“FUCK THIS FUCKING PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!”

Eeyup. Tara was getting pretty close to Hulk mode right now. Not that I could blame her, mind you. This had been… what? Her sixth attempt at this event now? Just another Saturday night at our household, really. A few classic episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, some gaming, and pizza. Always a great combination. Even if those last two stars in the World Tour mode of Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed were proving pretty elusive for us.

“C’mon, Tara. You didn’t do that badly. Third place is the best you’ve done so far.”

“Not good enough. I have to place first, remember? And I can’t get anywhere near there. Ugh, I swear the fucking computer cheats like hell with those weapons on S Class.”

“Well, it’s called Expert Class for a reason. Just keep at it, and you’ll do it eventually. And if you don’t- Tails plus Console Mod equals better chance…”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to rely on that too much. Guess you’re right though- I just need to keep at it. I made it this far, so there’s no way I’m giving up now.”

As persistent as ever. That was just one good reason why I loved her so much. Despite being a little rowdy and foul-mouthed, she always gave everything her 100%. Plus, she really cared for the people around her, always standing up for them. No matter how different a person was to everyone else, Tara would always see that person for who he or she was, not for their differences. That’s how it was when I first met her.

It was my first week at junior high, and I already felt like an outcast there. My parents were Japanese, and I was born shortly after they moved to New York to open up a martial arts dojo. Being a different nationality to most other people… Yeah, it was pretty tough for me as a kid. Most of the other kids just teased and bullied me, and it got even worse in junior high. But then came the day I met Tara. That day, I had just been knocked over by a small group of bullies. As I lay there crying, she came over to me and offered to help me up. She told me she was fed up of the way the other kids were treating me, and asked me if I wanted to be friends. I decided to trust her, and said yes. Before long Tara and I became best friends, and were inseparable. Eventually, we became… even more so.

I’ll go ahead and say it- we were a lesbian couple. As we got older, we already found we were more attracted to girls than boys, but back in 2007 we began to realise that we were starting to fall in love with each other. I’ll save the full story for later, but having been together for so long, perhaps it was inevitable. Well, needless to say we soon became an item. Shortly after we started dating, we decided to buy a house together. With our combined pay checks from our jobs, we were able to buy a place in a fairly small suburb just outside of New York. It was a pleasant area, with a small shopping district nearby- where I worked in a retro video game store. It was just what we needed, and we were happy.

But I’m rattling on, aren’t I?

Tara grabbed another slice of pizza from the box and ate it before restarting the event. While she was doing that, I felt I’d tidy the floor up and feed Dana. I picked up the MLP Season One box, chuckling quietly to myself as I looked at it. If you would have told Tara and I a couple of years ago we’d be watching My Little Pony together, she probably wouldn‘t have stopped laughing for a good week or so, and even I’d have had a hard time believing it. She never liked the previous generations, saying she found them twee and patronising. However, she ended up getting hooked on Friendship Is Magic after watching a few episodes with her niece. Since then, I almost always watched the show with her, and we constantly talked about it. The house had a ton of pony plushies, all of them made by me. All the while, Tara was rarely seen indoors without her Rainbow Dash hoodie, which was her favourite piece of clothing. Not bad for a show she used to dislike.

Having picked up the remaining cases on the floor and put them away, I then headed for the kitchen, where Dana lay in her bed. Despite being quite big, she was just about the friendliest dog you could hope to have. Heck, she didn’t even bother Tara’s two cats. Much. She clearly sensed me coming, because she immediately jumped out of her bed and made her way over to me as I approached. I bent down and stroked her head as she licked my face- something she only ever seemed to do with me.

“Ha-hey girl, take it easy!” I said, pushing her away as I stood back up. “Okay, let’s get you fed, shall we?” I soon prepared her dinner and set it down next to her, stroking her again as she ate. Leaving her side, I prepared to go back to the couch before Tara started shouting again…

“YES! Comeoncomeoncomeon! Please be nice now, game. PLEASE be nice!”

Seemed like she was finally getting some luck. I sat back down, picked up another slice of pizza and started watching again. She was now close to the end of the final lap, and in first place. But the computer racers were hot on her tail, and she was struggling to maintain her lead. I kept quiet and ate my pizza slice as she dropped onto the final straight, with one of the computer racers virtually neck and neck with her. They both crossed the finish line at almost the same time…

“Did I do it…? YES! YES! First place! FINALLY! Ha-ha! Suck it, game! Suck it!”

“Way to go!” I said, giving Tara a big hug.

“Thanks!” she replied, laughing. “Can’t believe it. I finally got all the stars! About fucking time.”

I smiled and reached for the last slice of pizza, only to find Tara’s hand had got there first.

