Robert entered the kitchen before I could even finish. He had his wallet out in front of him and was scrutinizing its contents carefully. He gave a satisfied nod and slipped it back into his pocket before looking up at me.

        “You and Mom are never satisfied with how I fill the dishwasher...” He grumbled.

        “Well that’s because it’s wrong.” I finished washing one of our nicer knives and began drying it with a towel.

        That’s odd, by all accounts I had been getting gradually smaller. I’ve maybe lost an inch or two by now, and yet I’m looking down at Robert’s eyes.

        “Uh... Eric, what are you doing?” Robert looked down and tilted his head. “Look, practice is good and all, but you don’t have hooves yet.”

        “I don’t know what you’re talkin-” I shook my head and looked down. “About...”

        I had been standing on the tips of my toes for some time now, and hadn’t even been aware of it. Simple mistake, anypony could make it. I’ll just lay my feet flat.

        I swung my arms around and Robert had to step out of the trajectory of the knife I had just lost my grip on. I tried to regain my balance but that just pitched me forward, which sent me right into Robert. It's a good thing he caught me and the impact was minimized. Apparently standing with my feet flat would require coordination, a degree of balance that previously would have been necessary to stand as I was now.

        Robert looked down at me, and for the first time since all of this started he looked actually afraid. The time for joking was over I guess. I grimaced and shoved myself out of his arms.

        “I’m okay, everything is fine.” I tried to right my feet again but gave up as soon as I started to lose my balance.

        ‘Damn it.’

        “Eric, can we speak in my room?” Robert mouthed the word now.

        I looked around to see if we were the only ones present, we were. I shrugged, but dutifully followed.

        When we got to his room Robert shut the door behind him. I trotted over to the bed before taking a seat. Robert made way to his computer chair and then spun around to face me.

        “Eric, I’m a little concerned.”

“Oh?” I raised a brow at him. “You are only just now getting there? It’d be nice if we could ever be on the same page. I’m freaked out and you think it’s a joke. I’m okay with it and you start freaking out.” I rolled my eyes. “So what has you worried all of a sudden?”

        Robert’s eyes went wide and he started to lean back, and away from me. “Wait... You’re okay with this?” His voice started to carry, and I glared at him. He lowered his voice to a hiss. “I just got done talking to Josh. He’s convinced he’s some pony named Nightwatch now. He’s convinced you are actually Luna...”

        “So what if I am?” I leaned back to prop myself up against the wall. “I do have her cutiemark, don’t I? Why else would I have it?”

        “Yeah, well. Now Nightwatch has a tail.” Robert rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked at the ground. “She also has horse ears now.”

        “Pony ears.” I corrected. “And what of it? Did you for some reason think I was turning into some kind of humanized Luna?”

        “Why shouldn’t I have thought that? Until your feet started acting up, that is exactly what it looked like...” He looked me dead center in the eye. “You don’t have a problem with the idea of turning into an animal? Because I guarantee you, the world will have a problem with that.”

        I crossed my arms defensively and huffed. “Humans are animals as well.”

        He remained silent after that, and stared at me with disbelief. Finally, when it became evident that I had nothing more to say, he spoke up. “I told my friend Ed, he’s way into the occult.” He pointed at me with his index finger. “We’re going to find a way to fix you.”

        “I don’t want to be fixed...” I pulled away from him, and closer to the wall.

        Robert got out of the chair and pulled himself up onto the bed until we were facing each other. He reached out to hug me, and I didn’t have the heart to stop him.

        “Eric, if this happens... You won’t be able to stay here anymore. There’s no way we can keep a... a pony here.”

        “I wasn’t planning on staying here.” I replied matter of factly. “I was planning on going home and saving Celestia.”

        My exasperated brother released me from his embrace and collapsed on the bed. “Oh god... Eric? How far gone are you?”

        I sniffed and lifted my head with pride. “How far gone am I? You are lucky I respond to that name anymore.”

        “Just... please humor me on this? Please? I don’t want to lose my brother...”

        A surge of warmth radiated from my pendant, and my cutiemark. I found myself nodding before I had even consciously considered it. “...Okay.” I whispered. I could tell from the way Robert’s body went slack as the tension left him that he was relieved. “So what happens now?”

        “Now we go to the beach! If we can’t fix you, I at least want your last human memories to be of somewhere fun!”

        I tilted my head. “But it’s the middle of the night. Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose of going to the beach?”

        “You don’t think it’s worth going to the beach, because it’s nighttime? That doesn’t sound very Lunaish, you know.”

        I laughed at that. “Yeah, I dunno it’s just...” I felt a very strange pang of longing, a kind of homesickness that used to haunt me in the past as a kid, but never like this. “I think the night sky here is just going to make me miss the sky back home even more. If that makes sense...”

        Robert’s smile faltered and I could tell that he was as upset and confused as I was, but he pressed on anyway. “Well, the cool ocean breeze will do us some good. It’s not healthy to be cooped up in this dusty town all the time.”

        “Yeah, I won’t argue with you there!” I smiled and hopped up off of the bed. “So uh... Just let me get changed first, I guess.”

        “Sure thing.” Robert smiled in return and left the room. It seemed to me that he was just happy to get his way in this.

        The door closed with a soft click, and I got off the bed to rummage through my bag of clothes. It was sorta hard to imagine ever not needing them, but when I thought about it, I really wasn’t going to need them much longer. I wasn’t sure if I should feel liberated or horrified about that.

I decided if we were going to the beach I might get a little wet, even at this hour. So I decided on a pair of dark blue cargo shorts that had always been too big for me, but by now were massive. I grabbed a belt to hold them up, and a black t-shirt to complete the outfit.

