Well we might as well start at the very beginning. It was a time of celebration among the kids at St Junior's Comprehensive School. We were all finally getting out of that dump. It was time for us to move on into the real world, and not have to endure the terrible trauma from those exams ever again... Well, that's what I thought.
I was personally experiencing the joy found from throwing rotten eggs onto the window of the teachers' offices. Yeah, we knew it was cruel, but there are some things in this world that you just can't forgive. So, when we'd fired the last of the eggs, we ran for it and met up in the middle of town.
The middle of town itself was a generally large square. With stone statues placed here and there, a lot of them covered in pigeons and their droppings. Benches were lined up along the pavements and elderly couples sat and fed the birds from them. Traffic raced up and down the long lines of pharmacies and charity shops, and in the middle of this large square, was a large oak tree. It was here that I met up with some friends of mine.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" asked Brett. A rather tough guy with a leather jacket, and I swear that cigarette was only used for show. He says he owns a motorbike, but secretly we don't believe him.
"Not bad. Just egged the teachers' offices" laughed Harry. He's a 7 foot tall jock, with bright sparky ginger hair. We sometimes nickname him 'The BFG' for the hilarious look of anger he gets on his face.
"Haha! Nice!" Andy laughed. Andy's the oldest in our group, he's probably the only one with blonde hair, but he can really rip up a tune on guitar. That's where Layla comes in, she's Andy's girl. Though she can be quite annoying sometimes, she does have a big heart.
"I hope you guys didn't get them mad" Layla said "I got another exam tomorrow. Unlike the rest of you"
"Oh we got them super mad" Harry smiled "Better watch your back Layla, or they'll come to..."
"GETCHA!" Brett screamed. He had this hilarious trick of his, where he'd sneak up behind someone and shout behind their ears, scaring the wind right out of them. He loved to do this best to Layla, as she had a tendency to squeal, and swivel round. Making us all practically die with laughter.
"Screw you Brett!" Layla cried, shoving him. She never really liked swearing, even when frightened half to death.
"Oh come on!" Brett laughed "You must know, by now, that's what I love to do"
"Can't you at least try something new just once?!" Layla shouted
"I could but, how will that be as fun?" Brett said sarcastically, earning another hit from Layla.
"Guys" Andy said, calming everyone down "It's the last day of school. Let's not spend it angry at one another..."
Everyone stared. This wasn't like Andy, to be talking like this.
"... LET'S PARTY!" Andy shouted. That was more like it. His cry ended in multiple cheers and whoops from the rest of us.
"Who's number one!" Andy shouted
"We're number one!" we all cried in unison. We then walked off down the street chanting "We're number one! We're number one! We're number one!"
As we power-walked down the street, towards the club, I suddenly noticed a strange sight on the ground. It was a toy. But not just any toy. It was a toy pony. I didn't have a very positive look on brony's, so I picked it up, held it high in the air by the tail and shouted after the other guys.
"Looks like Brett's left his girlfriend behind!"
"Hey!" Brett said, pulling up his sleeves and clenching his fists.
Laughing at my own joke, I flung the toy out into the road, where a bright white car came and crushed it. But, as I playfully ran from the advancing bag of muscle, I felt a strange feeling run down my spine. Like maybe I shouldn't have done that. Was that toy alive or something? I looked back, and creepily found that the face of the pony toy was facing me, and it's eyes were looking directly at me.
I found it pretty creepy, but shrugged it off as coincidence, before running into the club to join the other guys. There was no way I was going to waste this evening by worrying about a my little pony toy.
I don't remember a whole lot about that night. But whatever happened, I woke up in an alleyway, my shirt torn, holding a bottle of 'Smirnoff' and clutching something. It was the early hours of the morning, so it was still dark. When I looked at what I was holding, I nearly jumped back in fright. It was a 'My little pony' plushie. This was exactly the same as the crushed toy the previous day. With white fur, a blue, green and pink mane, a large unicorn horn and two wings. Having a crushed toy staring at me was a little creepy, but this was just turning into a horror movie.
I got up, brushed myself off and began to walk back for home.
"Help!"
I swivelled round.
"Who's there?"
No reply came. I looked around a fair bit. Nowhere, could I see an intelligent creature that could utter the word...
"Help!"
