Oh the agony. I grit my teeth as my bones melted and grew back. My joints rearranged themselves into new angles and my head elongated.

Cries of alarm were heard and subsequently ignored. They weren’t important, what was important was survival. This pain could not take me, even if I must do so in the form of a pony, I must survive. More fluid made its way into my now awkward mouth. I don’t know why they were pouring more in, but if they wanted it in, I wanted it out.

My tongue hadn’t formed, but I tried my best to remove what I could from my mouth. I managed to disgorge a small bit out of the side of my mouth before it was clamped closed.

With the entry of more liquid my body started to convulse more. My vision dimmed before I lost consciousness.
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I shuddered as my vision registered a castle interior. It wasn’t the castle per say that scared me, it was the two pony gods sitting on the thrones across the room from me.

They both smiled at me and gestured for me to come forward. The force inside me insisted that I do so, but I resisted. These were my enemies, not my friends. With much effort I took a step back, and another, and another.

The faces of the princesses went from loving to confusion and then to surprise as I managed to bump my rear into the wall behind me. I spun around to find the exit from this hell, two solid gold double doors. I threw myself into them, desperate to escape, to release myself from the sight of the demons I had cursed for the past three years.

The world started to dim slightly, but then resumed its normally bright hue. “Please!” I heard
voice echo across the room. I turned my head, an action I would have to get used to given the circumstances. Celestia had risen from her throne and was no longer smiling. “Why do you resist, you can be free, happy. Why must there be hostility?” She moved closer. The number of feet between me and her decreased slightly with every step she took, and every step brought more numbing to my senses, damping my fight or flight instinct and increasing a desire to sit and listen to everything she had to say.

When I turned to face her and seal my fate, my butt slammed into the gold door. Pain wracked through me and shocked me out of her hypnotic gaze. My face contorted to that of fright and I threw myself at the gold doors once more, harder than I ever had, desperate now to escape the eternal torture behind me.

With a bang I burst through. I was not met with a hallway however, but emptiness, not unlike space without stars. I looked around a bit before feeling a watchful presence. I turned back and saw the sun goddess, her brow furrowed, standing in the doorway. The scene faded slightly and before the single portal of light dimmed and I lost sight of her I heard a low voice. “Luna, I will be leaving soon, prepare for my departure.”

“...n’t think he will make it.” A feminine voice was talking sadly. I blinked away the blurriness and let my eyes focus from the influx of light. A high pitched squeal sounded off to my left as the voice returned. “You’re awake! Oh I’m so glad! When you only got a partial dose we tried desperately to get the rest in you before your body killed itself. You were out longer than most and our schedule was starting to become in jeopardy.” I turned my head to face the light blue pony that had spoken.

She lifted her muzzle from her clipboard and faced me. “My apologies, my name is Azure Mist, welcome to the herd Storm Wind.”

My eyes widened and panic set in. I looked down at my dark blue legs that ended in hooves, and my black tail that stuck out at the end of my body. I turned towards her, panic clearly shown on my face.

She ran to the wall and pressed a large red button and spoke into it. “We have a potential breakdown, send in buffers.” I flopped off the table, instantly feeling light headed. I made my way drunkenly towards the mare. I couldn’t be a pony, it just wasn’t possible. I tried everything, I had planned too well for things to end like this.

My face softened to a more pleading look. “Please tell me this isn’t real.” My legs felt like jelly and I was on the verge of collapsing when two large ponies blew through the door and pinned me. “Please, this can’t be real...” I let my head drop and my body flop to the ground in an undignified heap. “Storm, this is your life now, accept the wonderfulness and the freedom that you have now. Your old life is gone, you can live however you want now!”

I look up at her, “And what if I choose to live the way I want and not the way you desire me to live?” She seemed puzzled by the statement and shifted back. In a second I felt all the fage flood back into my body. Here was yet another who deemed it their right to direct my life and do whatever they wanted to me. With unexpected energy I launched myself at her and managed to wrap my hooves around her neck, trying foolishly to strangle her as if I had hands.