I stripped down before going to the mirror to inspect myself. It was incredibly awkward to even consider that a thing worth doing, but then again I had spent the entire day wrapped up in either clothes or blankets, or both. I kinda wanted to see if anything important had changed.

        My reflection was pretty... Captivating? Different? I’m not sure how to describe it. Without my clothes on I could easily see how much of me had changed. I didn’t even have a spec of body hair on me, anywhere. This struck me as odd, because I’m pretty sure women have some of that themselves... I shook my head. It seemed logical to assume that the hair could just turn into fur, but apparently it was just easier to shed all of it and grow magical horse fur from scratch.

        My hair had finished up its own changes as well. I now had an abundance of long light blue hair that did a very good job of resembling Luna’s mane in season one. Although it twisted to frame my face in a manner that really should have required a stylist, I could tell it was definitely starting to grow more lengthwise, as opposed to evenly spaced.

        In a general way, I pretty much did look like a humanized Luna. Aside from the chest and uh... Down below, that is. There was a faint glow surrounding my cutiemark that could not have been just from it catching the moonlight from the window, as it was evenly illuminated on both hips. Somehow just staring at it made all of the changes feel connected and according to plan. It felt like a sign that things were going to improve. Like I had labored under some kind of illness that was only just now starting to clear up. Despite my building anxiety over the past few days, staring at this just relaxed me. I could probably stare at those stupid marks literally for hours, but was interrupted by a sharp pain from my rear.

If you’ve ever tried to sit in a chair that didn’t exist, only to slam down onto your tailbone, it was pretty much like that. I fell forward and gripped the dirty brown carpet with trembling hands. There was nothing subtle or quick about this change at all. It felt like segments of something that never existed were snapping back into place.

        ‘I guess I’m getting my tail then...’ I thought with a grimace. Very weird, I would have thought it would be more of a snaking... growing feeling? This was like getting struck by a really thick rubber band over and over again, and each time it hit you it was a little further out than it should have been.

        Finally the sensation stopped, and I collapsed onto the floor completely. I took in a few deep breaths to center myself and lifted myself up as best I could with my legs folded under me and my hands on the ground on either side of them.

        It was hard to say what had been the bigger change, my cutiemark first appearing or the tail that was now curled loosely around my side. I rose to my feet and covered the lower half of my face with a hand. Yup... Definitely humanized Luna at this point.

        I reached out to touch my tail, which is a thought process most people will never get to follow. That was an idea that brought me some amusement, at least. The hair was the same colour as my mane, and roughly the same texture, albeit a bit smoother? The feeling in it was very numb for the time being, and it twitched occasionally. I guess that makes sense, adjusting, adapting, whatever. It was like a limb that had been asleep for as long as I could remember, and was only just starting to stir with renewed blood flow.

        Someone knocked on the door, and this drove me out of my introspective state of mind. I needed to do something about this tail before I could get dressed, but was drawing a blank. I could hear a bit of arguing on the other side of the door, and the doorknob started to turn a bit from weight being applied to it.

        I pulled my shirt on over my head, and could feel my hair tickle my back. It was definitely going to take some time getting used to having long hair now. It was such a weird sensation after a lifetime of cutting it short. I grabbed my shorts and slipped into them. Luckily they were big enough that my tail didn’t get caught on them, but it did trail out of one of the legs. I didn’t have time to fasten the belt before the door opened, so I just stood there with my hands in my pockets, trying to hold my shorts up.

        Robert was in the doorway arguing with John. They stopped talking when the door swung open and just glowered at each other. The scuffle ended when John broke eye contact and looked at me, and I shivered. I knew that look. I’ve given that look before... I think? In another time, another place? It was the look of Cain ready to have a go at Abel.

John stormed off to him room in defeat once more, but I knew things were coming to a head in this household, and that was only going to get worse once my condition became common knowledge. Robert entered and closed the door with a sigh.

        “We’re going to have to do something about him soon, or he’s going to lash out.” I whispered.

        “I know.”

        “No, I mean he is really going to lash out,” I gulped. “Like Nightmare Moon style.”

        Robert snapped and kicked his desk before spinning around. “Then send him to the moon or something, right?” He growled.

        I shook my head, and proceeded to completely miss the point. “First of all, it was Celestia that did that... To me.” I considered for a moment. “Also I am pretty sure that would require the Elements of Harmony, and I don’t have those.”

        My brother just looked at me for awhile and squinted. “I was joking.” He looked me up and down, then fixed his eyes on my pant leg. “I see you got your tail then?”

        He looked much more nervous than before, and I guess I could sympathize. The hair thing had only started an hour or two ago, and now I had grown an entire tail. We didn’t need to voice the mutual understanding. The changes were getting faster.

        “Y-Yeah... I did.” My tail flicked slightly now that my attention was on it, though it was still for the most part restrained by my clothing. It was much less numb than before and somehow this boosted my spirits quite a bit. Part of me just wanted to reach down, pry it free, and hug it close. I’m not ashamed to admit it! The stupid thing was pretty valuable to me!

        ‘I bet I could spend hours just brushing it.’ I thought with glee. ‘It is important to maintain a fine appearance!’

        Well... That lit up my face like a lantern. I folded my hands behind my back, and my tail drooped with shame. I couldn’t keep the corners of my mouth from smiling, though. ‘Ha! My tail is expressing my emotions! That is so...’ I shook my head. ‘Normal? Why does it feel so normal?’

Robert scrunched up his face about as effectively as a human can manage, and went over to his desk. “We should get going now, I guess. Before you’re on all fours or whatever...” He pulled open a drawer and dug around before coming back with a pair of scissors.

I instinctively grabbed my tail with a hand and backed away, at some point it had pulled free of my excessively loose shorts and was swishing about with anxiety.