There it was again. But my eyes struck the point where it had come from. It was coming from... The pony plushie? I picked it up and searched all around it. It was probably just a battery powered sound effect. But no matter how much I looked, I couldn't find anywhere where the noise would've come from.
I looked at this pony's eyes. Was this pony speaking to me? Was it just a side effect from last night? What was going on?
"Uhh" I said, unsure "Hello? P... Pony?"
The plushie's eyes remained dead. I was about to put the toy down, when suddenly, the eyes jerked to the right, so to stare directly at me. I shouted in surprise, and dropped the thing on the ground. What was with this toy? Was it possessed by a demon of some sort? I wasn't someone who would believe in magic or folklore, but this was really starting to creep me out.
"What do you want?!" I shouted at it. Still it remained silent. Then, suddenly...
"Help! ... Sam!"
Okay, now this was getting very uncomfortable. Not only was a toy talking and moving it's eyes, but it also knew my name? What freaky voodoo was going on here?
I ran from the toy, and out onto the early morning streets.
"Okay" I said to myself "That did not happen. That didn't happen. There's no such thing as toys coming to life"
I staggered down the dimly lit streets. Doing my best to get home before sunrise. But wherever I went, whatever corner I took, I couldn't find anywhere recognizable. Was I walking in circles? I stopped for a quick breather, before the paved slabs below me were illuminated by something. I looked up. The light wasn't coming from a lamppost or light... It was coming from the old oak tree in the middle of the town square.
I looked to my left, and then to my right. No one was around.
"This better not be a... Dumb prank guys" I said.
I then noticed something about the light from inside the tree... It was 2D. As in, it looked almost animated. I looked behind me for any projector that was making this, but I found nothing.
I went to climb up the tree, but suddenly, I was gripped by something. It was a purple and pink smoke, that held me tightly in it's grasp. I writhed and wriggled, trying all I could to get out, but it only held me firmer. It was then I heard a voice from the light.
"Sam... Sam... Sam"
Before I knew what it was saying, I shouted in shock as the purple smoke carried me into the light. The light then flickered and disappeared from the street. You'd never have known it had been there in the first place.
Ow! My head was killing me. Maybe it was a hangover, maybe it was the fact that I landed on my head. But whatever it was, it was downright agony. I opened my eyes slightly. My ears rang louder than ever before, but when I finally managed to open my eyes, I found the grass under me wasn't natural looking at all. As a matter of fact, it looked almost animated.
I looked at the back of my hands, and found that I could barely keep my eyes open. Something was going on. Was I dying? I could hardly breathe. It was then that I felt the change.
For a brief second, it was slow. I felt my legs and arms become longer and close together. But it then happened all at once. With an outcry of pain, I felt a muzzle sprout almost instantaneously, along with my ears reappearing at the top of my head rather than each side. Then, a long tail sprouted out from behind me and my hair curved down into a mane. Before I knew what had even happened, everything went completely white, and only the echo of that ear ringing stayed in my head.
When I was finally able to see again, all I saw were bookshelves. Lots and lots of bookshelves. But, like the grass I landed on, these books looked 2D and animated. As if I was a crummy character in a cartoon.
At first, I could only see black and white, but gradually, the colours got more and more rich, and my head finally stopped ringing. I decided I felt better at once and attempted to get up.
"Wait!"
I looked around.
"Hello?" I asked "A... Anyone there?"
"Yes" came the voice again "But shhh. You need to rest. That was quite a nasty fall you took back there"
I lay on the floor, rubbing my head.
"Oohh" I groaned "Wh... Where am I?"
"Welcome to my library" said the voice proudly.
"... Yeah" I said pointing to the books "I figured. But what part of town?"
"Well" said the voice "We're just to the East of Sugarcube corner and about 30 feet north of the town hall"
"Town hall?" I said "We have a town hall?"
"Of course we do silly" laughed the voice "This is Ponyville after all"
I stopped dead.
"... Wh... What was that... Name?... Again?" I asked slowly.
"Ponyville" the voice answered "Well, technically, I found you out of town, quite a relief for you if I do say so myself"
It was then that I first had a look at my arms. Well, you could hardly call them arms. But they were legs, with hooves on the end. I looked behind me and saw my fur and tail. Staggering up, I looked for the nearest mirror. Looking into it, I saw a cream pony with a brown mane and brown eyes looking at me back.
