Chapter 16

Jim sat at a picnic table, bundled up in his hoodie and winter coat. He waited for what seemed like a long time, drawing doodles in the spring snow still left on the table to distract himself from his worries. It hadn't really been very effective though, his thoughts kept creeping back to his situation.

I really hope this wasn't a huge mistake, he thought to himself, more than once. He constantly watched the entrance to the rest area, hoping, and yet fearing, to see his friend Maddie pull in. He grew more fearful with every car or truck that passed by, dread filling him that they would stop, that someone would see him and freak out like everybody else had.

He also became more convinced with every minute that Maddie wouldn't be able to accept what had happened to him, that she would scream and run away.

He continued to vacillate between those fears until he heard a female voice behind him say, rather loudly, "Five Score, Divided by Four!"

He twisted toward the voice, fell to the ground, and shouted as the words drove a spike of ice into his spine. When he saw who the voice came from, he thought he was going mad.

She...she's a pony too? Is everyone going to turn into a pony? ran through his mind as he lay there in the snow looking at the pegasus in front of him. His mind filed away the light blue-green fur and two-toned blonde mane for later consideration.

"Are you Jim?" she asked him, smiling at his nod of ascent. She waved to another pegasus, a stallion, who stepped forward.

"M-Maddie?" Jim asked the blue-green mare.

The pegasus smirked at him as she replied, "Wrong sibling."

The other pegasus, with light blue fur and dark blue mane, spoke, "I was Maddie, but now I'm Soarin."

Jim looked from one to another, fear plain on his face, Oh dear god, this is all so fucked up!

The female pegasus said, "I was her brother Mike, but now I'm Lightning Dust."

Jim pointed his hand--which no longer resembled a human hand at all, but instead something between a hand and a hoof--at the female, "So, you were Mike, a human male, and are now the mare Lightning Dust?" Jim pointed his protohoof at the other pegasus and said, "And you were my friend Maddie, a woman, and are now Soarin, the stallion?"

Both pegasi nodded in affirmation, then Lightning Dust said, "And you are?"

Jim looked down, tears filling his eyes as he realized what they wanted, and at his own conflict. He finally replied, "I was Jim. But I guess I'm not anymore. Now I've become Lightning Flash."

The blue-green pegasus sat down hard, and with a funny look on her face, asked, "The Wonderbold reservist Lightning Flash?"

Jim looked at her, puzzled, and nodded.

Suddenly she dove at him, wrapping her front legs around him in a tight hug, "You helped me in the battle with Discord! I sent you lightning bolts for you to direct back at him, so we could attack from both sides at once."

"Are you sure? I mean, I've had some pretty vivid dreams the last couple of nights, I don't really know what to believe," he said, trying to sort things out in his head.

"Dude, those weren't just dreams, they were memories," Soarin told him.

"You mean all of that actually happened? Are you sure?" Jim asked.

"Best as we can determine, yeah," Lightning Dust replied. "I mean, I talked to my pony self after dreaming about the battle."

"I...faced something similar. That's how I learned who I'm becoming," Jim said, his face falling as he thought about how he'd reacted to his pony self.

Lightning Dust looked at Jim, "Lightning Flash, I know you were in the battle, but how did you not get banished then like us? How did you make it another day?"

So he talked about his dream, and explained how they were ordered to scatter after she, Soarin, and Spitfire were hit, "There was nothing we could do, he was just so damn powerful! We had no choice!" Tears started to form in his eyes as he continued, "I lasted most of a day before Discord caught up with me. I'll never again forget that feeling, the feeling that I was a fly looking at the swatter coming down on me."

"It's going to be okay, we'll make it all work out," Lightning Dust said, putting a hoof on Jim's shoulder. Before she could continue on, they were interrupted by headlights turning into the rest area from the freeway. "That's my wife."

"You're married? What does she think of what's happening to you?" Jim asked her.

Dust sighed heavily, "She doesn't really like it, but it's not like we have any say in the matter. We love each other, so we're staying together."

"But what about when you go back to Equestria?"