        “Oh chill out, I’m just making a hole.” He grabbed the waistband of my shorts and yanked me over roughly.

        A few snips and it was done. He let me go and I stepped back and away from him, still balanced on the tips of my toes. The hole he made was small, so it took some effort to fit my tail through, but that was probably for the better in the long run. I picked up my belt and fastened the thick cloth through the two metal rings that acted as a buckle. It was comical how much of it was dangling loosely on the other side. I guess my waist is just a bit thinner now, giant shorts aside.

        “There, now we can go to the stupid beach, and anyone who sees you will probably think you’re just some weird cos-player.” He shook his head. “Not that there will be anyone there but maybe a couple of drunks... It’s Tuesday night. We should be fine as long as we don’t go on the pier.”

        I nodded in agreement, and looked down when a familiar warm feeling started to flood my body. A soft glow could be seen coming from under the legs of my shorts, and Robert seemed to notice as well.

        “Oh christ, what now?!” He grabbed his keys and shoved himself into his jacket with disdain.

        The feeling spread up to my head and I began to feel incredibly dizzy, it focused in on my ears and I felt that annoying familiar twitch. I leaned back against the dresser to steady myself and reached up to see if my ears had changed.

        Nope, typical human ears, false alarm... I guess.

        Didn’t seem like the magic glow from my cutiemark was dying down anytime soon, though.

        “Let’s go...” Robert grumbled darkly, and led me out of the room.

        Somehow I got the distinct impression he was no longer so certain that our ‘Night on the Town’ was a good idea, but once he makes plans it’s pretty much impossible to get him to back off. So out we went.

        The ride to the beach was short and uneventful, even if it was on the other side of the city. The night was better than I thought it would be, that’s for certain. On more than one occasion Robert grabbed my shoulder and yanked my head back through the window. Evidently enjoying the cool night wind in your mane is against the law. He did not take my comment regarding the creation of new laws very seriously.

        We parked in a lot at the base of the winding staircase that went up to the pier. It was dark here, and Robert was convinced no one that really mattered could see me that way. Robert’s car had seen better days, the beat up Honda Civic was road-worthy, but I didn’t envy Robert the money he was using to keep it on life support. I started to wonder how he could afford school, a car, and his wild lifestyle with just a part time job at a call center. He must do a lot of saving during the summer months.

        The beach was so much colder than our little town had been, and I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. Body hair accounts for more warmth than people seem to give it credit for. Or maybe that’s just part of the whole changing thing.

        It didn’t last long though, another surge of warmth from my cutie mark, and suddenly I didn’t feel quite so cold. My ears flicked in confusion and for once had the mobility to follow through. I reached up with a clumsy hand and jumped a bit when they caressed soft fur.

        ‘Jeez, pony ears and a tail, it’s going to be really hard to muster a poker face from now on...’ My ears wilted back to prove my point for me.

        Robert stared at me when it happened, I think it was the first time he had actually seen the transformation in action. He did not seem put at ease by it, instead he folded his arms and leaned against the side of his car. He looked more miserable than I've ever seen.

        I stood balanced on the tips of my bare feet and folded my arms behind my back. It helped with posture. “So what are we doing now?”

        “We’re waiting.” Robert replied curtly.

        My newly equine ears flicked with curiosity and I tilted my head in response. “Waiting for what?”

        “Them,” he responded as an old beat up station wagon pulled into a spot adjacent to us. After the vehicle finished parking and shutting down, two men hopped out and marched on over. They complimented each other, I will admit that much. One was tall and thin, the other was short and rather portly.

The short one had an unkempt collection of brown hair that was probably as close as a human is going to get to having a mane. His face was unshaven, though he lacked any significant beard or cultivated facial hair. He wore a pentacle around his neck and wore a shirt advertising some band that was definitely too edgy for me. I was altogether unimpressed. It was hard for me to respect the kind of man who came to a beach wearing combat boots.

        The tall one had a far more conservative look about him, though his partner was a textbook unwashed male, he was a bit more elegant and clean. He wore a silvery gray shirt and dark gray shorts with a pair of black sandals. Around one wrist was a thick silver bracelet with the different phases of the moon carved into it. It didn’t quite fit his skinny wrist, but I thought it was wonderful all the same.

        Robert approached the short one and essentially tackled him in a hug, which was returned, albeit with less enthusiasm. The tall one seemed incredibly uncomfortable.

        “Edward! I’m so glad to see you! Thanks for coming out man!” My brother spared no time identifying the fat one, and I bristled quietly.

        “What’s the meaning of this? I thought we were supposed to do this later! Something about one last night to relax or whatever?” I glared imperiously from my position on raised toes.

        Edward stalked toward me with a look of naked wonder on his face. A fascination he quickly struggled to disguise as he attempted to make idle conversation. “Wow Robert, you weren’t kidding.”

        Robert awkwardly greeted the tall man before turning to face me and my displeasure. “And uh... Hey Andrew, how are things with Ann?”

        “We broke up.” Andrew replied in a deadpan voice that made Robert wince and immediately switch social targets.

        “Listen... Eric, I’m sorry to spring this on you, but you’ve noticed it as much as I have. The changes are happening more quickly.” He shook his head. “We may not even have another night, but I don’t see why we can’t just hang out. You can answer a few of Edward’s questions and we can walk along the cliffs or whatever!”

        My tail and ears made my unhappiness known with a few sharp flicks. “Fine, I guess I don’t see the harm in that...” The things I do for my family.

        Edward spared no time getting right up in my face. I raised a brow at him as he curiously paced around me, scrutinizing my every feature. Andrew looked almost as embarrassed as I felt. There was a sharp sting from my tail and I cried out before whirling around against the nosy little rat.

