned in annoyance as she kept staring at it, like it was that one question on an easy test that had somehow stumped her.

"Hm... This just doesn't make any sense..." Angela muttered to herself, inspecting every inch of the circle, "First the number of targets were doubled, then the speed of the transformation doubled... and now this? There's no way the circle could be glowing unless it's being used, but I just used it this morning to transform Lyle and Emily..."

The sound of footsteps descending down the stairs and into the basement cut Angela's train of thought short. She turned around to see Ben reach the bottom of the staircase.

He quirked an eyebrow, "You figured it out yet?"

Angela shook her head, making Ben sigh a bit.

"Ugh, you've been at this for the past hour. I'm surprised you haven't figured out what the heck is going on."

Angela gave him a bemused look, "Well, we both know it's doing this because we added an extra circle into the glyphs. But why it's glowing... it just doesn't make any sense." She put her hands on her hips as she scowled down at the glowing circle, "Somebody would have to be using it for this to be happening, but there's a lack of a person using it and a lack of effect as far as I know. I don't even feel the tinniest of chi flowing from this thing."

Angela sighed again, defeatedly, "Well, if I know anything, if you can't figure something out yourself, turn to the next best source of info: The internet!" She gestured for Ben to follow her, "We can use the computer in my room. Hopefully we can figure this out together."

Ben shrugged as he followed, "Why not?"


_____________________________________________


Liz stood at the front door of Angela's house, taking a deep breath to calm herself. On the way over, a small fear had grown in her mind, one that wondered if Angela or this Ben guy really knew where Emily was or not. If not, then Liz knew she'd hit a dead end on this lead. If that happened, she had no idea what'd she do to keep up her search for her missing sister.

Gingerly, Liz knocked on the door and waited.

And waited...

... and waited.

Liz frowned as she noticed that the entire house was silent. She couldn't hear anything from the inside, and it was apparent that no one was coming to answer the door. Maybe Angela wasn't home?

She glanced towards the driveway adjacent to the house. Sure enough, Angela's car was there, an old, beat up, pink Volkswagon. Liz had seen it before whenever Angela happened to stop by her house, so it was more than likely that Angela was here if the car was.

Frowning to herself, Liz muttered aloud, "Hopefully there is somebody here... someone who can tell me where Emily is." A bit cautious, Liz grabbed the door knob in front of her. But when she turned it, she flinched in surprise as the door swung open in her grasp, completely unlocked.

"That's weird. Who leaves their door unlocked?" Liz poked her head inside the house, calling out, "Anyone home? Hello?"

Again, she was greeted by silence.

Liz paused for a few moments, before shrugging to herself, "Hm... Well, if no one's home, then they won't mind if I take a peek around here."

As quietly as possible, just in case there actually was someone home, Liz entered the home and closed the door behind her. She cringed slightly as she realized that she was technically breaking and entering. But as long as she didn't touch anything and got out before anyone saw her, except maybe Angela or Emily, then she'd be fine.

Remaining as quiet as possible, Liz navigated through the house, searching high and low for any clues. But as she searched, there wasn't much to find.

The house was just like any other you'd find, a bit modern, with all of the usual comforts. A tv, a sofa, and a coffee table in the living room, a clean counter top in the kitchen beside the fridge, wooden floors and carpet for different rooms. But there really wasn't anything that could be considered as a lead towards Emily's whereabouts.

That is, until Liz spotted a staircase leading towards the basement... but there was another detail she noticed. The bottom of the stairs were lit by a flurry of luminescent lights, as if someone were using a disco ball down there.

Liz hesitated. Had someone really been down there this entire time? It was bad enough that she had gone inside unannounced, but she also wasn't sure who to expect down there, besides possibly Angela.

Shaking off her uneasiness, Liz made her way down the stairs, one hand against the wall to help balance herself in her effort to stay silent with her steps.

Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, Liz found herself in an unfinished basement. The floor was only cement, and all the 'walls' were either the building's foundation, or wooden beams. Except for the furthest section from the stairs, where actual walls and carpet were visible, the whole of the basement looked like an unfinished project set aside for later.

But as she stepped out into the basement, Liz froze in place as her eyes descended onto the cement floor. There laid the source of the strange lights she had seen before. It was a strange circular pattern, which extended to a diameter of five feet across the floor. On closer inspection, Liz noted it was made with what seemed to be white chalk, but the rainbow lights dancing from it suggested otherwise.

Curious, Liz crouched down to her knees, to get a closer look, "What the... what is this?" Never before had she seen glowing chalk, and she doubted anything like this was sold anywhere. The more she stared at it, the more it felt... otherworldly.

Liz had to wonder why something like this was down here. She had been on the hunt to find her sister, which lead her here... but finding an ethereal circle of chalk was something she wasn't expecting to find. Was this here just by accident... or was it connected to Emily's disappearance?

"Why would Angela have something like this? Where did she get it?" Liz suddenly realized that her curiosity was getting the best of her when she noticed that her hand was reaching towards the glowing circle.

Liz's heart jumped to her throat as her hand touched the chalk line, her touch causing the glowing chalk to suddenly spike in brightness.

Oh, gods, why did I do that? Liz gasped as the brightness instantly blinded her, making the girl shield her eyes with her hands.

Liz feared for the worst when she set off the crazy glowing circle of supernatural-ness she found in Angela's basement.

But after a few moments, Liz realized that nothing happened. She blinked her eyes open, only to find the bright light around the circle was gone, leaving just plain white chalk on the ground where it had been before. Liz glanced around the room for any signs of change, but saw nothing out of the ordinary than when she first came down there.

"Huh? Liz?"

Liz quickly turned around where she was crouched, only to find Angela standing at the far end of the basement. Behind her stood another person. A guy with blonde hair and black clothes, and Liz was sure she had never seen him before.

Angela stared at Liz with a confused expression, until her eyes rested on the circle that had been glowing moments before. At that point, her face almost looked panicked, "Liz? Why are you here? What did you do to the ritual circle?"

Liz stumbled back a bit, just like a child who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, "What, I-" She paused, trying to stay calm, "Sorry, Angela. I was just..." Just what? Searching through her house for any signs of a creeper who took Emily? "... I was just searching for my sister. Do you know where Emily is?"

A moment of silence passed as Angela and the guy behind her gave each other wary looks, as if they were having a silent conversation of their own.

Angela glanced back towards Liz, "Don't worry, Liz. I know where Emily is."

Liz's eyes widened, "You do?"

Angela nodded as she made her way over to where Liz stood, "Yeah, she's with a friend, who is taking very good care of her, I'm sure."

"Who?" Liz asked.