"I don't know that I will go back. Heck, I don't even know if we can get back. For now, my goal is for us to find as many ponies as we can, then help and protect them."

Jim nodded, and getting a flash of insight, said, "That's you, Dust, ever the protector."

This earned him a brief glare from Lightning Dust as the vehicle pulled into a parking space near them. Then she said, "Your wings aren't ready for you to fly with, yet, Flash. You can ride back with Soarin and my wife, Helen. I'm going to fly home. I'm pretty sure Soarin won't mind teaching you how to fly tomorrow."

"What will you be doing while Soarin is teaching me to fly?" Jim asked.

"Me? I'm going to work. Gotta pay the bills, you know?" she said as she hovered over to her wife, kissing her and speaking softly to her for a moment. They parted with another kiss before Dust took to the air.

"Hi, I'm Helen," she said, reaching a hand out to shake Jim's protohoof.

"Jim, er, Lightning Flash," he responded, as he tried to return the shake, without a whole lot of luck.

"Let's go!" Soarin said, leaping into the open passenger door.

Helen shrugged her shoulders and said, "She never was very patient, even as a human."

Jim nodded as Helen opened the back door and helped him into the vehicle. Once inside, he tried to buckle the seatbelt, only to fail miserably without any fingers left. Now I know what Irony felt like when she needed me to carry her out to the truck that night, he thought, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears as he thought about his brother/sister.

Helen, seeing his plight, reached across and snapped the belt into place with the well-practiced motion of someone who had raised children. Jim gave her a small smile in thanks, then turned and stared out the window as she pulled back out onto the freeway.

After a few minutes of silence, Soarin turned to look at Jim and said, "So, Flash, what brought you all the way out here?"

"I...I was running away," he finally mumbled in shame.

"What were you running away from?"

"Myself."

"Why?" Soarin asked, simply.

Jim didn't answer for a long time. Finally, just when Soarin was sure he wasn't going to, Jim replied, "Because I was afraid. I didn't want to turn into a pony."

"How did you know you were turning into a pony? Wait, are you a brony? Is that how you knew? When you saw your cutie mark?"

Jim sighed, "To answer your question, yes, my brother and I were both bronies. Though that's not how I knew."

Helen glanced back at him and asked, "So, then how did you know what was happening to you?"

"I watched my brother change," Jim covered his face with his malformed hooves.

"Wait a second! Your brother is a pony, too?! What was his name again?" Soarin asked excitedly, not noticing Jim's mood.

"Her name was Henry."

"That's right, I remember you used to talk about him all the time in school! You were always going on about how great he was, how you wished you were more like him. So, who did he turn into? Was it Big Mac, or Shining Armor?" Soarin didn't notice how every sentence he spoke caused Jim to fold further in on himself.

Helen, seeing what Soarin did not, finally reached over and smacked him upside the head, "Stop it, Soarin! Can't you see he's upset?"

He looked around at Jim, who had tears actively leaking from the corners of his eyes, and said, "I'm so sorry, Flash! I'm so oblivious all the time. I didn't mean to make you sad."

"It's not your fault. It's mine," Jim responded quietly.

"Since you weren't paying attention before, I'll remind you that he said, 'her name was Henry'. I'm guessing that means his brother is now his sister, kind of like what happened to you and Mike," Helen pointed out.

"Oh," Soarin said, his ears drooping flat against his skull as his face fell. "I'm sorry again for being so insensitive, Flash."

"It's okay."

Conversation dried up after that and they finished the journey in silence. By the time they got to Lightning Dust and Helen's house, it was full dark. Helen opened the doors for Soarin and Jim. When Jim tried to get out, he fell to the ground, his legs not wanting to support him in an upright position anymore. Helen and Soarin helped support him as they made their way into the house. They ate a big dinner, then after some further maneuvering, they were able to get Jim tucked into a guest bed for the night.

Once he was alone, Jim let the tears flow as he sobbed silently. After a time, he had no more tears to cry. He stared at the ceiling as he felt his body continue changing around him. By the time he slipped into unconsciousness, he could tell the transformation was almost complete.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jim sat on his haunches as he stared off into the void. He'd already relived his last moments again, and was waiting for the part that he'd dreaded all evening.