        “What do you think you’re doing? That’s enough!”

        Edward stood absolutely still, a light blue strand of hair from my tail still held between his thumb and forefinger. He quietly slid it into the pocket of his jacket and dusted his hands.

        “Sorry about that... Just wanted to see if it was real is all.” He narrowed his eyes at Robert. “Your brother has gone to greater lengths than this to prank me before.”

        My lips tightened into a frown. “I’m sure.”

        “Listen, can we just try to calm things down?” Robert wormed his way between the two of us in an effort to diffuse a territorial dispute. “Let's just start walking, alright?”

        We all followed after Robert, some of us more meekly than others. The pier acted as a sort of divider between the sand of the beach and the rough wave sculpted rock of the cliffs. Even at night you could see the myriad things etched into the stone by bored passersby and love struck couples with a swiss army knife on hoof.

        Or hand, for that matter.

        We finally reached a quiet spot without any illumination and settled down. I sat on the edge of the cliffs with my feet dangling just far enough over the side for the waves to tickle them as they rose up. Andrew was amazingly less shy when he took off his sandals and sat beside me, though it was obvious he was doing his best to not look in my direction. Sometimes he did anyway, and I would catch him blushing.

        I felt odd about that. It wasn’t that I was flattered or offended by it. What was peculiar was my absence of feeling one way or another. There was only a nebulous understanding that we were not even in the same class. We may as well have been different species. I guess pretty soon that would actually be the case, but still.

        Robert and Edward were off discussing things. My ears swiveled to hone in on their conversation, but I found it uninteresting for the most part. Edward wanted to know why they hadn’t taken me to his place instead of going on this insipid adventure first, and Robert wanted to know why Ed was being so insensitive.

        I peered up at the sky. The stars were difficult to see through the marine layer, but the moon was big and bright. It would be full soon, I knew.

        ‘It will be full in 31 hours.’ I mused quietly, and then blinked. Wait... What?

        I leaned onto my back with my arms crossed behind my head and stared up at the moon. Something felt off about it, was it too small? Too distant? Was it just the nature of it in general? I had a sinking feeling that I wouldn’t be altering the course of day and night anytime soon. Maybe having an intimate understanding of its cycle was just the best I could manage? I closed my eyes and felt the gentle pull of its gravity against the water around me. It was a soothing feeling, and I could just imagine reaching out to that force, greeting it warmly like a distant relation, and then gently mani-

        Searing pain unlike anything I had ever felt before raged through my skull and shot through the rest of my body. I screamed very loudly, and in a shrill high voice. I grabbed at the sides of my head as if that would somehow contain things, even as I started kicking and thrashing about. I could feel Andrew’s hands wrap around my wrists before being pinned to the slick rock, then a moment of hesitation as he climbed on top of me to keep me from slipping into the water.

        “Eric!?” Robert’s voiced sounded distant despite its urgency. I heard the sound of heavy footfalls, and felt someone lifting my necklace up over my head before replacing it with something else. My thighs were on fire and the pain in my head was only getting worse. Even so, I managed to open my eyes and look at what was happening.

        Edward was staring at me in wonder, Andrew had been shoved off of me and was on his rear, limbs splayed out to catch himself, and Robert's hands were gripping my shoulders tightly. He was shaking me back and forth and crying.

        “See? I told you we should have just taken her to my place.” Edward grumbled.

        I was starting to fade and lose consciousness, but I wasn’t giving up without a fight.

        “Shut up and help me get him to the car...” Robert grunted and placed his arms around me before trying to stand up.

        Edward reached into his jacket and pulled out a small but thick metal bar, it was painted a dull gray and reflected no moonlight. He raised it into the air and brought it down on the back of Robert’s head.

        That expression would have been funny under less violent circumstances. Robert’s mouth dropped open as though he were trying to exaggerate an ‘O’ sound, and his eyes were wide. He dropped me, my impact with the ground only made me fade faster. He fell to his knees and slowly turned to face Edward. He was confused, and I could tell the blow was almost certainly a knock out.

        Edward reached out with his foot and shoved Robert off the side of the cliff and into the water. “We’ll take mine, thanks.” He placed the bar back into his jacket and turned to Andrew, who honestly looked more startled than Robert had, if that were possible.

        “Come on, help me get her to the car.”

        That’s about when I lost consciousness.

        The sun was too bright, and the ground was too hot to walk on with my bare feet. Why feet and not hooves, I wondered? I danced from foot to foot and raced in the only direction I had time to consider, straight ahead. Time didn’t really make sense, and I was in too much pain to keep track anyway.

        Eventually I did reach a comforting blanket of shadow, and abruptly the sun was gone. In its place was a glorious and peaceful night sky that was littered with diamonds of gentle light, and in the center of it all, a brilliant comforting moon. A real one, not the tiny placeholder I had grown up with.

I trotted forward on my hooves and looked around. I felt at peace. This was a sanctuary for me, and I could spend hours exploring every inch and never be less enchanted by it.

I came to a massive rock wall, and in the side was a fissure large enough to form a narrow canyon. I had to wriggle through at first before the area really opened up, but when it did I had to take a breath to steady myself. The moon was hovering overhead, and was so large the opening in the rock above me could not fit its entirety. The light from above reflected off the walls and gave everything a faint silvery glow. It reminded me vaguely of a memory in some other place. A place where I stood on two legs and my cutie mark had only just appeared, glowing with that same light. I shook my head to clear it of such outlandish thoughts and proceeded deeper.

        The air here was thin and damp, and reminded me of altitudes one might reach while napping on a cloud. The wind sang through the chambers and carved the layers of rock into a monochromatic rainbow while also tugging at my mane and tail. My wings I kept firmly tucked into my sides to avoid unnecessary discomfort. In certain areas I could see drawings, little cave paintings of a time when the sun and the moon had been friends.