Angela gave a reassuring smile, "You know that guy Emily was supposed to be on a date with today?" Liz nodded. "Well, she's out with him right now."

Liz paused for a moment, her lip curled in a confused frown, "Is his name Ben Heuer?"

The guy behind Angela stepped forward, chuckling, "Nope, sorry. I'm Ben."

Liz sported a very confused look, "But... if you're Ben..." She pointed an accusatory finger at the guy, "Why was your hoodie at my house? Were those your clothes you left at the house with Emily's pj's?"

Ben's expression turned just as confused as Angela's; very confused to say the least, "Er... um..." The two of them shared another hesitant glance between each other.

Just from their faces, Liz could tell there was something they weren't telling her. She was determined to find out.

"What's going on? Where is Emily right now?!"

Angela and Ben exchanged worried looks, probably because both of them were surprised that Liz realized something was amiss.

Angela bit her lip as she looked to Ben, "I think... we may have to tell her."

"Tell me what?" Liz inquired.

Angela paused as Ben nodded in silent approval, before sighing as she turned back to Liz, "Well... I'm not sure if there's any easy way to explain this, but..." She paused, allowing her usual 'Angela-be-Pinkie-Pie' smile suddenly sprung back into play, "I turned your sister into a pony from MLP: Friendship is Magic, and now she's probably out with Lyle, the guy she was supposed to go on a date with, and he's also a pony!"

...

...

Liz made a face that could've been described as the most confused face on the planet, "Wait... what?"

Ben facepalmed, "It looks like we have some explaining to do."
> ... Her Little Sister Somehow Got Caught Up In The Mess,...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Liz sat on the edge of Angela's bed, while the blonde witch and Ben stood looking down at her. The three of them were currently in Angela's room, just outside the main part of the basement, where the strange glowing circle had been.

Right now, Angela and Ben were in the middle of explaining what the heck was going on to Liz.

Liz frowned at Angela, "So... You're a witch?"

Angela smiled nonchalantly, "Technically, yes. But I'm not public about it."

Liz glanced towards Ben, "Are you a witch, too? Er... whatever a male witch is called...?"

Ben sighed, "No, I'm-"

"He's my assistant!" Angela butted in with her wide grin. Before Ben could protest, she began to gently pat him on the head, "Poor guy comes looking to help me in witchery, so I decided to make him my apprentice."

An awkward silence passed through the room as Ben just gave a confused stare to the girl who was still patting his head. "Okaaaay..." Ben shook his head incredulously, "Putting that aside for later discussion, yes, Liz, we both have dabbled in supernatural forces on our own free will."

"So, both of you can use magic?" Liz asked.

"Yup." Angela nodded, "To an extent at least. I mean, neither of us can make something burst into flames with a single thought, cause that's really kind of impossible as far as I know."

"We rely on tools like runes and rituals to use magic," Ben added, "but even then, we can't use it that often."

Liz frowned, to herself mostly, "Magic... it really exists?" She shook her head in wonder, "Seems sort of... I don't know, unreal."

"And a glowing circle of chalk seems real enough?" Angela asked, causing Liz to freeze.

"Speaking of which, what was that?" Liz asked, "Why was it glowing?"

"That was a full-body transformation circle." Ben replied, "When used, the ritual can slowly transform any target into a desired creature. The spell itself is supposed to be long range, and given the size of the circle, we could use it on just about anyone in town if they're in range."

Angela promptly added, "Of course, we can't use it all of the time. Like anything, an action requires energy to complete. The same is true for magic, and the energy we use is called 'chi', or inner magical energy." She giggled to herself, "But I personally like to call it pink soda!"

Liz just stared at her in confusion.

"That's because my chi is colored pink." Angela explained, "Whenever somebody uses their chi, you can see what color theirs is. It's different for everypony."

Still wondering whether or not Angela was truly insane, Liz nodded, "Right, but why was the circle glowing? You never answered me about that."

Ben answered for her, "The circle normally glows like that when it's being used. It only lasts for about two minutes tops, right when the transformation process of the target begins."

Angela's smile disappeared as she joined in, "But... the circle out there has been glowing all day, ever since Ben and I used it early this morning. We had no idea why it was still glowing when we got back from school, and up until we found you, we were trying to figure out why it was still glowing." She shrugged, "But since it's stopped now, I guess we don't have to worry about it right now."

...

"Wait..." LIz's eyes widened, "You said that circle could turn anyone into anything, right?" Both Angela and Ben nodded. "And you said Emily was turned into a pony..." She gasped, "You turned my sister into a pony with that?!"

Angela smiled proudly, as if she had won the Nobel Prize, "Yup. I designed the pony transformation myself, but Ben helped me design that particular circle."

"You do realize that almost every single brony on the planet would die for something like this, right?" Liz asked.

Angela shrugged, "Yes. But, oh well. It's their loss for not knowing a friend like me."

Liz paused, "... So how do you use it?"

Angela proceeded to dive into full geek mode, "Well, once you've drawn the precise circle, after modifying all of its working attributes, you need an activator to pour their chi into the circle. Almost every time I use a circle ritual, I'm the activator. Although the activator is feeding their chi to the spell, they get to choose who it's used on. All they have to do is have the targeted person in their mind in order to transform them."

Angela hesitated slightly, "Of course, the original design for the transformation circle was limited to only being able to transform one person, and even then it'd cost me almost all of my chi with each use. I'd have to wait a full 24 hours before I had enough chi to use the transformation circle again. But..." Angela trailed off, as if the right words weren't coming easily to her.

"But what?" Liz asked.

Angela visibly cringed, "Well, the plan for Emily and Lyle, her date tonight, was that they'd both transform into ponies, so they could enjoy their night even more. But I couldn't quite do that when the original design of the circle was limited to one transformation. So, Ben and I modified the circle by adding a whole other circle into the ritual design, so it'd double the number of targets."

"What happened?"

Angela sighed, "Well, it worked, but not quite in the way we were expecting it to. We doubled the circle to double the number of targets, but a lot of things started doubling as well. The transformation speed was doubled, the amount of chi needed doubled-..." She shook her head, "Heck, it required all of both mine and Ben's chi to change Emily and Lyle."

Liz froze as a thought came to her mind, "And you did that... by just touching the circle?"

"And by thinking of somebody as well, but yes." Angela replied.

Liz bit her lip in uncertainty, "I... I think I might be in trouble then."

"Why's that?"

"Well... The circle stopped glowing after I touched it." Liz proceeded to tell Angela and Ben about what happened with the transformation circle, without missing a single detail. She told them about everything, from the sudden white flash of light, up until the point where the light faded.

"If the circle stops glowing after it's used..." Liz wondered, "Then wouldn't that mean I had used it? And the last thought I had was, 'Why am I doing this?', so wouldn't that constitute as me thinking of myself? Wouldn't that have made me the target?"