“Oh! Sorry, Megumi” she said. “Didn’t realise that was your piece.”

“Nah, you go ahead and take it. You’ve earned it.”

“You sure? But I’ve already had my share…”

“I said it’s okay. I don’t really want it anyway.” I was lying slightly. I did want that last slice, but I could tell Tara was still a little hungry. It would have been against my nature not to give it to her.

“Well, if you insist. But you shouldn’t be so generous all the time. Don’t forget, people have taken advantage of you in the past because of that.”

“I know. You’ve only told me like a hundred times. It’s just that-“

“No need to tell me. You’ve always been that way. That’s why Rarity is your favourite pony, right? Because of what she represents?”

Tara chuckled as she said that. She had a point about Rarity. I just adored her. The fact that she was the element of generosity was one good reason for that, because I was just like that myself. I was always giving to others- paying for meals, giving to charity, that sort of thing. Of course as Tara mentioned, that did make me easy to take advantage of. There had been more than one occasion where people saw me as nothing but a meal ticket. Maybe I was too trusting. But… I just couldn’t not be a giving person. That was my nature.

“It’s certainly one reason.” I said as I stood up. “Anyway, I think I’ll head to the sewing room. Want to spend a couple of hours on that dress, see if I can finish it.”

“If that’s what you feel like doing. In that case- think I’ll sit down with a movie or two. Perhaps Robocop. Haven’t seen that one in a while. Feels like a good night for some good old fashioned 80s action flicks, you know?”

“Yeah, you do that. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

I left Tara to search through her Blu-Ray collection and headed upstairs. Movies were her main passion, and if there was one thing she loved, it was curling up in front of one of her favourites. Or a really bad one, if she felt like making fun of it. I’d sometimes watch with her, but I really wasn’t keen on the more violent ones she watched. Couldn’t even watch Die Hard for very long. She knew I was squeamish though, and saved stuff like that for when I would be out of the sitting room for a while. And this was one of those nights.

I entered the sewing room and looked around. To the left of the sewing machine was an adorable, near complete Gothic Lolita dress that I had been working on for a client. This was how I made some extra income- I would also make dresses and plushies for anyone who wanted them. I just loved sewing, and making cute outfits, and I apparently had a real talent for it. More than anything, that was the real reason why Rarity was my favourite pony. Because I could relate to her so much. Well, that and the fact her voice in the Japanese dub was really freaking adorable. And she was… You know? Kind of hot. For a pony. No, I wasn’t a furry, or anything like that. I just found her really beautiful and elegant. And in all honesty? If she were real, I don’t think I would have stopped hugging her. Oh well, guess I just had to make do with that plushie I made of her… But I hadn’t come up here to think about ponies, I was here to finish a dress. I switched the sewing machine on and set to work.

A few hours later…

“Ah, there we go! Finally done.”

I lifted up the finished dress and had a good look at it. Aw yeah, this was a work of art. Probably wouldn’t have taken so long to finish if I hadn’t been distracted by the sound of explosions coming from Tara’s movies downstairs, but hey. I put the dress on its hanger, ready for it to be packed up and sent out on Monday. Man, was I starting to feel tired. Yeah, it was getting pretty close to midnight. Probably would have been best to call it a night. I stretched out, gave out a yawn, and went downstairs to say goodnight to Tara.

As I entered the sitting room, I saw her already fast asleep on the couch. Heh. Seemed like not even Commando could keep her up right now, and I knew how much she loved that movie. Pretty obvious I had to clean up again. I stopped the film and ejected the disc from the player. Putting it back in its case, I noticed the case for Robocop, which Tara had also been watching earlier, and noticed it was still open. Ah, that was why. There was a disc missing. The clip that held it was snapped, and it was obvious it had fallen out when Tara opened it. I did a quick search for it, but couldn’t find it. Most likely slid under the couch. Something to do for tomorrow, perhaps. After placing both cases on top of the TV, I took one of the blankets we kept for keeping warm in winter and put it over Tara. She looked so adorable like that, I just didn’t want to wake her up. Guess I’d be sleeping alone tonight… I whispered goodnight to her, and went upstairs to get ready for bed. It’d be another quiet Sunday tomorrow

                                      ...................................................................................................

It was a bright ray of sunshine coming through the bedroom window that woke me up the next morning. Damn, I felt groggy. Couldn’t even feel my hands and feet. My forehead felt kind of heavy as well. Like there was something sticking out of it. And why did it feel like I had something between my legs? I put it down to the fact I had just woken up. It wasn’t unusual for me feel really sluggish and near brain dead first thing in the morning, not to mention clumsy. I briefly thought about going to sleep again, but figured I may as well get up. I clumsily shifted to the side of the bed…

THUD!