        It seemed over time, such had stopped being the case.

        The narrow passageway curved outwards rather abruptly and formed a large chamber, and upon entering it the crack behind me slammed together like some great burden had been lifted off of it. I jumped away from it, flapping my wings restlessly and alighting on the ground with the soft patter of gilded hooves. I turned away from the wall, content that my safety was no longer in jeopardy.

        The moon could be seen, clear and completely, from the much wider opening. It radiated magic down to the ground I walked until it was like a wellspring of moonlight. In the center of the chamber was a massive dial. Many circles trailed the circumference of the dial, and in each sat a reflection of myself. At the start was a human man I could only barely associate with, in each circle it became increasingly me, increasingly a pony, but even when it was completely a pony it was not completely myself. Its mane was the soft light blue of my youth, and it did not drift in the air on winds that did not exist. The circles winded back around until the pony was a human once more. The focus of the moonlight danced around and centered on each it its own time, and I could sense that the dial itself was a source of great confusion. Though I knew not to what.

        I circled the dial cautiously, doing my best to sate my curiosity from a safe distance. Aside from the obvious there was nothing truly remarkable about it. There were no more clues as to its nature, but I could not help but feel attracted to it. It had a certain gravity all its own that made me want to come closer, and closer...

        I shook my head to clear it of the strange effect. Something was happening in the sky above, and it demanded my immediate attention. The sun had finally caught up to me, it looked like. Every inch that its light claimed in my sanctuary felt invasive, and I scooted back in fear until my rear was pressed up against the cold stone wall on the opposite side.

        The sun pushed the moon out of the sky, and the ground shook with the occasional shard that crashed down from the impact. Springs of moonlight bubbled up from the ground where they landed, only to be dried up by the light of the sun, which slowly crept toward me and was now beginning to land on the dial.

        The construct shifted and screeched under the oppressive gleam, and a single solitary shadow landed on a phase in between pony and human, an occurrence that to me appeared quite auspicious. I didn’t have too much time to dwell on this, because the entire thing, reflections and all, collapsed into a twitching pool of liquid darkness. It oozed over and away from the sunlight. Which of course meant it was heading in my direction.

        I could not stop myself. I screamed, begged, and pleaded for the sun to halt its jealous advance. I tried to tell it what it was doing from my pathetic place down on the ground, but it either did not hear me or did not care. The caustic liquid was almost upon me, and I took wing in earnest. It didn’t do me much good.

        Tendrils lashed out like a frightened child or animal, and wrapped themselves around me in an embrace that choked the air out of me and pulled me down. I felt cold all over, but at least I was safe from the sunlight. As long as I was surrounded by that eternal night it would be safe, and so would I. Even if I was human, and I noted with some dismay that I was. I was even male to add insult to injury, though my abdomen ached and burned with a persistence that was really starting to get to me. That, coupled with a burning from my thighs, dragged me from that pitch black pool and into the searing light of day. I opened my eyes and screamed.

        The sun was in my eyes when I woke up, and it was blinding. That didn’t do a lot to distract me from the unbearable agony I was feeling just south of my waistband, though. My cutiemark was burning with enough energy to make my legs twitch and my toes curl in like some cruel mockery of hooves. It was a safe bet that I was changing again, and given where those changes were centered I was convinced I didn’t want to watch.

        I groaned and thrashed about while tears slowly trickled down my face. I didn’t sob, but there were times when I certainly wanted to. It had probably only been a few minutes, but it felt like hours before the pain finally receded. I stole a glance down the front of my shorts just to check on things and sighed. Yup, I was definitely a she now. Time to make a full scale assault on the birth certificate, we can get that pesky name out of the way while we’re at it. Eric is a terrible name for a girl. Luna would be far more appropriate.

        This definitely was not the cliffs where I had passed out, either. I was having difficulty remembering what had happened there just in general. Whatever happened it couldn’t have ended well, because I was in some tiny room with a bowl of water and a bowl of cheap store bought salad. Around my neck was a thick but relatively pliant leather cuff that was attached to a really thick and durable looking chain. The chain itself was wrapped around a support beam for the ceiling. If I had to guess I’d say I was in some kind of cabin. The room was clear of items, aside from the kind of cheap bed comforter you might find in a Walmart, and a large pot nearby. There wasn’t even a clock for me to keep track of the time.

        ‘Pretty sure it’s 4:32 in the afternoon, anyway...’ I thought bitterly. Evidently my knowledge of the moon extended to what time of day it was.

        Sparing a final scrutinizing look around the room, I decided that random knack would actually prove useful. It didn’t look like I was going anywhere anytime soon at least.

        The room was painted with occult symbols of all sorts, and apparently some of them were still drying. So my makeshift cell was a recent development. Around each of my wrists was a small metal cuff of some rough metal, and both were held shut with simple Masterlocks. They weren’t attached to anything though, which had me vaguely confused.

        This was all very weird, and somehow painfully familiar. The events from the night before started to trickle back to me in reverse, and I felt nothing but outrage. I tugged at the chain around my neck half-heartedly. I already knew I wouldn’t be breaking it, not like this. Maybe when things finish up I can buck the support beam, or rip the chain apart with magic, or something.

        Speaking of magic, what the hell had happened to my head last night? It felt like someone stabbed me with a red hot poker. Not that I’ve ever actually felt that, but I feel comfortable with my comparison. I reached up tentatively and poked around, and yelped when my hand brushed up against a narrow protrusion coming out of my skull.

        It wasn’t as long as in the show yet, but it was pretty close in size to an average unicorn horn. A thought occurred to me: ‘I wonder if I can do magic?’