Angela frowned a bit, folding her arms across her chest as she thought, "Hm... we weren't sure what was going on with the circle, though..."

Liz felt her expression droop, "So, you're not sure?"

Angela shook her head, "No, not right now I'm not. But there's one way to find out. Hold on a sec."

Angela walked over to her closet, flung it open, and began rummaging through a corner of it. After a few moments, Angela withdrew from the closet, smiling as she now held a pair of bright pink, fake-lens glasses, with oversized lenses that each were about half the size of Angela's head. The glasses looked like a cheap prize you could win at a carnival game, as a low tier prize.

Liz frowned, as did Ben, "What are those?"

Angela smiled innocently, "Well, they used to be toy glasses I got a few years ago. But once I needed something to help me actually see chi in motion, I figured they could be put to use."

Ben blinked in surprise at the giant pair of glasses in Angela's hands, "You can see chi with those?"

Angela nodded, "Yup. I enchanted them to help me in witchery when I was testing out circle magic, to see if my magic was actually working or not." She turned towards Liz, "The ritual you supposedly set off works by surrounding the target in your chi, and the energy will slowly change their body. If I use these glasses, assuming you cast the spell on yourself, then I should be able to see your chi surrounding you."

Angela then proceeded to push the glasses up onto the bridge of her nose, before giving another glance towards Liz through the pink-tinted lenses. Immediately as she did, Angela's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and her jaw went slack.

Angela gasped as her gaze drifted across the room, but mostly upwards, as if she were seeing a swarm of flies buzzing around her room.

"What? What is it?" Liz asked worriedly.

Angela didn't respond, as she continued to stare into open space. But Ben at least knew that she was seeing something much different through those glasses.

Angela breathed somewhat in awe, "But... that doesn't make any sense..."

Ben put a hand on her shoulder to bring her back to reality, "What is it, Angela?"

Angela bit her lip as she glanced back at him, "Well, I saw a bunch of white chi around Liz, probably her own magic energy, which confirms her theory about using the spell on herself... but..."

"But what?"

Angela grimaced a bit, "But I can see that same chi surrounding me as well."

Ben's eyes widened in astonishment, "What... But that's impossible! How did she use the spell on both you and her? It took both of us to transform two people, and we were practically drained afterwards. But she managed to do two at the same time?"

Angela paused, taking a moment to take off her glasses, before glancing back at Liz, who wore a worried grimace, "What's going on, Angela?"

"Well..." Angela meekly chuckled, "It turns out that both you and me will be full ponies in a few hours."

Liz frowned, "Both of us? But... how... did I do that?"

Ben frowned in thought, "I gotta admit, I'm not sure how that works either... unless-"

"Unless Liz actually has twice as much chi in her than the average human." Angela finished.

"I- what?" Liz asked

Slowly, Angela felt the corners of her mouth perk up into a grin. It didn't take a genius to know why she was smiling right then. First of all, she'd found someone who had more potency than herself in witchery, who could definitely help her in her experiments in magic.

And second of all, she was slowly turning into a pony again! Who wouldn't love that? And better yet, she now had Liz along for the ride.

Angela giggled as she returned to her perky self again, before walking up to Liz and throwing an arm around the younger girl's shoulder, "Come on, Liz! We've got about three hours to figure out what's wrong with that circle out there, before you have to learn how to get used to your hooves!"

Liz yelped as she found herself dragged off, mostly carried off, of Angela's bed and out of the room, "Wait! What?! What about Emily?!"

Angela only laughed in reply, "Don't worry! She'll be back at your house later tonight after the transformation wears off! Now, let's do some witchery science!"

Ben facepalmed as he tailed the two girls out of the room, sighing, "Angela is going to have way too much fun with this."
> ... And We Still Go On A Date.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I stirred from the light rustle of leaves in the wind. A slight breeze passed over me, the chill of it waking me up quicker than if it hadn't. But if it hadn't been the cold feeling that woke me, it probably would've been the leaves that tousled down against my fur.

Blinking my eyes open, I glanced up to see that I was still under the bush, but the leaves were somewhat hard to see in the darkness. Through the canopy of the bush, I could see a dark sky, dotted with stars. A pale full moon rose high into the air, shining down onto the earth. Apparently, I had slept through the afternoon.

I yawned quietly to myself, "Oops. I didn't mean to sleep for that long." I tried to sit up and stretch some stiff limbs, but I felt something against my chest, holding me down under its weight.

I glanced down to see a familiar blue pegasus, leaning against me as she slept. From my first attempt at getting up before, Emily stirred slightly, nuzzling her face into my fur, a small, blissful smile across her lips.

I felt myself blush furiously. Heck, my fur was probably bright red all the way down to my neck at this point. Here I was, under a bush, with my high school crush cuddling into me, and I hadn't even noticed her! When had she fallen asleep on me? Had she just rolled onto me in her sleep? Or... had she shifted her position so she could fall asleep on me on purpose?

I stared at her awkwardly, unsure of how to go about this situation, Should I stay still and let her sleep? Or do I wake her up? What do I do if she does wake up?

But...

As I stared at her, I found my thought process slowing to a crawl as I took in every detail of her. Her eyes were closed peacefully, and a gentle smile crossed her face as she dug her face deeper into my fur, as if I were a fluffy pillow. Her mane was slightly disheveled, but that only seemed to enhance the adorableness of her curled up, sleeping form. I felt her warm touch against me, which somehow calmed me down, instead of making me even more embarrassed...

She looked absolutely adorable, and it felt nice to have her this close to me. Um... well, what I mean by that was that it wasn't just because she was the girl I admired for so long, but it just felt... comforting, like someone was giving me a hug, but it was a hundred times better than any I've gotten before. For a moment, I realized that I didn't really want her to wake up. That was probably either because I wasn't sure how she was going to react when she woke up, or because her warmth just felt too good to let go of.

But I suppose some cruel deity just happened to be waiting for that thought to cross my mind, just so they could watch my disappointment, because at that moment, Emily woke up.

Her eyes fluttered open, but only just barely, much like an early morning squint you get when you don't want to wake up. For a moment, Emily opened her eyes to see me looking back down at her, but I guessed she was still half asleep because she didn't react at all to me being so close to her.

She drearily glanced down at my chest, where she was resting, and then looked back up at my face.

It was at that moment that her drowsiness left her, and her eyes shot wide open as she realized the position she was in.

As if someone had pricked her with a cattle prod, Emily’s eyes shot open and she jumped up to her hooves in shock. She quickly stumbled to move away from me, only to trip and fall back on her rump again.