I'm not the kind of guy that gets scared easily. But boy did I scream. I ended up running around the library shouting and screaming.
"This is just a nightmare!" I shouted "This is all just part of the hangover!"
"Good gracious" said the voice. I turned around. Looking at me was a purple pony with a pink stripe running down her mane. I noticed her horn and wings.
I flew over onto my back.
"G... Get away!" I cried "Get away from me"
"Hey, hey" said the pony "Calm down. You're obviously in shock. Just take a rest on that armchair, and tell me more about who you are and where you came from"
I looked at her suspiciously
"W... Why?" I asked
"Well, how else am I supposed to get you home" the pony laughed "I'm Twilight by the way. Twilight sparkle"
"Uhhh, hey there" I said sceptically "I'm... Samuel"
"Just Samuel?"
"No" I said sarcastically "Samuel Sunshine"
"Pleased to meet you Samuel Sunshine!" Twilight beamed.
"Wait... What? No... I didn't actually mean..."
"Now" said Twilight "Where do you come from"
"Uhhh" I said, trying to think of a name "... Dinglesly?"
Twilight looked up suspiciously. I felt a terrible dread come over me.
"Okay then" she said "Let's see"
She pulled out a map of what seemed to be a fantasy land. I couldn't believe it. I was still trying to get over the whole changing into a pony thing, and now I had several puzzles to sort out.
"Why does this always happen after a night at the clubs?" I asked, hiding my face in my hooves.
"A night at the wha?" Came the confused reply.
"Uhh, just don't worry" I said quickly, she returned to the map.
I looked around the room. There had to some way that I could make a quick getaway.
"Uhh" I said "I've uhh, I've gotta go check on something... I won't be long"
Twilight didn't even look up. This was my chance. I darted out the door and ran down a street with my eyes closed. Everywhere I looked, all I could see was technicolor ponies. Pink ponies, red ponies, green and blue ponies. This was turning into a nightmare. Quickly, I raced up to what appeared to be a barn.
Once there, I dived behind a bail of hay.
"Okay, okay. Keep it together man, keep it together" I said, trying to calm down "Let's look at the situation. I find a toy that's possessed, I find a light coming from the oak tree. I get pulled into the light and next thing I know I'm in this world of technicolor ponies... And I'm a pony"
"Good exposition sugarcube" came a voice "But would you mind if I was to get this hay out the way"
I looked behind me and saw an orange pony with a blonde mane and a country hat on. I'm not someone who gets easily attached to girls, but boy am I a sucker for blondes. Without even thinking, I swooshed my new mane, and walked up to her.
"Perhaps you could join me behind here.... Sugarcube" I smirked
"Ugh" She said, before I felt an incredibly strong force against my face, sending me flying out from behind the hay bail and into some trees behind the barn.
"What was that?!" I cried
"Oh nothin'" the pony smirked "Just a lil buckin' is all"
"You did that with your legs?!?" I said, walking up to her again, then another pick-up line crossed my mind "With legs as strong as those, you must be brilliant in the hay bail if you know what I'm saying"
It only took a second before I landed in the trees again.
"Perhaps flirting with a pony isn't the best idea" I decided, before heading back
The orange pony looked at me, as if I was going to continue flirting with her. She got into a position where she could easily make me go flying again if need be.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" I cried, trying to calm her down "Look I'm sorry if flirting's not your thing. I'm just a kinda sucker for blondes"
"Well perhaps ya ought ta think before flirtin' with folk" The orange pony said, before throwing another bail of hay onto another.
"I know. Sorry about that" I said, stroking the back of my neck "I'm Samuel"
She looked at me with the most suspicious look.
"I'm Applejack" She said "Nice to meet ya"
"Yeah" I smiled awkwardly "Nice to meet you too"
"Sure" Applejack said, the suspicion still on her face "Now, if ya don't mind, I have work to do?"
"Oh sure" I said, standing aside.
Applejack walked over and continued stacking hay bails. I thought perhaps she wasn't the right pony to be mucking around with. Suddenly, I heard a familiar shout.
"Samuel! There you are!" It was Twilight coming up the hill.
'Oh here we go' I thought, rolling my eyes.