        I licked my lips with anticipation, and well, also because they felt pretty dry. What was I going to try first? I turned about in my cell with my tail swishing erratically, and searched for something worthwhile.

        ‘Right! The chain! It couldn’t hurt to start there!’ 

        I stared at the length of metal links until my eyes started to go cross, and thumped my foot against the hardwood floor in irritation when things didn’t seem to take.

        ‘I don’t even know what I am doing...’

        I grit my teeth and growled before releasing my frustration with a high pitched yell. “Stupid chain! Break!”

        A crackling feeling filled my mind and faint midnight blue sparks flared from the tip of my horn. The chain was abruptly seized in an aura of the same colour.

        “Wha-”

        I didn’t have time to vocalize my confusion, the aura gave a sharp yank on the chain. I yelped and reached up for the collar around my neck just as I was pulled with the chain and slammed into the support beam. My vision filled with stars and I started choking for air.

        The door to my room slammed open and in its place stood a very irritated looking Edward. “What the hell is going on here!?” He stomped over to where I was curled up, but took a step back when a few errant sparks flew from my horn.

        “Oh you know, just trying to break free of this chain. The usual thing someone does when you KIDNAP THEM.” My voice elevated in volume towards the end, and he blinked like this was the first time he’d heard my voice.

        Edward grumbled to himself and started pacing around the room. I glared at him from my spot on the floor, but didn’t get up.

        “Of course I kidnapped you! Whatever is happening to you, whatever the hell you are, it’s magic! Do you know how fucking long I’ve been trying to get that right?” He took a step toward me. “How long we have been trying to get that right?” He shook his head. “The hell does it matter to you if we collect a few strands of hair or take some blood samples? You’re lucky I don’t take a hacksaw to that horn and try it for a wand.”

        “Are you absolutely serious? That is disgusting!” I finally rose to my feet, and he crept back a bit in surprise. “You’re a disgusting individual! When I get out of this I swear I’m going t—”

        I’m really running out of creative ways to describe how much something hurts, suffice it to say my threat was cut off when the bones in my feet started to crunch together, and left me with an ultimately more equine alternative to human feet. I wailed out and collapsed onto my rear, then I wailed out again because I landed on my tail. I looked down and noticed that my new feet—Horses still have those, I reminded myself, only the hard bit is called a hoof—didn’t even have any fur covering them. The hoof itself was a light shade of blue, so it would blend in with the fur when it did start growing in. But at the moment it was kind of disgusting. I did my best to focus my attention on Edward instead.

        “I don’t really think I have much to worry about. Every time you get uppity, some new change seems to incapacitate your ass.” Edward replied smugly. “I don’t have time for you right now, Andrew will be by in a bit to check your food and water.”

        All I could do for now was glare at him as he slammed the door behind him. I can’t imagine myself ever wishing that I could just hurry up and be a pony more than that moment. I turned to reach out for the comforter to huddle against, or at least to cover my hooves with it. A snap sounded from my horn that startled me, and I realized that I had forgotten to reach out for it with my hands, a soft blue aura was holding it in the air before me, and as soon as I realized what was happening it fluttered to the ground softly.

        I stared at it for a few moments before reaching out and pulling it over me.

        It turns out that Andrew coming by soon actually meant Andrew would be coming by three hours later. Also, I found out what the large pot was for. You think you can cope with these sorts of things, you think you’ve had plenty of dreams where you walked on hooves and everything worked out just fine. The reality was quite a bit different, and the second I put weight on my feet so as to stand, a wave of vertigo overtook me.

        I am not ashamed to say I threw up. I actually take pride in the truth that I had the presence of mind to aim for the pot.

        Things got better quickly. I adapted, and it wasn’t as though it was unfamiliar to me. Like every other change there was a faint euphoria, a sensation that this was right and somehow true. I wasn’t sure if that was positive reinforcement from my body to help me cope, or if it was just memories welling up from inside of me.

        The water bowl was emptied by me using the liquid to clean my mouth. I drank whatever was leftover, and ate the salad to replace what I had lost. By the time Andrew came in he actually had work to do.

        The youth was dressed all in black now, but not in some goth style. He wore slacks and a collared shirt, for example. Though he did seem altogether miserable, which I suppose is a fairly goth thing to be. It was hard to not feel sorry for him, even considering my own predicament.

        “Andrew, was it?” I inquired politely. “Would it be alright if I asked you a question?”

        “Uhm...” He started stacking the bowls gently. “Yes?”

        “Why is it in every hostage situation where there are partners, one of them is a ruthless asshole, and the other one is an actual human being?” I smiled at him mischievously. “Am I supposed to show you the magic of friendship and redeem you or something? Because I can totally do that you know, pony and stuff.”

        He stopped what he was doing and just stared at me. There wasn’t a flicker of mirth or agitation. If anything he seemed a little confused. “Not yet,” he replied softly.

        He looked down at his watch to check the time, and I decided to take this opportunity and build a foundation for myself as spooky and wise.

        “It’s 7:48.”

        He stared at his watch and then looked back up at me. “How did you know that?” Again, no emotion, just confusion.

        “I’m turning into a pony princess that is partially responsible for controlling day and night, and you’re surprised that I can tell what time it is?”

Andrew nodded as if that explained everything, which I suppose technically it had. He moved over to the large bowl and then looked back up at me.

“Are you sick?”

A hint of concern? I’ll bite. “Not anymore,” I replied.

        “Okay.” He placed the stacked bowls into the large pot. Then stood up and made way for the door. He hesitated there, though. “Is it true? Do you have that mark, I mean?” He looked at the floor like he was breaking some kind of rule. “Edward looked you over when he brought you here, but I didn’t think it was very polite to do the same... Guess it seemed unnecessary.”