The ‘Buffers’ grabbed hold of me and yanked me off of the mare, but I was hardly finished. Using the strength of my new legs I threw them off and bolted for the now open door.

I froze at the sight of a long line of humans, guarded closely by ponies of all races. My chest heaved and my eyes panned around the room. The people in line stared back at me, obviously curious as to why I had not behaved like the others.

My thoughts were interrupted by a yell behind me. “I don’t know what’s wrong but stop him!” It was that mare again. Two of the pegasus guards turned towards me and took a few careful steps towards me. I understood what they were trying to do, jumping over them quickly I manage to dodge the ponies as they leap on the spot I had occupied seconds before.

This can’t be happening, I’m stuck as a equine, the very thing that I’ve tried so hard to kill and eradicate for so long. Now they are trying to capture me. No no no no no. “NO!” I snorted and charged the first guard I saw. He had absolutely no time to react as I bowled into him, planting a fore-hoof into his head as I passed by. The second had more time to prepare and blocked my attack.

Blind rage coursed through me as I tried my best to stomp the pony in front of me. Another came at me from the side and knocked me down. I brought my head to his and then we collided, adrenaline negating the pain I had received. With three guards down the people in line were starting to get antsy. My mind cleared for a moment, trying to register what this meant to me. Then one started cheering and hollering for me to get another. Before I could congratulate myself on my success however another smack from the side caused my thoughts to become muddled.

“I don’t know what with wrong with your conversion, but this ends here and now.” I turned and looked the stone faced pony in the eyes. His expression was neutral and his eyes unforgiving pits. For a moment fear started to rise as I realized that he was going to beat me.

He turned towards to the humans in line and glowered at them. “Stop that racket and stand still, conversion will continue on schedule.” After a moment the noises died down, coughs punctuating the end of some. “As for you,” His nose now rested a foot away from mine in an authoritative manner. “you are coming with me to be detained until the princesses can be informed.”

My eyes grew wide and his mouth changed to a vicious grin. I am NOT letting those freaky ponies near me. And nobody, especially some stuck up guard pony was going to prevent that.

I let my head drift away from his in a very meek manner. His smile grew wider as an escape plan formulated in my head. Once I knocked him down the others might not be quick enough to stop me should I decide to escape. However, if I try to knock out a few more guards the people in line could potentially rebel and escape, aiding me in the process.

If I left my fellow compatriots, I would be guaranteed an escape with my life, avoiding a confrontation with the devil himself, or herself. No, what a cowardly thing, to think I would abandon my own race just because I wanted to save my own worthless skin. I was a lost cause, they however, still had their whole lives ahead of them. And I dare anyone, be he God, the devil or any other entity let me willingly take that away from them. The dark green guard on top of me drew away as if to get me ready for transport. I gave him the best shit-eating grin I could before using the distance I had gained from backing my head up to gather velocity.

From the impact I could tell that he wasn’t out for the count. However, if he was as stunned as I was then I still had a chance. I smack him in the neck with a hoof and kicked him off me as he was recovering. As planned, the other ponies had no chance to react and I reached a pair before they could do anything. I jumped at them and landed on top of one and catapulted into another, knocking both to the floor.

By the time anyone had reacted I was already in amongst the line of people. I looked up at a young guy, probably no older than 18. “Bro, if there was a time to run, now would be it.” He smiled and tapped the man in front of him and relayed the message. By the time I was dealing with the next set of guards the message had traveled 14 more people and others were already guessing the message, tripping up guards and ‘accidentally’ falling out of line. So far, all attention was centered on me.

I knew I couldn’t last long, there were just too many and eventually they would outsmart me. I received my first injury when a pony kicked me in the gut with its hind legs, knocking me back several feet into a corner. They all surrounded me, closing in slowly as I backed away. The tough pony from before shoved his way through the crowd, nostrils flaring, death shown brightly in his eyes.