For a moment, neither of us spoke a word, but I could practically see the gears turning in her mind as she began to digest what happened.

Something in her mind clicked, and Emily gasped, blushing profusely, “Did I-… Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”

Apparently the red on my face wasn’t visible through my fur, or Emily was too embarrassed to notice it, because I was just as embarrassed as she was. Guessing from her reaction, I assumed what happened was the following:

Both of us fell asleep. Emily rolled over onto me, apparently finding me more comfortable than the bush. Both of us woke up in said position. Both of us turn into life size tomatoes, or at least that’s what we looked like from the color.

Gah! Why can’t I stop blushing?! Why won’t Emily stop blushing?!... She’s really cute when she blushes… maybe part of that is ‘cause she’s a pony, but- No! I’m getting sidetracked! Back to the present, before I do something even more embarrassing!

I tried to speak, to try and calm Emily down, but all that came out was, “I- uh, um… Look, I-…”

From the looks of it, having a tongue-tied tongue didn’t help matters improve. Emily looked as if she were trying to retreat back into her mane, though it was hardly long enough to do so effectively. She quickly sputtered out, “This never happened! Agreed?”

…

I found myself suddenly calm enough to manage a nod, “Agreed.”

Even though we both knew that we did not mean for… er, that thing before, to happen, neither one of us moved. We just sat there, wordlessly looking at each other in the dim light. The awkward silence that impeded the next minute was almost unbearable, but I could only wonder if this turn of events would ruin my chances of even dating Emily after this whole pony fiasco was over.

Emily was the first to have enough of the cruel silence, speaking aloud as she turned her focus outside the bush, “It’s dark… How long were we out?”

I gulped down my nervousness, wanting to put aside those thoughts for later, “Um… I have no idea.” I chuckled, a tint of nervousness I overlooked still in my system, “If it’s dark out, then I’d say we’d been sleeping for at least four hours.”

Even in the dim moonlight flitting through the gaps in the bush’s leaves, I could see Emily blush at the word, ‘sleeping’. Turning to hide her face, Emily merely replied, “O-oh… that long, huh?”

I sighed inwardly. Just before we’d been so casual with each other, but now we were just… yeah, you know. I silently prayed that this awkwardness wouldn’t last long.

I got up onto my hooves, stretching out some muscles that had stiffened from sleeping for so long, “Well, we better get to Angela’s house. In this darkness, it shouldn’t be too hard to make it there without anyone seeing us.” I glanced back towards Emily, “Is anyone out there?”

Emily slowly shook her head as she peered out from under the bush, “Not that I can see.”

Grateful that we could get a break from at least one problem today, I managed a smile, “Good, let’s get out of here.”

Emily and I exited the bush, bringing us back into the park clearing. A full moon lit the park in pale moonlight, letting us see pretty far in the dark.

From what I could see, there wasn’t a single person in the whole park. Those teenagers from before, and anyone else who happened to be here, must’ve cleared out after the sun set. That just made things easier for me and Emily to get to Angela’s house unnoticed.

“Wow, looks like nobody’s here.” I commented.

Emily nodded, “Yeah, I don’t see anybody…” She paused, as if an idea came to her, “Oh!”

I gave her a curious look, “What is it?”

She looked back at me, a bit of a nervous smile on her face, “Um… I was thinking. While we’re here, and nobody else is, I was wondering if we could stop by my favorite place in the park.” She quickly added, “W-we won’t take long, I promise!” She laughed nervously.

…

Wait a minute… Is Emily… nervous around me? I blinked in surprise. Well, that would be the obvious result after she woke up sleeping on top of me… oh, well. I’m sure she’ll get over it in a while. In fact, going to her… er, favorite place, wherever that is, might distract her from feeling so uneasy around me.

I nodded, “Sure, why not?”

Almost immediately, Emily’s face perked up into a smile, “Okay! Follow me!” She turned and galloped off through the park, and I had no idea where she was going. Last I checked, It’s kind of a bad idea to lose track of your guide at night when you don’t know where you’re going.

“Hey, wait up!” I yelped as I galloped after her.

Emily let out an excited giggle as she ran, “Come on! It’s even better at night!”

Again, I didn’t know what ‘it’ was. Shrugging it off as a ‘I’ll find out later’ thing, I paid more attention towards my hoof falls, just in case there was something in the grass I could trip over. With my luck, I could very trip right-

“Whoa!” *Thump* “Ow…”

Emily stopped suddenly, her smile replaced by a worried expression as she saw me collapsed face-first on the ground, “Oh my gosh, are you okay?”

I muttered bitterly as I pulled myself of the grassy terrain, “Ugh, that’s why I don’t go running at night as a pony.” I gave Emily a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

“A-are you sure?” Emily asked, not completely bought by the response.

I nodded, once again back on all four hooves, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just tripped, alright?”

Emily seemed oddly hesitant, but then she smiled again, “Okay. Just… try not to trip again, alright? My favorite place here isn’t that far.” Once again, she turned and galloped away, with me in pursuit.

But as we ran, a tiny thought began working in the back of my mind. It was the kind of feeling you get when you think something’s wrong, but you can’t tell what it is exactly that’s wrong. But the more I ran, the more it grew, until it came out into actual thoughts.

Why was Emily so… worried about me? All I did was trip and fall. Although I admit I fell on my face, I landed on grass and that cushioned my fall somewhat. But the way Emily asked me if I was okay made it seem like I’d been stabbed by a member of the mafia.

Hm, come to think of it, Emily seemed really nervous when she asked if we could come to this favorite place of hers. I guess that could have been because of what happened when we woke up in the bush, and Emily was just flustered… but what if that wasn’t the reason? What if-

“Hey, Lyle! We’re here!”

Emily’s voice brought me back to the present, just in time for me to see that she’d stopped. I slowed my gallop to a trot and lined up beside her. From there, I looked around at where we’d arrived.

Out in front of us was a tiny lake, but it could be more accurately described as a pond. It stretched out about sixty feet across in a circular shape. All around the pond, its banks were covered in rich, green grass, and a few clumps of longer grass grew up out of the water’s surface like reeds. The surface of the pond was almost clear like grass, except for gentle ripples that danced across it. Its reflective surface , though not completely clear, revealed a stunning, white reflection of the moon in the darkened sky.

A gentle spring breeze blew over my fur as I looked at the sight, and I found myself staring at it in wonder. The entire scene just seemed… peaceful. Not a living creature was there to disrupt the sight, the area was silent, save for the gentle rustle of wind blowing through the grass and trees, and the vagrant scent of water and grass in nature just seemed to complete the whole picture.

“Wow.” I breathed, taking in the place before me. It was simple, but I just loved it.