        “What, you mean my cutiemark?”

        He nodded slowly. “If that’s what you call it, I guess.”

        I pulled at the waistband of my shorts and lowered them just enough for him to see the crescent moon and night sky on my thigh. He blinked in amazement.

        “You are touched by the goddess...” He made some kind of gesture and bowed his head according to some practice I didn’t recognize.

        “Psh... Implying I’m not the moon goddess.” I replied. “Or at least as close as this place is going to get.” I lifted my wrists up and emphasized the makeshift manacles. “I showed you my little coming of age mark, what are these for?”

        “They’re iron, Edward thinks they’ll dampen your magic and keep him safe.”

        “And what do you think? Am I some mean Fairy that is going to carry you away from your family?”

        He shook his head, once again emotionless. “I think they’re not cold-iron, so it wouldn’t matter if you were.”

        He turned, opened the door, and left. About thirty minutes later he came back in with fresh supplies. The water was a bit cleaner and cold instead of room temperature, and the salad had dressing on it and a plastic fork to go with it. He placed all of these down on the floor just out of reach, and stopped.

        “Edward says you can move things with your horn now. He told me to make you use your magic.” He turned back to the doorway to see if anyone was watching. Then he scooted the salad and water a bit closer with his foot.

        He left the room in silence and closed the door behind him. I shook my head and spoke to the room, or myself.

        “Why is there one in every story?”

        They didn’t come at night, and I was curious why that was. Surely Andrew had to be one who would celebrate the night, and Edward seemed far too driven for sleep. I wondered if he was making any progress with his little experiments.

        My primary concern was cabin fever. I tried to get some sleep to escape the worst of it, but as soon as that sun went down sleep was just impossible. I was far from unengaged, though. I could feel the moon move through the sky all on its own. It was like watching your kid learn to ride a bicycle, and made me feel strangely homesick.

        I was curled up on my side to accommodate my increasingly pony body, though at the moment my new hooves were still the only change. At around midnight wisps of light fur began streaking there way up from my hooves. An hour later it was hard to tell where the hard nail of my hoof ended and the fur began. It was starting to look a bit less unnatural, and I was honestly a bit relieved. I was worried I would look weird and I don’t know... A bit more realistic than what is depicted in the show? That did not seem to be the case. Heck, even the colour had an usual cast to it. The colour just didn’t feel like it belonged here with everything else.

        As I mentioned, I wasn’t bored. I was quite content to lay there tuned into the moon like some kind of mystery transmission. My horn was growing along with the fur, I could tell. If I concentrated enough I could almost feel it winding its way out like a corkscrew through my skull. It was developing a pretty nasty point, too. That would be a pretty handy weapon if Edward couldn’t find a way to deal with it first.

        By the time dawn began its approach, my legs were almost completely covered in fur. The growth was strangely comforting and reminded me of how ticklish I was. I laughed more than a few times, and when it reached the point where it started to overlap with my cutie mark, I took a look at it. It was perfect, I don’t really know how else to put it. It was like my cutie mark had sat in the center of a blank canvas, and now the rest of that was being filled in. They fit together perfectly. My legs bent to take on a much more appropriate shape around the same time, and I stopped bothering with the whole walk like a human thing. It’s a good thing I wasn’t able to escape, because well... I wouldn’t have been able to escape anyway.

        The sun was officially up when I felt a sharp stab in my back. I did my best to take off my shirt and take a look. because of the chain around my neck, my shirt was now abandoned and sent down the length of the chain until it was against the support beam.

A pair of tiny wings were growing from my back, which definitely explained the pain. They weren’t growing out from the top, you know, like a pair of angel wings or whatever? These were almost actually coming from my sides, in the middle. I was pretty sure that once they were finished growing their proper home would be tucked in along my sides, not along my back.

        ‘Wings! I can’t believe I’m going to have wings again!’

        ‘I mean... I can’t believe I’m going to have wings for the first time ever.’

        When Andrew came in at around 10:16, he found me curled up on top of the comforter as if I were a pony already. The lower half of my body was totally equine, and my tail flicked about like a slow metronome. His eyes widened when he saw my wings, the same way they had widened when he saw my cutiemark. I didn’t blame him. They were starting to get pretty big, I could even move them a little bit, and I stretched them out a bit just to display them with pride.

        The sun was streaming in through a skylight, and was already starting to put me to sleep. So I wasn’t much for conversation. He replaced the food and water in my bowls and made to leave.

        “Thank you.” I whispered politely.

        He just nodded in an embarrassed and awkward fashion, then left.

        It was getting really hard to use my hands. I couldn’t manipulate the provided fork with them, and I was really glad to have my horn already, because I just didn’t have the face structure to be eating directly from the bowl. I couldn’t do much yet, but I could move things around. All it took was a little imagination on my part. That mysterious transmission was a good teacher, and I snatched up the fork in a gravity all my own. The salad may have been cheap, but it was tasting better increasingly, and I noticed more good stuff was finding its way in. This time there were even cucumbers.

        I shuddered, picked those out, and hid them. I couldn’t really put my hoof on it, but I just didn’t want to eat them. I also didn’t want Andrew to know I hated his little offering. The rest of the salad was delicious, and grinding it down between my teeth was taking less and less effort. Those must have changed too. I was going to need to brush them soon, I wondered if I could get Andrew to smuggle me in a toothbrush.

        I finished my dinner and smiled before curling up around my comforter. I knew I should probably be a little more pissed off, a little more afraid, but it was getting really hard. Everything felt perfect, everything was just... eventual. I didn’t need to worry about my human life anymore, I was a captive, for the time being I reminded myself. My mother’s deep seated childhood issues weren’t my problem anymore. John wasn’t my problem anymore. Robert was...

