The next morning was not comfortable for me.

It took all of my power to pull myself from the bed, my back was stiff and my joints ached. My hair had also grown down into my eyes overnight, in the grand scheme of things that didn't really matter to me though. What did matter was when I marched into the bathroom, and noticed that my eyes had turned a bright amber colour, almost like honey. The tree shook and birds scattered as I called for Twilight.

I took a deep breath, my voice openly dripping with barely constrained rage. "Twilight, what the actual fuck is this shit?" I leant down to her level and pointed to my newly coloured eyes. She babbled for a moment before sighing.

"I honestly... don't know."

I laughed to myself and fell back onto the bed, "Oh that's just fantastic, the smartest damn person here doesn't even know what's going on any more."

"I didn't find anything suspicious when we did those tests the other day. Either it's something we can't detect or it's not related to anything magical," she stated matter-of-factly, "And don't start shouting at me about it either."

"Well what the hell should I do then? I can't go outside to see anybody else by your admission, and you can't seem to figure out what's up either!"

"Well, does it hurt in any way?"

"My back's a bit stiff."

"Hm. Well, it's good to know it isn't harmful as of yet. But if that changes you need to tell me, then I'll drag you to the hospital even if they do freak out."

"Ugh. That doesn't make me feel better. Just FYI." Twilight rolled her eyes and moved over to the window, pulling open the curtains with her magic. I shied away from the light as it flooded the room. Thankfully it seemed that the only thing that had changed was my hair and eyes, although it didn't bode well if further changes were in store for me. My stomach gurgled, and Twilight leapt on the opportunity to change the subject.

"Do you want anything to eat?"

"What do you have?" I asked.

"We have bread, hay, daffodils..."

I probably should have known from the start that they didn't have normal food either, because when could anything ever go my way? Eventually I settled on a sandwich sans any kind of plant life. I sat in silence and ate my breakfast as Twilight scurried off to do whatever she did when I wasn't there. The isolation was starting to get to me a little bit; I would have liked to meet some of her friends, even if they were like her.

I occupied myself by watching the day go by through the window. Twilight would occasionally poke her head into the room when she wasn't busy. I didn't have much to say. Sometimes I'd walk across the hall and go to the bathroom, taking a quick glance in the mirror to make sure that nothing else had happened without me noticing. The lighter highlights in my hair had become more prominent than I remembered, but I convinced myself I was just seeing things.

Time stood still in that stupid room. There was a clock on the night stand that I really wished wasn't there, because it only reminded me of how slowly things were progressing through the day. I eventually placed it face down so I didn't watch it compulsively any more. Twilight came back. I wasn't quite sure how much time had passed by then.

"Would you be okay with me asking some more questions about your home?"

"Sure, I need something to occupy myself with anyway."

Twilight hopped up onto the bed next to me, parchment held aloft in her magical aura. "So, considering that your world doesn't have magic like ours does, how do you manage things like the weather?"

"We don't, what you get is what you get."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"In extreme cases, sometimes people died. But generally it was pretty rare."

"Hm. That sounds like a bad place to be."

"Certain places were more dangerous than others. I worked in a place where lots of tornadoes would come down in the summer. Most people would never see a bit of extreme weather in their lives." The questioning continues along similar lines for a while. I felt like I was giving her a very morbid impression of Earth, but she assured me that Equestria was certainly the exception in calm on whatever planet I was on.

"So do the other, uh, species control their weather too?"

"If they have wings! Some pegasi and griffons also go around and get paid to do it for those who can't."

The conversation continued along similar lines. For every piece of information I provided about my world, Twilight provided me with some about hers. I learned a lot, which I knew would be important if I was going to be stuck here for a long time. Some of the answers were very bizarre, and only rammed home the idea that I was somewhere so far removed from Earth that there were talking ponies.

"Looks like I'm out of room," Twilight sighed. "This was very... enlightening. Your home sounds like an interesting place."

"A place without magic is more interesting than here?"

"It's a matter of perspective. I couldn't imagine how a world without magic operates, just like how you can't believe that there's a place with magic," Twilight hopped down from the bed and stretched out, "You need to tell me about some of the advancements from Earth some time, this is a fantastic opportunity to bring some new ideas to Equestria."

"I'm not an expert on how everything works. You'd have to find somebody smarter than me."

"Nonsense! I'm sure you're plenty smart. And it's not like we need extreme detail either."

I sighed, I didn't want to be pulled into more questioning by little miss purple smart. "I don't know, I think I've had enough of questions for a little while."

Twilight nodded, "That's fine, you've already told me more than enough about Earth."

I felt homesick all over again.

Twilight, now knowing my diet, had decided to go out of her way to find me something edible that wasn't hay or flowers. I had seen her trotting off into town, and coming back with a bag full of food. She couldn't find any meat, Ponyville didn't have any carnivorous inhabitants to justify having a meat business. Twilight suggested going out of town to find Fluttershy but I shot the idea down, saying that what we had was fine. My meal was more than substantial, which was good because I was left a bit wanting by breakfast and lunch.

Nothing much of note happened in the evening until Twilight poked her snout into my room.

"Would you be okay with meeting one of my friends tomorrow? I feel kind of bad locking you up in here with nobody to talk to."

I wasn't sure if it was really a good idea considering what she said the other day, but I reluctantly agreed in the end. "Alright, who is it?"

"I'm not sure yet, I think a few of them will be busy for most of the day, I'll see who I can meet."

"Fine, just make sure they don't freak out or anything."

I let out a groan of agony.

I'd slept like a rock for the entire night, waking up bright and early for Twilight's proposed meeting. I wish I hadn't. I felt like somebody had taken a sledgehammer to my spine, and poured cement over my legs. I stiffly shuffled over to the side of the bed, with no help from my lower body. The concern I felt for potentially being paralysed paled in comparison to the ache coming from my back, which had also brought on a thunderous pounding in my head.

"Twi! Twi! Get up here please!" I yelled.

Twilight burst through the door and recoiled at the sight of me strung out on the ground. "What are you doing? C'mon," she gripped my body with her magic and lifted me back onto the bed. She hesitated for a moment on seeing my face, frowning. "Oh dear."

"What do you mean oh dear? It feels like my spine is trying to escape from my fucking body."

"So you are feeling pain now?"

"Yes!" I gasped.

"We'll have to get to the hospital. I'm no doctor."

"Will they even know how to treat me?" I asked.

"They treat all kinds of species at Ponyville General. You're not going to be any different."

I needed to get cleaned up, I asked Twilight to help me into the bathroom. One incredibly painful and awkward toilet break later, I shuffled over to the small mirror and looked at myself. Unsurprisingly I looked like death, with huge bags under my unnaturally coloured eyes. As I leant back I noticed something else too, the shape of my face had changed into something more feminine.

"Why do I look like a woman now?" I groaned.

I'd got some of the movement back into my legs, although my feet were still a lost cause. I had to hold onto the sink to maintain my balance. I looked down to my bare feet, I slid down the cabinet until I was sat on the floor. I gripped my leg between my hands and twisted it to see the underside of my foot. It was covered by disgusting dried skin, almost as if I'd caught frostbite overnight. Underneath the flaking skin was a solid layer of black material that felt like a big toenail.

"Holy shit," I muttered, "They're going to have to cut my feet off."

With what was coming, I wish that they had.