I found myself face first on the floor. Ugh, once again I failed to realise how close I was to the edge of the bed and rolled off. That happened far too often… See what I meant about being clumsy? Was it just me though, or did that drop seem higher than usual? Weird… That was then I paid full attention to my arms, laid out in front of me. And I began to realise why my body felt so strange…

It wasn’t because I was tired. What I saw in front of me weren’t arms, but two small, pure white stumps. Finally, my brain had woken up enough to figure it out- those stumps were hooves. I had hooves! That was why I couldn’t feel my hands and feet earlier- they weren’t even there anymore. Wait a second… I felt something between my legs earlier, right? Yeah, I could really feel it now. Something swishing back and forth behind me. I didn’t need to look to know I had grown a tail… I raised one of my hooves to my forehead to rub it as best I could, and noticed something else- there actually was something sticking out of it! I felt it a little, and gasped.

“Oh my god, this is a horn. I have a hor-“

I quickly put a hoof over my mouth when I heard myself speak. That… wasn’t my voice. It was usually a little high pitched- some may say adorable- but now it was… kind of posh sounding. And… really familiar. If I hadn’t been panicking before, I was now. Somehow, I had turned into a pony overnight. And I had a pretty damn good idea which one, as well. Dammit, I needed a mirror. The closest one was downstairs, though. If Tara was still there… No, I had to risk it. I needed to see the full extent of what had happened to me.

I picked myself up from the floor, expecting to fall due to being unaccustomed to standing on four legs. Though I did wobble a few times, I managed to stand upright better than I thought. I then turned my attention to walking around in my new form. Okay… I could do this, right? Just like walking as a human, but with two extra legs. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long at all to figure it all out. I found myself able to move with no real problem. Felt like I’d done it all my life. I wondered why- maybe this transformation came with automatic knowledge of how to move or something? Well, it didn’t matter now. I was able to move in my pony body, so that was enough. Now, I needed to get downstairs. Thankfully, I’d left the door open slightly last night, so I only needed to move it slightly with one of my legs to open it enough to get through.

As I moved down the hallway, I could hear the shower in the bathroom. Good, it looked like Tara was already up and getting herself washed. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be noticed yet. As I reached the stairs, I looked down at them and gulped. Getting down there was going to be a little harder to do in this body. I took a deep breath. I could do this. Just take it easy and… Whoops! Didn’t take into account how steep that first step was. I managed to slip, and ended up sliding down the stairs- and into the wall. Great. That was the second time this morning I managed to hit myself in the face. That had to be a new record… I was just glad my new horn didn’t poke a hall in the wall. Ow, that made me feel sore all over. No time to worry about that now, though- I still needed that mirror. It wasn’t far- just next to the garden door. As I moved towards it, I closed my eyes. I really needed to brace myself for what I was about to see. Finally, I was in front of the mirror, and I decided to make a slow count to three before opening my eyes again- One… Two… Three!

“Oh no. Nonononononono. This can’t be real. I-I can’t be…”

Even though I knew what was coming, I was still shocked at what I saw. I finally had a good look at my new pony form, and as I guessed when I heard my voice earlier, I wasn’t just any pony. Those blue eyes, the light blue eye shadow, the purple mane and tail, even the three diamonds that represented her cutie mark… it was all there. I didn’t know how it happened, but it happened.

I had somehow turned into Rarity.

“H-how did this…?” I thought to myself. My mind was a mess of emotions at this point, and I felt so close to breaking down. I mean, I always loved Rarity, but I never wanted to be her. I had no idea what was going on, or what to do. Oh god, what if this was permanent? How would I be able to live like this? I mean, I was now a cartoon character in the real world. There was no way I could go anywhere looking like this. This had to be a bad dream. It just had to be.

Suddenly. I heard something approaching behind me. I turned around and saw Dana right there beside me. She looked at me, immediately curious about the strange creature that had just appeared in her house. Thankfully, I knew she wouldn’t attack- to Dana, anyone new just meant someone new who would play with her. Wow, seeing her at this height was really weird- my face was just about level with hers, something I wasn’t used to. She started did exactly the same thing she did with anyone else she met for the first time- giving me a good sniff. After a few seconds of this she started barking, and I could see her eyes light up. She then started licking my face. W-wait- what? The only person whose face she ever licked was me. Did she somehow realise that this strange animal was me?

“Easy, girl. Down!” I ordered. Dana immediately complied and sat down. Huh, I thought she wouldn’t have recognised my voice, but it seemed she did. Dana carried on barking and started running in circles, trying to get my attention.