Emily only smiled, before trotting up to the water’s edge and sitting down by the water’s edge. After a moment of silence, Emily spoke out loud, not even taking her eyes off the peaceful scene,

“I love this place. I’ve come here whenever I could after I first found it, a year or two ago. Of course, sometimes I could only come here during the day, but it’s not quite the same when people you don’t know are here too. That’s why I love coming here during the night, especially when the moon is full like tonight. I think its reflection in the water looks amazing.”

Intrigued, I trotted over and sat down beside her, “You know, I’ve been here before with my younger siblings, but only during the daytime.” I gave her a smile, “You were right when you said it’s better at night.”

Emily merely smiled back, before turning her focus back to the water’s surface.

I followed suit, enjoying the aesthetic pleasure of the pond. As I looked at the water’s surface, I had to agree with Emily. The reflection of the moon on the black water looked amazing, as if we were looking at a whole other night sky under the pond’s surface.
But the tiny ripples in the water obscured the image a tiny bit, and I began to wonder how it would look if the water was completely clear… clear water… Clearwater.

I glanced back at Emily, whose surname I remembered was Clearwater. I thought it was kind of funny how her last name shared a similarity with her favorite place, but then my eyes drifted down towards her cutie mark, a clear pool of water…

That wasn’t just a coincidence, was it?

“Hey, Emily?”

“Hm?”

“I was wondering, what does your cutie mark represent?”

Emily glanced down at her mark, a gentle smile on her face, as if she were reliving a fond memory, “I guess it represents my love for clarity, especially when it comes to relationships between people.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Um… I don’t follow.”

Emily chuckled a bit, “Don’t worry, I’ll explain.”

Her gaze turned back towards the pond, looking at it just as peacefully as before, “I like to think of relationships between people as a pond like this one. It doesn’t matter if the relationship is a romantic one or just one between friends, they’re all their own little ponds. If a relationship is going smoothly, I like to think of it as a pond that is completely clear, without any ripples, because when a pond doesn’t have any ripples,” She pointed a hoof at the reflection of the moon on the pond’s surface, “You can see a clearer image of what the other person means to you.”

Emily then sighed, somewhat wearily, “But, sometimes, relationships become rocky, where both people don’t trust each other, like if somebody holds a grudge against somebody and they never forgive them. Those types of things cause ripples in the pond, and with more ripples, you can’t see the image it reflects as well as before. When that happens, either one or both people can no longer see each other as friends, and their friendship disappears.

“I hate to see people like that, unable to become friends, or even more than friends.” Emily’s smile returned slowly, “So, I try my best to help my friends with relationship problems, to try and smooth out their ponds and make the water clear.” She laughed, “Figures, my last name just screams out my special talent.”

I chuckled a bit at that, “Yeah, I noticed that, too.”

Emily grinned at me, before looking back at the pond, “Of course, just like a regular pond, it isn’t easy to get rid of the ripples, and often times it just requires time for things to smooth out. But when I get stumped with a problem I don’t know how to fix, I come out to this pond to settle down and think it over.” She smirked, “I suppose that’s the other reason why this is my favorite place to be.”

A small, Spring breeze blew through the air around us, causing both of us to shiver at its chill. Emily chuckled dimly as she wrapped her hooves around herself to keep warm, “Hehe, I guess the only downside is when it gets cold out here.” She shivered again, “I’m glad I have a coat of fur right now, but I kind of wish I had my blanket with me, like all the other times I come down here at night.”

“Well, um… here, I can help warm you up” I froze as soon as those words came out of my mouth.

Wait, what?! Oh, crap! Did I really just say that?! For the love of-  Brain, could you please think before telling me to say something like that.! Do you not recall that we woke up with Emily sleeping on top of me just a few minutes ago, and now she’s acting all weird around me?! Honestly, I didn’t think you could be this dense!

Takes one to know one.

Shut up, brain!

Emily looked at me wordlessly, “Um…”

I grimaced, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly with a hoof, and I’m sure I was blushing, “Oh, s-sorry. I guess that kind of just came out…”

Emily paused for a moment, before another chilly wind passed by. She shivered at it, the feathers in her wings rustling at the cold. She turned her head back towards the pond, speaking quietly, “I-it’s alright. I…” A tinge of pink touched her cheeks, “You can sit closer to me. That way we’ll both stay at least a bit warm.”

I blinked in surprise, but nodding a bit, I scooted closer to her, so we were only about an inch apart. T-that was close enough, right?

But when I stopped, Emily scooted over and closed the distance. I suddenly found us sitting shoulder to shoulder, both of our sides touching all of the other pony’s. Emily even extended her wing closest to me backwards so I could sit comfortably beside her.

For a moment, I said nothing as I felt her familiar warmth against my side, the one that I had enjoyed for a few seconds before she woke up. The feeling wasn’t the same as it had been before, because of where we were touching, but the wonderful warmth was still there.

It felt good, and Emily had voluntarily let me feel it. Back before, she had closed the gap between us herself when I didn’t, which I found surprising… In fact, in the past few minutes, she’d surprised me twice. Once, when she was acting nervous when she asked if we could go to this pond, and another time, when she’d been overly-worried when I’d fallen on my face… and now there was this.

I glanced over to see her face, only for me to suddenly meet her eyes which were staring back at me. In the pale moonlight, I saw her blush as she simply stared at me.

Why would she blush? Being close to a guy would be nerve racking if they didn’t trust them… or…

… if they like them.

Did Emily… like me?

Emily’s gaze dropped from mine, as if she suddenly found something interesting in the pond, “Um… Lyle? Can I ask you something?”

“Y-yes?”

Emily bit her lip, wondering if she say anything or not, “Do you… really want to date me, after all of this is over?”

Well, all I can say is that I was not expecting that. I don’t think anyone could have expected that.

“I… uh…” Oh my gosh… tell me this isn’t a dream, please! It’s like all those daydreams I have in Math class have suddenly come true!

Emily grimaced a bit, probably from the fact that I hadn’t said anything comprehensible, “I-it’s alright if you don’t want to. I understand.”

“No no no.” I quickly corrected myself, “It’s just that you caught me by surprise. That’s all.” I smiled sheepishly.

She paused for a moment. From this close, I could see a small glimmer in those beautiful almond eyes.

“Then do you want to date me, Lyle? You said that’s what you wanted, right?” Her words almost sounded like pleading from her tone. Almost, but not quite.

Knowing this was what I had hoped for all of this time, I had enough sense to put aside my nervousness and gave her the warmest smile I could muster, “Of course I do.”

I felt all the air in my lungs launch out of my mouth as Emily suddenly grabbed me in a tight, full body hug. Once again caught off guard, I gasped for my lost breath as I looked down at the pegasus.

