After Fred's blatantly obvious statement we both sat back, deep in thought. The Internet had everything, well I believed it did. If what happened to us wasn’t on the Internet then it was some random anomaly that had never happened before. I didn't know how far any of this would progress. Hopefully our luck would hold out and it would just be a tattoo we would have to live with for the rest of our lives.

I take a look at mine again. It isn't embarrassing actually, it looks pretty cool, and if I remember correctly Fred has this badass fireball on his thigh so it's not like we couldn't fake it if we were ever asked. I shuddered at the thought that this might lead to something bigger.

I got up to go to the bathroom to relieve myself. I got about 2 steps before I heard Fred's voice. “Hey Shad, when did you get your hair dyed?” I'm puzzled for a moment; dye my hair? What the hell is he talking about? “Fred, I haven't dyed my hair at all. What the hell are you talking about?”

“Just go into the bathroom and look in the mirror if you don't believe me dude.” He looks back at the computer screen then turns quickly around as if he forgot something. “Also, I have NOTHING to do with this whatsoever, I wish I did because it's pretty funny, but I don’t.” Well that's a bit out of character; if this were a prank on me by him he would have taken credit as soon as I noticed. But to outright tell me he didn't do it; that was unlike him.

I turn to face the mirror; my brown hair was very much the same, though I bit longer since I last checked it. Guess I'll have to get a haircut later on today to fix that. I run a hand through my hair one last time just in case I might have missed something. There it was a single gray streak that ran through my hair. My god, what the hell is happening to me?

You know what; I’m going to take the more logical route. I exit the bathroom and walk up right behind my friend. He turns around and looks me dead in the eyes, noticing immediately that the unwanted gray streak is a bit more prominent than usual. “Soooo....” My frown stops him in his tracks.

“Give me one good reason not to make a fist imprint on your face.” I know he thinks it's funny but sometimes things just go too far. I liked my brown hair and it was going to stay that way.

He didn't answer, which puzzled me. He simply reached around his head and pulled a clump of dark red strands of hair from the middle of his dirty blonde head.

The anger drained from me. If he did this then he went through a lot of trouble putting himself through the same 'tortures' as he did me. This was completely off tangent for his personality though; he didn't plan elaborate pranks and jokes on people. They were usually straightforward simple and sometimes entertaining. This couldn't be his doing then.

My rational brain started shutting down at that moment. We were every biologist's dream come true. First random tattoos, 'cutiemarks' Fred had called them, which were irremovable. Then our hair starts changing into bizarre colours that shouldn't even be naturally possible. “I just realized something...”

“What?” Fred asked.

“If this continues like you said it might, there is no fucking way we can ever leave this house, this neighborhood or go anywhere. That's gonna suck.” He shrugged. Apparently he wasn’t getting it. “I don’t think you understand. No friends, no activities, fun stuff. Actually we should be making a trip to the store right now for food, supplies and other items.” I mentally punched myself. That should be the first thing to do. If this happens to be a joke and nothing is permanent, then great! Then we have some extra food and a few good laughs and memories, if not… I shook my head; we’ll get to that when it comes.

“So you’re saying that we go to the store. Right now?” It was a simple question but I heard a hint of sarcasm.

“Well we don’t have to go RIGHT now, but preferably before this gets too far. The last thing I want to do is go out in public looking like some damn cos player.” This received a glare from my friend, but he knew I meant him no insult. “If the changes are happening as slowly as they are now then we have plenty of time before it accelerates to anything TOO bad. So I think we could maybe take another day before panicking. Though I would prefer to do it today.”

He took a moment to ponder my series of statements, even to a point of actually looking like he was in deep thought. After what seemed like a full minute (trust me, that’s an accomplishment for him) He finally gave the answer I knew he would. “No need to freak out now, as you said, we don’t know if this will go farther than it has. If it does and we like grow pony ears or something, THEN you can freak out.” He smiled. “Besides, I still need to get you back for that troll at the door don’t I?” He got up to go God knows where to plan his ‘payback’. I went upstairs to go to sleep again. In all my years of ROTC and lessons with my grandpa, I had never felt so stressful in my life.

Some people get stressed out by the hard times, the increasing burden. I LIKE being in stressful situations, but being thrown into something that could possibly end my current life as I know it and throw me into a whole new perspective? That almost made me wish I had taken up smoking as a way to relieve myself. Almost.

I collapse on my bed and look at my clock again. Wow, 10:00, so much has happened in two and a half hours, it seemed like it had only been maybe an hour or so. Damn why does all this shit happen to me?

I can hear Fred thumping up the bottom of the stairs, probably with some sort of plan to make me ‘rue the day I pranked him’. My head hit the pillow and my mind hit dreamland.