        I started to cry, gentle tears streamed down my face and I pulled the blanket a little tighter between my curled hands. How could I let myself be calm like this? My brother was probably dead because of me. I was a terrible sister, and I deserved to be locked away like this.

        I dwelled on those thoughts and slowly fell into sleep. That cold feeling from before was more intense than ever, and even the warmth of my cutiemark seemed faint in comparison.

        That crater again, my sanctuary. The moon wasn’t in the sky though, it was at my feet. I lifted a forehoof and inspected it curiously. It was difficult to imagine, but hadn’t that been something else recently?

        Ah, a dream then.

        I cantered around the little cell and felt that it was altogether familiar. I rested on my haunches and considered. I did not think I would be able to fly up and out, that did not seem possible to me in the context of the dream.

        The dial was as recondite as ever, the shadow that it cast was now much closer to the circle that was purely a pony. I must have struggled with it for hours, but I could neither change it, nor discern its purpose.

        Then the sun began to rise, and its light poured into my cell. So not a dream then, a nightmare. I did my best to puzzle out an escape, but there was none. I had no friends here, no family with dreams I could escape to.

        The dial twisted and melted into liquid night again, and just like before it swept toward me like a tide. I didn’t even bother resisting this time. When it reached me I was curled up in a ball, and I stayed that way when it dragged me under.

        It was cold, very cold, but once again that wasn’t such a bad thing after the heat of the sun. I drifted in that place for longer than I could count. Sometimes it felt like I had to take a breath, so I did, and I breathed it in.

        It hurt at first, it felt a bit like I was choking. I am reminded of the first time I tried Greek yogurt, and how difficult it was to swallow. The suffocating feeling was something I could press on through, but not the series of sharp pains in my side and belly. My eye twitched and I felt at once enraged and terrified.

        The darkness melted away, but I still had more than a bit of it with me, and with determination born of anger, I rose to meet the sun.

        “Wake up you stupid horse!” That was what I had the good fortune to wake up to. That and Edward’s boot against my side. It hurt, but not a lot. Either I was made of stronger stuff now, or he just wasn’t very strong. It could be a little bit of both, I snorted.

        “Hey! Watch her wing!” Andrew called out with concern. Guess he does have a will of his own. So he wasn’t being mind controlled then, good for him.

        “Like I give a fuck about her wing! We need to figure out how to get this stuff to work! She can use magic and we can’t! I’ve seriously tried everything, I even went full on Harry Potter and used her tail hair for a wand core!”

        It was nighttime now, the moon was already in the sky, and shining directly down through the skylight to greet me. It was full. I was full too, I noted. My hands were gone, my face was utterly alien, and I was covered with fur all over. I rose to my hooves and battled with another bout of vertigo. It wouldn’t be dignified to lose my lunch right here in front of this villain. I stretched my wings and yawned.

        “What the hell do you want, Ed?” I ran a hoof through the fur along my side to clean it of some dirt that had come loose from his boot. “We are trying to get our beauty sleep.”

        “Don’t get all royal we on me! I want answers.” He grabbed a chair that was new to the room and moved to sit down. I turned my head and inspected a hoof demurely, my horn lit up and the chair scooted an inch or two behind him. He crashed onto the ground with a yelp.

        “I don’t have any answers, at least not the ones you’re looking for.” I turned back to face him. “You’re just human, as far as I know. It sure does suck to be you.” I looked around the room and took a few paces forward. My shorts must have come loose during the transformation, because they collapsed into a pile behind me. “Look at all of this wasted effort...” He looked up at me from the floor, his face was incredibly red at this point. “It’s all bullshit, you know? There’s no magic in any of this. You wouldn’t know a friend if it bit you on the ass.”

        He jumped to his feet and pulled out that metal bar from before, the one he had used on my brother. I was faintly aware that Andrew was saying something, but I couldn’t hear it over Edward’s red rage of terrible revenge.

        “I am not in the mood for your arrogant princess bullshit! I’ll get the information I need if I have to cripple you for it!”

        I didn’t even have time to think. I flapped my wings once out of fear and took a step back, but he tackled me to the ground and started hitting me in the head over and over again with the bar. He didn’t seem to know where to aim the blow, but quantity was starting to make up for quality of hits. I was getting dizzy real fast, and cold all over. I reached up with a hoof to feel for the necklace Robert had given me, but it was gone. I dimly recalled losing it at the cliffs.

        Edward finally got off of me and dropped the bar onto the ground, there were a few traces of blood on it from where he’d managed to break the skin on my head. He was hyperventilating and looked like he was about to pass out.

        “Andrew, go get me the hacksaw...” He weezed out.

        But nothing happened.

        “Andrew, go get me the hacksaw, now.”

        He turned to focus his attention on his accomplice, but as it turned out, Andrew was nowhere to be seen.

        “Oh you son of a bitch!” Edward was back on his feet again and going full throttle. He stopped in the doorway and sneered at me. “Don’t you go anywhere Princess! I’ll be right back!”

        I didn’t go anywhere, and he was back a few minutes later while I was still struggling to clear my head. I saw the glint of metal, it was a blinding light, just like the sun. He was taunting me again, but I couldn’t quite make it out. Everything was so cold, I was sinking into a pool of ice water, and when the sharp edge of metal was placed against the base of my horn, it exploded.

        This was not a dream, I was sinking in that pool of liquid darkness for real this time. The harsh presence of metal didn’t exist. I heard a clattering sound. My cuffs and the chain around my neck clattered to the ground uselessly. They had nothing to hold onto anymore, I was insubstantial, just a cloud of dark night air.

        Just a nightmare.