She was smiling back at me, with probably the brightest grin I’ve ever seen from her, “Good, because I want to, too.”

I blinked in surprise, before glancing down at her hooves wrapped around me, “Um… why are you hugging me?”

Emily instantly blushed and pulled away from me, a sheepish smile, “Oh! I-I’m sorry. I guess I was just… um, caught in the moment.”

Hm, that makes two of us, tonight. I recalled.

But this did have to prove something, right? Well, now that we had both agreed to date each other…. Wow, I didn’t think I’d be havingthat thought anytime soon. Anyways, since we were going to be dating each other now, I doubted I’d find a good of time to ask as any.

“Emily?” She turned towards me, a curious look on her face. “Um, do you… like me more than a regular friend?”
Again, Emily’s face went beet red, “Oh, what?! You're k-kidding, right? Heh heh, I mean, we’ve only known each other for a day. I don’t think anyone could grow to like somebody in just that time alone.” She laughed nervously, though it quickly died down into awkward chuckles.

I just stared at her blankly.

Emily sighed in reluctance, “Okay, well… This morning, I thought you were just a guy I was going out on a date with, just to get to know you and see if there was any romantic possibility between us. But…”

The blue Pegasus laughed a bit, scooting a bit closer into my side for warmth, “But then all of this happened today, and… I guess my opinion kind of changed. It turns out you can learn a lot about somebody when you’re on the run with them from every human you see.

“And then, being here with you tonight… I don’t really know. I keep getting these tiny little feelings around you. I don’t know what they are, and I’m not sure how to sort them out, but…” Emily looked back at me with those bright eyes again, and I felt my heart melt, “… I think… I might be starting to like you more than just a friend.”

“And that’s why you want to date me?” I asked.

Emily smirked slightly, “Well, I was going to anyway because you asked before, but now… I just really want to know you more.”

A brief pause followed, before another thought came to my mind, “Wait… so does this make us boyfriend/girlfriend?”

Emily giggled through another blush, “Heh heh, um… As nice as that seems, I think it’s a bit too early to think of each other as that. Maybe after we actually go on a date as humans, then we’ll see about it.”

“Sounds good to me.” I muttered, letting myself relax a bit more against Emily’s side. She did likewise, and there we sat, leaning against each other and enjoying the other’s warmth as we watched the little pond in silence.

And it may have been just me who thought it, but the reflection of the moon in the pond seemed just a bit clearer.

“Lyle?”

“Hm?”

“I’m glad I could be here with you during this crazy day.”

“Me, too.”

…

“Emily? All of this happened because of ponies, right?”

She giggled, “Yep, ponies.”


___________________________________________________________________


Considering the fact that nobody was really out at night in the suburbs, except for the occasional car that drove by, the walk to Angela’s house had gone smoothly… er, well, so far. We weren’t quite there yet, but we were getting close.

“I’ve never actually been to Angela’s house.” Emily commented, as she trotted beside me, “How close are we?”

“Eh, about three more blocks.” I replied.

“Hm… come to think of it, my dad probably won’t take kindly to me coming home as a pegasus. Do you think Angela would let me stay the night at her house?”

I shrugged, “Knowing Angela, probably.”

That was when a silver, Toyota Corola suddenly sped around the last corner we had passed, and began speeding down the street, right towards us.

Both Emily and I jumped in surprise at the speed of the vehicle. Both of us knew the drill for when a car passed by us on the road: jump behind the nearest cover and wait until they drive past. But this car was going too fast to be able to evade, and not to mention there wasn’t any good hiding places nearby.

I just silently prayed whoever was driving the car wouldn’t notice us in the dark. Of course, the car seemed to notice us, and came to a screeching halt on the side of the road beside us.

I was about to yell to Emily to run, but that was before the passenger window rolled down.

“There you guys are!” Shouted a familiar, pink unicorn mare, with a long green mane running down over her shoulder.

Emily gaped in surprise, while I just smiled in relief. Emily gave me a sidelong look, “Um, who’s that?”

“That would be Angela.” I replied.

Emily’s eyes widened at the pink unicorn in the car, “Angela?”

Angela giggled, holding a hoof in the air, “In the flesh and fur!” I laughed as well.

In normal cases, I probably wouldn’t have been smiling as big as I was, but I was just glad it was someone who knew our situation who found us. But then again…

I cocked an eyebrow, “Um, Angela? Why are you a pony, too? And who’s driving?”

I peered past Angela to see Ben sitting in the driver’s seat. He waved at me, “Hey, what’s up?”

I shrugged, “Not much. We jumped from Emily’s bedroom window on the second floor to get away from her dad, got chased by a horde of wiener dogs across the suburbs, and got stuck under a bush for hours so some teenagers wouldn’t see us. You know, the usual.”

Ben laughed, “Wait, what? Dang, you’ll have to tell me the full story.”

“Sure. Later though.” I looked back to Angela, “But seriously though, why’d you turn yourself into a pony too? In fact, I thought you couldn’t do more than one transformation a day.”

Angela giggled, “Yes, I can’t do more than one transformation a day, but it wasn’t me who activated the ritual.”

Emily frowned, “Wait a minute… There’s somebody else who can turn a person into a pony? Who?”

Right as she asked, one of the car’s rear doors swung open and someone else bolted out of the car and latched onto Emily in a tight, squeezing hug, “Emily!”

Emily looked down at the one who had suddenly latched onto her, only to find herself looking down at another pony. She was a light blue unicorn, her fur color closely resembling Emily’s. She had a pure white mane, that dropped down to her shoulders. But the unicorn looked smaller than the other ponies present, probably because she was younger than them. She had no cutie mark, but Emily instantly recognized the new pony’s voice.

Emily’s eyes widened, “Liz?!”

Liz the unicorn laughed at her sister’s surprise, “Yup!”

Emily only stared at her, perplexed, “But- … what-… how?”

Angela and Liz laughed, before the former of the two replied, “Get in the car. We’ll explain everything when we get to my house.”


________________________________________________


Well, after a skip, a hop, and a car ride away, the five of us found ourselves inside Angela's house, sitting at her kitchen table while sipping on a can of soda each, graciously provided by our host.

While I doused my gullet with soda, which didn't take long (who knew being a pony made you so thirsty?), Angela, Ben, and Liz explained what happened from their end.

"-And so it turned out that the modified magic circle had another function to it as well." Angela continued, "As well as doubling the number of targets it could hone in on, the circle also doubled the number of times it could be used. That brought the total number of people able to be transformed by it at one time up to four, provided that you had enough chi to power it."

