A Change of Pace
"Dana!"
Sighing, I turn away from my math book and face my youngest sister. "Yes Lisa?"
She grins and holds up two barbie dolls and i internally groan. I had forgotten about my promise.
"Lisa, I'm trying to study-" She frowns and turns around. "Mom! Dana isn't gonna play with me!" I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose.
A ten year old should be a bit more mature, but not Ali. I begrudgingly close my book and stand. She grins.
"Never mind mom!" With that said, she grabs my hand and leads me to the dismal corner of our room where she set up her doll house. I nearly trip and break my neck over the mess she made, but eventually get to the designated spot. Taking a seat beside her, I grab the Gabriela doll that I still had from when I was ten, and listen to what the game for today is.
"Ok, so your girl is gonna be my girl's best friend and next door neighbor, but we're both spies, and we're married and have kids and our kids are best friends, and.." She rambled on, but I had long since tuned out. I should be studying, but with her around it seems like that isn't going to happen.
"And then we live happily ever after!" she finished. It seems I tuned in at the right time, and I nod. She points to where I should set up my house and I build a house as simply as I'll get away with. A bed, a chair, an end table and a television. She inspects it and adds a small rug before returning to her house.
"Ok, you can go now, I wanna play alone." I sit up quickly and hurry to the table. I still had ten minutes before I had to go to bed, which may be enough time to cram for math. But once I make it to the kitchen, I'm intercepted by my older brother James, who's taken over the kitchen table with his twin Joseph and their array of laptops. Sighing, I grab my math book and start looking for a place to study. Lisa and I's room was out of the question, and the living room was already in use by my little brother Drew and baby sister Penny, blocks scattered everywhere. The only other places were my sister Natalie's room and the bathroom. Mulling over my choices, I head to the bathroom, only to have one of my other brothers walk in before me. Before I could decide if asking Natalie was worth it, I heard my mom call from the living room.
"Lights out girls!" I sigh. Thank God tomorrow was a late start, maybe I could study before school with Petra. But once I thought this I realized that no matter what, I'd end up wasting the morning discussing the upcoming DnD campaign. Defeated, I go to bed and fall asleep within minutes.
I awoke the next morning to bright light and birds singing. I yawned, confused as to why there were birds here in the dead of winter. I open my eyes and find myself to be outside. I shot up and looked around. I was in some sort of meadow. I started to panic, why wasn't I in bed? Or at the very least my house? I rubbed my eyes but my hands felt different. I look at them to see.. hooves? After a quick inspection of my body, I realized I was a Pegasus. I then laughed.
"Oh God I'm an idiot, I'm dreaming!" I said out loud, laughing at my foolishness. I get up and flap my wings and hover slightly before crashing into the ground.
"Ow.." I whimpered, and shook out one of my hind legs.
My eyes widened. If this were a dream, I shouldn't feel pain. Was I really a pony? I bit my lower foreleg hard and winced in pain. I was, and I was probably in Equestria. I rolled my eyes. Of course with my luck, I was a Pegasus. I was afraid of heights for God's sake, why couldn't I be a unicorn or even an earth pony? I stand up fully and try seeing above the tall grass with little luck. But off in the distance, I see a shadow of something, hopefully a building. I gasped with sudden realization. Crap, finals! I was going to miss them! I sat on my haunches and buried my face into my hands- er, hooves. This would take some getting used to. With nothing else to do, I start walking towards the maybe-building.
Forty-Seven Minutes Later
I kept walking, counting the minutes as best as I could to help distract myself from my current shift in reality. It's been nearly an hour, and I had no clue where I was.
"Dammit!" i yelled, upset that I was missing finals and hopelessly lost. I began muttering obscenities and cursing the universe when I walked into a wall. Grimacing, I rubbed my nuzzle and looked at the building. I seemed to be standing before a house of some kind. It was fairly ramshackle, and looked abandoned. With no other current plan or anywhere to go, I stood before the door and groaned.