“End of the line
.” he sneered. The way he used that accursed word instead of human boiled my blood. I was about to charge him when movement registered out of the corner of my eye. Most of the guards had congregated over to me to watch their superior beat me up. This left minimal guards for the rest of the people in line.

The movement I caught was a man grabbing a pony with his arm, effectively choking the creature. The people around him broke when they noticed their babysitter was incapacitated and started to ‘free’ the others. I looked back at the commander, putting on my best innocent smile I could. “Actually I would like to say it is the beginning.” Then all hell broke loose as the boys, men and women all rushed to save me. The ponies surrounding me quickly broke off to quell the rebellion, only to be caught by another person from behind.

While I was momentarily distracted by the loyalty of those I had freed, the commander snorted and pawed the ground, preparing to charge. My head turned in slow motion as he took off from mere feet from me. With my back against the wall there was no way I would survive. Before he reached me however, a monster of a man pinned him against the floor and started punching the pony to death. It didn’t take long for the pony’s face to become more than a stain on the floor.

The man took a look at me and it took me a moment to recognize him. “BRICK! You’re still human!” Surprise registers on his face and he crawls towards me.

“Jake, is that you? Those bastards.” This killed my mood as he reminded me of my current predicament. “Hey thanks for sacrificing to save the rest of us in line, I watched you glance down the hallway.” My mood brightened a bit as he rose to his full height.

A pony clamped onto his back, only to be ripped off and flung against the wall. “Here,” he turned his back to me and gestured with his thumb. “hop on, I don’t care what you look like, we’re still a team.” I gave a genuine smile for the first time in years as I jumped up and held onto his shoulders tightly.

It felt degrading see him wade through the masses of pony on human fighting. I couldn’t do anything to help them, making me feel worthless. I thought numerous times about letting go and helping some poor soul when he went down under a mass of ponies. A quick reminder as to my predicament quelled this idea as I reminded myself that not only would it not do anything, but it would also negate what I’ve been trying to do this entire time, escape.

“You still back there?” Brick called around his shoulder, turning his head to get a good look. I met his gaze and nodded. “Good, now hold on tight, I don’t know how we’re going to get out but it’s going to be rough.

His strides became longer as we exited the main group. A few ponies broke off to give chase, but few were able to keep up with the big man. My greatest challenge was holding on when he turned sharp corners. The first time I almost slid off, the only thing saving me was instinctively biting his shirt as I lost my grip. After this his arm consciously slid back to hold me steady. Even with this added insurance I still kept worrying whether or not I would stay on for the duration of the run.

It was a virtual maze inside the building, there were no windows to break through and almost no doors to speak of. Corner after corner blazed by. By his labored breaths I could tell brick was starting to become short winded from the long haul.

We turned yet another corner and I saw the best thing that I could wish for at the moment. Double doors with the classic green neon EXIT sign over them.

I turned back my head to listen for any sounds of pursuits, not hearing anything I tapped my friend on the shoulder. "Hey, I don't hear anything, I think everyone went to check up on the riot down by the conversion room. Here let me get off so you can rest a little."

I released myself from his neck and slid down his back to meet the floor. Without the adrenaline I started to actually focus more on my body, negating the natural instinct that had carried me this far. At first I had no problem, standing was easy enough, just stay still and wait for my body to regain balance. Well I might not like it, but it's all I got now.

The real trouble started when I tried taking a step forward, focusing on my hoof placement causes me to trip. "Alright, come on." I looked sheepishly up at my companion as he reached down with his big arms to haul me up. "It seems you're still going to have to get used to that before you'll be going anywhere." And so, like a pet, I was carried towards the exit. Though I agreed I needed help, it was still humiliating.

We were ten feet from the doors when I heard a faint rumbling. "Brick, stop! Hide or something! I think there's more ponies behind the doors." He reacted as soon as I started talking. It wasn't enough, I had only just finished when the doors blasted open to reveal the most dangerous creature on both planets, the most hated by humankind, and by far the scariest of all it's predators. There, in the doorway, stood Princess Celestia in all her glory and malevolence.