Emily nodded slowly, though she was struggling slightly to keep up with the conversation, "And you said a normal person had enough chi to transform only one person... Ben and you transformed Lyle and I, but as for Liz..." Her eyes widened, "Wait, how was Liz able to transform both herself and you, Angela?"

Liz giggled sheepishly, whining a bit, "Sis, you know I did it on accident right?"

Angela laughed alongside her, "Hey, most discoveries in history were found by accident! If you hadn't done what you did, then I wouldn't have figured out that your chi capacity is twice that of a normal person."

If I still had soda, I probably would've done a spit-take, "Wait, what?" I'd been around Angela the longest out of everyone here, but I'd never heard her say anything like that was even possible.

Ben nodded, smirking at the look on my equine face, "Yup. Liz is a rare type of person who can store more chi inside of herself than most people, not to mention she can probably regenerate it all in the time it takes me to regenerate half of that."

Liz smiled warily, embarrassed by everyone talking about her. She looked to her pegasus sister (heh, pegasister), "Since I seem to have a raw talent in the field of witchery, Angela's offered to take me up as a student."

I laughed to myself, "Angela as a teacher? That's an odd thought." Angela only rolled her eyes.

Ignoring me, Liz continued, "I'll be coming here to learn from her once in a while, mostly on the weekends. Not to mention I'll be able to do some cool things like the transformation circle, but I'll be able to become a pony pretty much anytime I want. I've even been getting the hang of Unicorn magic! Look!" Instantly, Liz's horn began glowing silver, and her can of 7-up levitated off of the table.

Emily beamed in awe at the floating can, "Wow. Nice job, Liz!"

Liz smiled back as she set the can back down on the table, "Thanks." Then her expression changed to a sly grin, "So, how did it go with you two? You didn't do anything too fun with Lyle, did you?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

I felt myself blush, and I saw Emily do the same as she gave a glare to her little sister, "No! We didn't do anything like that!"

I winced a bit. I'd never seen Emily shout like that before. I quickly placed a hoof on her shoulder, chuckling nervously, "Heh heh, calm down, Emily."

Thankfully, Emily complied. Unfortunately, that caught Angela's attention, and she wiggled her eyebrows in the same manner Liz had done towards Emily.

The pink unicorn gave me a sly grin, "Wow, it went that well, did it?" I blushed again, and Angela just laughed, "See, I told you it would be better for you two to go together as ponies!"

"Hey, we're not a couple!" I defended, though after a pause, I added, "er... we're not a couple yet, anyways."

Thankfully, Emily decided to save me the hassle of explaining, "We decided that we'd try going on a date as humans first, and then decide if we want to go steady dating as a couple." She smiled at me affectionately, "But after the date we just went on, I think the chances of that happening are good."

I blinked in surprise, "What? When did we go on a date?"

"Just barely." Emily giggled, "You took me to the park, which was very nice, then we had lunch together, even though it was just flowers, and then we went to the pond together. I'd say tonight was the best date I've ever been on."

"But... I don't think that actually counted as a date..."

Emily gave me a flat, but friendly look. It was the kind that said, 'don't even try to argue'. "Lyle, I don't think what happened back at the pond was just 'hanging out'. I say it was a date, and that's that."

I sighed, but smiled, "Fine, fine."

Across the table, Angela and Liz cooed, "Aww, you guys are so cute together!"

Emily and I blushed again, the former of us trying to ignore the comment, "Well, putting that aside, I don't know how we're going to explain all of this to Dad. He's probably worried sick since I never came home."

Liz smirked, "Don't worry, oh, sister of mine! I've got that all taken care of."

Emily looked at her in surprise, "How?"

Liz smiled, "Well, while you were off with Lyle, running for your life, Dad was trying to find you over the phone. He was almost about to call the cops and file in a missing person report for you. Thankfully, before he did, I went investigating on my own, since Lyle had left behind Ben's hoodie at our house. I used that to find Ben and Angela, and after they explained what happened, I called Dad to call off the search because I 'found' you. I told him you were feeling better, so you went over to Angela's house to hang out. I also told him that both of us were having a sleep-over here, too, so we don't have to worry about sneaking back into the house as ponies."

Emily paused, thinking over what Liz had said, before smiling, "Have I ever told you how amazing it is to have a sister like you?"

Liz smirked, "You could stand to mention it more."

I laughed at the sisterly exchange, crushing my empty can of soda under my hoof, "Well, now that every problem we have so far has been settled, what do we do now? Just wait until the transformation wears off tomorrow morning?"

Angela shrugged, "Pretty much."

I nodded, sighing a bit, "Well then, I better get back to my house. My Mom will go ballistic if she thinks I came home late, especially after I went on a date. The only problem is that my car is still back at Emily's place."

"Don't worry 'bout it." Ben replied, "I have to get going too, otherwise my Mom will literally kill me. I can drive you to your house on the way, and then you can pick up your car in the morning after you transform back."

"Sounds good." I turned to the girls, "What about you three?"

Angela rolled her eyes, "Duh, weren't you listening? We're gonna have a sleep-over!"

Liz did a hoof pump to the air, "Angela said she's gonna teach me some unicorn magic tonight!"

Emily laughed, jokingly, "Oh, that's going to be fun."

Liz glared at her sister, "What's that supposed to mean? I'm not gonna mess up that badly!" She smirked back in defiance, "At least I could keep my face from turning red every time somebody says my name and my new boyfriend in the same sentence."

Emily's cheeks turned a bit red, "You don't even have a boyfriend, so you wouldn't know." Her blush suddenly grew brighter, "Er, I-I mean, Lyle's not my boyfriend!"

Man, she was adorable whenever she acted like this.

But then, the front door swung open and somebody walked into the house... and we were in full sight of them. There wasn't even a place we could hide.

The person who walked in was a woman, and I instantly recognized her. She was Mrs. Ravensdale: Angela's mother. She looked just like her daughter, blonde, face, and all, though with much less pink on her person.

Everyone instantly tensed up, frozen as Mrs. Ravensdale glanced over towards her kitchen table, only to find four ponies and a teenage guy sitting there, hanging out and drinking soda pop.

I honestly thought she would have screamed.

But to my surprise, she simply smiled, "Oh, Angela, I didn't realize you were having friends over. It looks like you've been having a fun time!"

Angela just waved a hoof, "Hi, Mom! Yup, we've been having a blast!"

"Well, that's good." Her mom replied, "I trust they gave you permission before using the transformation ritual on them?"

Angela nodded, "Yup, more or less." She took a casual sip of her pink lemonade, "Oh, yeah. Mom, can Liz and Emily sleep over tonight?"

Mrs. Ravensdale just laughed, "Okay, honey. Just don't stay up too late, otherwise I'll have to get out the torch and pitchfork and call a witch hunt." With that, she walked out of the room chuckling.