I was reliving a ton of memories that were not mine, yet somehow they were familiar.

Standing over a little foal in some sort of school area. There were 3 others, mean looking bunch that had been making jeers and fun at the poor foal. I had moved over and now stood between the two, ready to defend the little one.

_%_%_

Attending a sort of camp. Standing in line with a bunch of other stallions and mares. A rough tan and yellow unicorn was walking in front of us like some sort of drill sergeant. I stared straight ahead, knowing what would happen should I deviate from my current pose. This was what I had dreamed about in my younger years, and unlike most fillies and colts, I actually meant what I said. I was not going to blow it that day.

_%_%_

Finally, meeting Fireball. She was a good friend. She reminded me of my younger sister, always a good pony to have around when you were down. She had accidentally hit me with her trademark spell, a fireball. I had fallen to ground, thankfully with nothing damaged. My dark coat looked unblemished since you couldn’t see the burn marks against the black. But my mane had some scorch marks and the tips had been burnt off.

She had been the first one at my side, having noticed what had happened. Seeing that I wasn’t in any real danger she smiled at me. “Guess I need to work on my aiming don’t I?” Her ability to see the light in the situation brought a small smile to my mouth despite to pain.

I coughed, trying to make up a witty comeback, even though I knew I had no talent for the matter. She saw that I was unable to form words and put a hoof to my mouth. “No need to try to impress me.” From that moment, she was my best friend. Despite the multiple times I had wanted to strangle her.

Suddenly I was thrust out of the dream and into a black expanse filled with screens. The largest screen was in front of me and had the last image pasted on it, Fireball’s smiling face. I looked down at myself and saw that I was ‘myself’ once more, a human. I looked back at the screen. Oh how she reminded me of Fred. Wait a second…

The image in front of me was suddenly ripped as if by a claw, disintegrating it, but the large screen like surface remained. A picture of the chimera creature from my first dream appeared on the blank surface. A disapproving face adorned its features and it spoke in a dramatic voice, almost a cliché. “So, I see you’ve finally awoken and started to remember things hm? Well then we can get right down to business. Shadow, I have asked you once before, I usually don’t give second chances or even thirds, but you are a special case. Will you join me in my quest for chaos? You will be given power, wealth. Your friends and family would be safe, you will be happy.

As he spoke my body slowly morphed. First my hair grew darker then it grew longer. I sprouted a tail, my legs started to grow fur and ended in hooves, not feet. I felt the anger well up inside me. This Discord was a liar, a cheat, and a burden to all of ponykind. I could feel the changes slowly come to a halt.

I stood there, half pony, half human. Discord grew a bit curious and the screen shrunk and moved closer till he looked about the same size as he did on the show. “Well then?” he asked.

My face hardened with pure hatred. “MY NAME IS SHAD YOU SON OF A BITCH! AND YOU RUINED MY BUCKING LIFE.” My hand balled into a fist and I stared him down. “Go to Tartarus mother bucker” I threw my fist into the screen, shattering it immediately. All around me the screens shattered, one by one. I just stood there for a moment, fist outstretched.

I slowly retracted it, feeling the changes reverse. My hooves turned back into feet, my legs lost their fur feeling, and my tail disappeared. A smirk adorned my face, if that was all he had to throw at me then I'm surprised the ponies didn’t defeat him the first time.

My joy was cut off as a large ornamental mirror popped up in front of me. Discord’s form shimmered into view, giving a victory smirk. “Silly pony, did you really think it would be that easy?” His form shimmered again and the mirror showed a more familiar shape, me. Except that now my hair was grayer with a lighter streak going through it. It was longer, though not as long as a regular girl’s. My eyes had lost their deep blueness, instead being a darker, evil looking red. I stuttered and stared, my mind uncomprehending what was happening. Then I woke up.

I sat up in bed suddenly, panting and sweating. My eyes were wide, searching around the room in fear. Slowly the feeling passed and I looked over at the clock, it was nearly 3:30m I had been asleep for over 4 hours. It felt like had not gotten any sleep at all.

My sudden rise from my uncomfortable position caused me to be racked with a headache at the blood rush from my head. After the pain subsided I tried again and was met with better results. That dream I had. It was so realistic it was frightening. Those memories, as I relived them it was like they were real and not some random thing that my mind concocted up from a TV show. And that chimera thing, Discord I think. He had changed me more. My eyes widened and I pulled some of my hair in front of my face, letting out a startled yelp. It was indeed longer and grayer. I rushed to the bathroom and turned on the light, staring intently into the mirror.