"Stupid hooves.." I muttered as I inspected the door knob. I tried grabbing it and somehow I turned the knob. Not questioning the logic behind this, I stepped inside. Contrary to the outside, the inside was nice. There was a small sofa, a table, and two other doors. Off to the left hand side was a small kitchen, with a cup of tea on the table. Seeing one of the doors ajar, I peeked in and saw a small bathroom. I heard a door open nearby and my eyes widened.
The kettle.
How could I be so stupid? I told myself not to panic, that I could explain myself. 'You see, I was just brought to this reality by forces unknown to me and I thought your house was abandoned!' Yeah, I'm sure that would go over well.
"What the hell are you doin' here?"
Slowly I turned around and braced myself. Standing before me was a pony with a light purple coat that was almost white, and a dark brown mane and tail, both cropped short. Their cutie mark was a tool box and their eyes were a pale blue. After a moment I realize I haven't spoken.
"O-oh, I'm sorry, I didn't, I thought-" They cut me off, and in that moment I realized that they were a mare. "It was the outside, right? I've been telling Ghost that we need to fix up the house, but we're both too busy with our work." She chuckled
"Scrappy, is that you?" Around the corner, a dark purple thestral mare with a red mane and tail appeared. Her eyes were a dark grey color, and her cutie mark is a notepad. At the sound of her voice, the mare apparently named Scrappy grinned and turned around. "Oh, hey Ghost! I was just showing our.. guest, out." Ghost cocked her head. "We have a guest?" Ghost took a tentative step forward, and Scrappy stepped aside to let her through. I held my ground as the purple mare stepped before me.
"I'm Ghost Writer, but my friends call me Ghost. That's Scrap Metal, who are you?" I opened my mouth to answer, but I realized my name was too human. I took a quick glance at my flank and finally noticed my cutie mark. It was a plus sign, minus sign, division sign and multiplication sign forming a crude 'x' shape. Seriously? Math is my special talent? Not letting it deter me, I gave them a smile.
"I'm.. Dividend. Equal Dividend, but you can call me Divvy." Ghost thought this over before nodding. "It's nice to meet you, Divvy. Would you like something to eat or drink? We don't get many guests out here." I nodded and Scrappy went to the kitchen, preparing another two cups of tea. Ghost sat on the couch, smiling. "You can sit down, tea will be done soon."
Nodding, I sat down on the chair beside the couch and looked around the room. Aside from the couch and chair, there was a coffee table, a floor lamp and a large bookshelves. A lot of the books were just parchment bound together by ribbon and makeshift covers of wood. Ghost noticed me staring at the bookshelf and smiled warmly. "A lot of the books I wrote, these are the manuscripts. Not many have been published though."
"Yeah, I feel ya. Writing can be tough work with little payout." I chuckled, recalling my unfinished book. I didn't have much time to work on it anyways, though. My thoughts are interrupted by Scrappy's return, thanking her and taking one of the teacups on the coffee table. I still wasn't sure how hooves worked, but I'd save that mystery for a later time. For now, I elected to listen to the two mares before me talk. Scrappy seemed to be outgoing compared to the calm and collected Ghost, but Ghost was clearly leading the conversation. Awhile later, Ghost looks at me.
"Would you like to stay here for a night or two, until you get your bearings?" She smiles politely, and Scrappy looks as shocked as I must look, looking at Ghost incredulously. Ghost gives Scrap Metal a reassuring smile.
"Just a few nights, honey." Scrappy relented, chuckling and nuzzling Ghost while I politely glanced away. Ghost clears her throat after a minute and I realize I had yet to answer.
"Oh, y-yeah! That sounds nice, thank you so much," I stutter out, smiling gratefully. "That would be great." Ghost nods, getting up and leading me to a cozy looking room. She leaves and I climb onto the bed, exhausted. Getting home would definitely be a lot of trouble.