“Hmmm? What is it?” I asked. She suddenly bolted off the way she came. Did she want me to follow her? Dammit, if I had to turn into a pony, couldn’t it have been Fluttershy? Then I’d have been able to understand her. Talking to animals FTW. Well, I figured I’d follow her. See if I could figure out what she wanted.

I found Dana next to her bowl in the kitchen. Ah, so that was what she wanted. Her breakfast. Hmmm, this was certainly a problem. The cupboard was way out of my reach now, and even if it wasn’t... Hooves… How could I feed her without thumbs? I tilted my head up to get a good look at the cupboard, and felt the weight of my horn as I did. Wait a second… Horn… Of course! I was a unicorn! I could use magic to do this. But my brain was quick to butt in.

Good idea, but do you know how to actually USE magic? Even if you did, this is the real world. Magic shouldn’t exist here. How do you know it would even work?

That was true. I didn’t know if it was even possible. But hey- no time like the present. And if I could use unicorn magic, it’d make life at least a little easier. I decided to test it out on something first. Preferably something that wouldn’t break if I dropped it. My eyes looked around and spotted a spoon on the table. It was pretty high up, but if I put my mind to it, I would have had no problem moving it. Hopefully.

I pointed my horn at the spoon and started to concentrate. Okay Megumi- Or Rarity, or whatever. Just keep focusing. Think about the spoon, think about moving it… W-whoa. I suddenly felt it. I felt a surge of… something… build up in my horn, and I saw a purple aura appear around the spoon. Success! Now I just had to lift it up… There we go! Using my mind, I was able to pick up the spoon, and direct it to wherever I wanted! It didn’t even take much practice- just like walking on four legs, it just felt completely natural.

Putting the spoon down carefully back on the table, I turned my attention to the cupboard door. If I could float a spoon, surely opening a door would be a cakewalk. Well, it was a little harder. Not only did I have to concentrate on the door handle, I also had to think about turning it. It took a couple of attempts, but before long I managed to get that door open. Hooray for me! Now, it was just a matter of getting a can of dog food, opening it and giving it to Dana. The hardest part of the whole thing was opening the can. Operating a can opener with magic was a lot harder than I’d anticipated, but again, it didn’t take long to figure it out. I finally emptied the contents of the can into Dana’s bowl, which she immediately started eating.

With the small issue of Dana’s breakfast out of the way, I began to feel content. Maybe being a pony wasn’t so bad after all. But just I was starting to see the bright side, I was quickly reminded of why this wasn’t really the most ideal situation- I could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. Oh crap, that was Tara! If she saw me like this, god knows what she’d think. I needed somewhere to hide, and fast. I quickly bolted for the couch and lay down behind it. Hopefully, she’d only head for the kitchen, then maybe I could sneak behind her and get back upstairs. I heard the footsteps get closer to the end of the staircase until they came to a stop.

“Megumi?” I heard Tara call out. “You awake? Did you feed the dog?”

I didn’t answer. Instead I stayed put, begging for her to move to the kitchen. Suddenly, I caught something glint in my eye. I peeked underneath the sofa and saw something there. I couldn’t quite reach it, but I didn’t need to- after all, I had magic on my side. I quickly focused my horn on the object, and managed to lift it out. Hey, it was the disc that went missing yesterday! That was luc- huh?

All of a sudden, I felt my head ache. I quickly put my hoof to my head to ease the pain, but it went as soon as it came. Immediately after the pain had gone, I felt my hoof twitch. No, both front hoofs. Actually, all four of my legs- no, my entire body! I felt my entire body twitch like crazy. It didn’t feel painful, just… really weird. Next thing I knew, that strange sensation was gone, and I was left looking down at my hands. Wait a second, my hands?!

I had to blink for a few seconds to make sure it was for real, but those were definitely my hands. I quickly felt my face. No horn, no snout. I was human again! Oh, thank god for that! I was so worried that my transformation would have been permanent. I was so happy, I chuckled.

“Uh, Megumi? You under there?”

Oh, crap, Tara heard me… Wait, what was I worried about? I wasn’t a pony anymore. It was safe to come out now, surely?

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, I was just looking under the couch for that disc that rolled under there yesterday.”

“You are? Did you find it? Really don’t wanna have to move the couch to get it.”

“Yup. Got it right here.”

I picked up the disc and came out from my hiding place. But as soon as Tara saw me, her face went red.

“M-MEGUMI!” she yelled as she quickly turned around. Huh? What was that about?

“M-Megumi… Why are you…? Why aren’t you…?”

“Huh? Why aren’t I what?”

Confused, I looked down at myself. Oh… It seemed I was so happy about being human again, I completely failed to notice something important.

I was completely naked.

And there I was thinking being human again was a good thing…