The face that stared back was mine. The hair and the eyes however were alien to me. The hair had lost almost its entire brownish colour and was definitely longer than the army regulation I adhered to in preparation to my enlistment. My vision shifted to my eyes. Those also were foreign to me. I was used to see two blue orbs reflecting my view. Now all I saw was two dark red eyes.

I sat there, breathing in and out heavily. This was real; I was turning into a colourful pony from a little girl’s TV show. I broke contact with the figure in the mirror and composed myself. Running a hand through my hair I reflected over the past few days, trying to get clues on why this was happening. Maybe there were others in the same predicament? Maybe we weren’t alone?

In the scan that followed my brain picked up on words that Discord had said. ‘Hey guess what! Recently today, oh listen you'll love this; I cursed Celestia and Luna! Sent them right on their way, now Equestria is all mine!’ If he had ‘cursed’ others like he had my friend and me, then maybe there was a chance that they would be here as well.

I racked my brain to see if I could remember what the names ‘Celestia’ and ‘Luna’ meant to me. There! A fleeting image passed by my mind’s eye. I reached out mentally and grabbed it, bringing it forth from my memory.

I saw two regal looking ponies, there was a large white one with a blue, pink, and green coloured mane that waved with the invisible wind. The pony that sat beside her was a dark blue with a blue mane that held small stars it seemed. Her mane also waved with invisible wind. Both of their smiles invaded my thoughts and it calmed me to an extent that I had never felt before.

I sighed and released the image. I started to walk downstairs, fearing the outbursts that were soon to come from my friend. Turning the corner I found him on the couch. His eyes faced forward so I couldn’t tell if they were different. But his hair had grown significantly longer and was a light orange with a lighter red streak running through the middle.

The stairs creaked with my weight and he turned to face me. His eyes were now amber coloured and were emotionless. “It’s about time you got up, been waiting for you. As you have probably noticed, while you were asleep our hair has grown significantly longer. Also our eye colour has changed.” He arose. “I guess now would be a good time for you to say ‘I told you so’ right?” He attempted to laugh but the current mood dampened it. He rubbed his hand behind his head. “Now would be a good time to go to the store right?” I simply nodded.

“Now that we know that this is going to proceed further than what we originally thought we might as well be prepared for it.” I walked off; if we were going out we needed hoodies or jackets to cover our obnoxiously coloured hair and some glasses to avoid suspicion.

I returned from the upstairs with a jacket that looked the right size for Fred. I had a blue sweater on and a pair of shades. As I rounded the corner into the kitchen I found him staring intently at my feet. “So it happened to you as well? Well there goes looking normal in public.” I look at him in confusion. He simply points downward at my feet. I lower my head, expecting to be trolled with a ‘Madeya look!’. Instead I was greeted by the odd sight of me standing on the tips of my feet.

A look of confusion spread across my face as I tried to force my feet to the floor. I was met with almost instant success; however, moments later I felt a pain in my heels. I looked back up at Fred who had moved around the counter top to show that he too was standing similarly. “Don’t bother trying to force them down; it just hurts to much to keep them that way. And whatever you do, don’t try to stand on your heels, it hurts like a bitch.” He winced as if recalling a bad memory.

“Fireball you idiot! You didn’t actually try it did you?” He nods and I facepalm. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Well right now you’re talking to me as if I'm a different person.” Huh? What is he talking about?

“What’re you talking about? What did I say Fred?” I was genuinely confused as to his hostility on the matter.

“There! That time you called me by my real name, Fireball. The other time you…” His eyes grew wide and shock registered as recognition of what he just said set in. “I just called myself by a pony name didn’t I?”

“Yup. Does that mean I get to call you by that now?” I mean it as a joke and fully expected him to deny that request feverishly. What I got instead was a bit more surprising. “Sure, I don’t care Shadow.” Now it was my turn to scrunch my face in confusion.

“Dude, you added two extra letters to my name on that one.” He blank stared me. “You said Shad‘ow’ not ‘Shad’.” He shrugged in reply. I was kind of mad that he would shrug off the fact that now our minds were being messed with. “Fireball I know you don’t mind your new pony name and it certainly helps that you’re okay with me saying it. But I'm not okay with you addressing me by MY pony name.”

“Shado… Shad, why not? You’re going to become the pony, and hay, your name is only two letters difference. Why the buck do you care? As you said it is a hellavu lot easier just to say pony terms than to try and fight it.” Wow, I’ve never seen him argue a situation like this before. But then again I am being a bit insensitive here.

“Why yes my dark friend. I am very satisfied that you have accepted your true nature.” His voice got deep like Darth Vader’s. “Welcome to the dark side young pony-human. Together, we shall rule the galaxy! Muahahahahaahah” Not for the last time that day, I made an epic facepalm. I'm sure there will be plenty more. Next Chapter: Nightmares Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 11 Minutes