After she was gone, all eyes turned towards Angela, who was still drinking the last of her soda as if the last conversation never happened. But, seeing all of our confused looks, Angela simply replied, "It's an inside joke."


___________________________________________


Soon after, it was time for me and Ben to go. So, we made our goodbyes to the girls for the night.

At the front door, Angela squeezed her forelegs around Ben tightly in a massive hug, "Thanks for everything, Ben. You're an awesome guy!"

Ben returned the hug by picking up Angela, to which he laughed, "Heh heh, I didn't think I'd be able to do this to a pony, so I have to thank you for that."

"See you tomorrow?"

Ben nodded, "If I'm not busy, yes."

Meanwhile, off to the side, Emily and I made our farewells.

Emily smiled at me, "Lyle, thank you for a wonderful night." She instantly grabbed me in a hug with her front legs.

I chuckled nervously. It was still hard to believe that I had come from having a crush on her to becoming this close within a day. I hugged her back, and even nuzzled the back of her neck, "No problem. Although, when should we go on our next date?"

Emily nuzzled me back, "Next Friday sounds nice."

"Yeah, that sounds good. Any idea what we'll do?"

She laughed, "Nope."

We shared a chuckle as we pulled away from each other. I smiled back at her, "I guess we better get going. Goodnight, Emily."

"Goodnight, Lyle."

Liz cooed from afar, "Aw, you two are too cute!"

While Emily shot her sister a glare, I turned back to Ben, who simply smirked at me, having already said his goodbyes, "Ready to go, Casanova?"

I laughed, "Shut up and take me home."

"Alright, then let's go, pony-boy!"
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sunshine of a Saturday morning flitted through my window blinds, lighting my room just enough to bother me in my sleep. I blinked my eyes open from where I laid on my bed.

Groaning at the fact that I’d wanted at least some more sleep, but knew that wasn’t possible once I’ve woken up already, I gave the window a peeved glare, “Ugh! Go away, sun!”

Knowing that also wasn’t going to happen, I sat up on my bed and stretched my arms, which were actually really sore this morning. Well, what else was I expecting? Running from all of those wiener dogs with Emily yesterday really took its toll on them.

Oh, yeah… last night… I smiled as I remembered, I still can’t believe all of that happened. And now… I grinned even wider, Emily said she might even want to go steady with me, even after that hectic night as ponies.

I chuckled to myself, “I seriously hope that wasn’t just a dream.” I’d be seriously peeved if it had been.

Since it was morning, that meant breakfast. I hopped off of my bed and onto my feet…

… before losing balance and landing on all fours again.

I blinked in surprise, “What the- AGH!” My eyes widened as they saw my hands, or rather, what was now in place of my hands. They were yellow, and indented with rings around the palms and fingers, like a hawk’s talons. No, they were talons!

I was staring at my very own pair of talons.

My eyes, and my new talons, travelled up my arms, only to find that they were covered in yellow and white feathers. I had a tuft of feathers on my chest, all white, with some blue speckled on the front.

My talons reached up to my face, and I almost let out a scream, or rather a screech, wince it’d be more applicable in this case. Instead of a mouth, I had a beak, and a plume of blue feathers in replacement of my hair.

I glanced back to my hindquarters, only to find I now had the body of a lion, fur completely yellow, with a blue tuft of hair at the end of my feline tail. A pair of  yellow colored wings stuck straight out from my back in shock, each wing probably as long as my whole body.

“What the- I’M A GRYPHON!?!”

That was when a certain pair of unicorns teleported into my room. My room was suddenly illuminated by a bright flash as Angela and Liz suddenly appeared on top of my bed, wide grins across their muzzles.

I glanced towards the two of them, “Angela? WHAT DID YOU-“

Ignoring me, Liz and Angela exchanged hoof bumps, “Yes! It worked! First Griffin transformation ever!

I groaned, face palming with a talon, “Angela! Why did you turn me into a gryphon!? And how?! I thought both of you used up your magic power on all of our transformations yesterday!”

“Yesh, no need to squawk, bird beak.” Liz muttered.

Angela merely giggled, “Well, last night at our sleepover, Emily fell asleep early, and Liz wanted to jump right into Witchery. We were bored, so we decided to try Liz’s very first experiment with circle magic.

“We slept until 4:00, the time which I guessed you would be turned back into a human again, and since it’d been a full day since I transformed you, I had enough Pink Soda to change you again!”

Liz added, “The griffin idea was mine.”

Angela nodded, “Yup, but I also added a few modifications of my own too, though they took a tiny bit of magic Liz had regenerated to make it work. Look what time it is.”

I glanced towards my clock, which read… 8:04.

Doing my math, I realized that meant the transformation completed itself in four hours while I was sleeping; three times as quickly as usual!

I gaped at Angela, “I changed three times as fast? Don’t you know how painful it was when I went through a twice as fast transformation yesterday?!”

Angela nodded, “Yup, I did. That’s why I also modified the spell to knock you into a coma until the transformation was finished. That way, you wouldn’t feel any pain!” The way she said it made it sound like she had given me the best cupcake on earth, which didn’t help at all at the moment.

I facepalmed again, “And you did this because you were bored?!”

“No, Silly. We did it for science!”

“But it’s magic.” I countered.

“So? It’s the science of magic!”

I facepalmed for a third time. Why do I even bother asking?

I sighed, “Whatever. But Angela, you can’t go transforming people willy nilly, without their permission!”

Angela just giggled, “Why not?”

I could think of two reasons, “One, isn’t it your mom’s rule to ask permission before you transform somebody? I might as well go tell her right now, since you broke that rule.”

Angela visibly paled, “Please don’t.”

“Oh, I will.” I replied, a slightly smug look on my beak, “And second, if you transform me without checking, then-“

“Lyle? Are you in there with somebody?” The click of my door opening made my blood run cold.

I turned around to see my mom standing in the doorway, who was now gaping at two unicorns and a gryphon in her son’s room.

I sighed, cringing slightly, …then exactly that happens.

I raised a talon in a friendly wave, though my expression showed all of my wariness at my mom’s seeing me, “Heh heh, hi Mom.”

She then proceeded to pass out onto the floor, thankfully landing on soft carpet.

I groaned, making my way over to my unconscious mother, “Guess we have some explaining to do.” I glanced back at Angela and Liz, “Don’t you two go anywhere. This is your fault, so you’re going to help me take her downstairs to the couch, and then explain what’s going on to her.”

Both their shoulders slumped as they whined, “Aw…”

“But Angela was going to show me more applications of witchery today!” Liz protested.

“Tough luck. Now help me with Mom, before my little brother and sister decide to wake up!”