Finally, he heard the sound of approaching hooves. He didn't turn to see the approaching pony, already knowing it was Lightning Flash. The pony sat down next to Jim, and they sat in awkward silence for some time.

"Aren't you going to yell at me, or run away?" Flash finally spoke.

"No. I have to stop running sometime, guess it might as well be now," Jim replied fatalistically.

"Look, I'm sorry. I never wanted to come and take your life away from you. Just like I never wanted my life to be taken from me. This is all because of Discord."

"I know. And I don't blame you anymore. I'm sorry that I tried to."

"I would have probably reacted the same way. We're really not all that different, you know."

"I know. I don't want to fight who I am anymore. Will you help me?"

"Always. We are in this together. We are one."

Flash smiled at Jim, who returned the smile. They touched hooves, their bodies shimmered, then they melded into one being.

Once it was all over, the pony that was left looked down at himself and smiled, "We are in this together. No more will I fight who I am. Thank you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lightning Flash woke feeling much better than he had in days. He felt rested, and a measure of peace. All of his problems weren't gone, but at least he wasn't at war with himself anymore.

Before he could convince himself to roll out of bed, the bedroom door slammed open, hitting the wall with a crash. Soarin leapt through and started barking commands.

"Get your lazy ass out of bed, recruit! I want to see those hooves on the floor now!" the blue stallion bellowed.

Before a single thought could process through Flash's mind, he was out of bed, standing at attention, and saluting.

"Drop and give me 20 push-ups!" Soarin ordered. Flash was quick to comply, his body automatically falling back on his military training.

For his part, Soarin acted like it was natural that Flash follow his orders. He continued to put Flash through his paces, running the gamut from push-ups to squat-thrusts, froggers to wing-ups. They ended the PT with a five mile run through the hillside.

Never have I been so glad that Irony helped keep me in shape all this time, Flash sighed to himself when they finally stopped to rest after the run. At least I didn't collapse in a heap at the end like Soarin! he thought rather gleefully.

"Okay, the run may have been a bit much," Soarin gasped out between pants. "Damn, how is it you're hardly out of breath? You can't be in better shape than me, you haven't had time to get in shape since transforming!"

Flash thought for a moment before answering, "Maybe our condition as humans affected how fit we are as ponies? I mean, Irony never let me slack off our physical training after we left the service. She always said, 'once a Marine, always a Marine'. I used to find that so irritating."

Soarin shook his head, "Maybe that's it. Well, you are for sure in better shape than me. Sorry about waking you up like that, but it seemed the best way. Dust and I both had to get used to walking on four legs again, and found that when we didn't think about it we had a lot less trouble."

Flash waved off Soarin's apology with the flick of a hoof, "No sweat. I know how muscle memory works."

Soarin stood and, smirking, said, "So, recruit, ready to learn how to fly?"

Flash nodded, grinning from ear to ear at the thought of hitting the sky, "Yes, sir!"

"Alright, we should start with the basics. Extend your wings," Soarin said, which Flash immediately did.

"Now slowly flap your wings, like this," Soarin extended his own wings and flapped gently in example, not attaining any lift, just showing the proper motions.

Flash watched Soarin for a moment, then mirrored his movements. Soarin nodded, then flapped his wings a little faster, lifting his hooves off the ground. He hovered there as he watched Flash try. After a couple false starts, Flash managed to hover as well, if a bit more wobbly than the blue pegasus.

"Looking good, recruit. Now, let's see. Race you to that cloud over there!" Soarin took off like a shot before he even reached the end of his sentence.

"Cheater!" Flash called as he flapped his wings, giving chase. Focusing all his attention on the winged creature before him, Flash quickly fell into a natural rhythm, each wingflap stronger and faster than the last. He reached the cloud shortly after Soarin, then watched as the other pony flared his wings and actually landed on the cloud.

"Whoa! You mean we can actually do that?!" he shouted in glee, before executing his own rather shaky landing onto the cloudtop.

Soarin threw his head back and laughed at Flash's exuberance and how he pranced across the white fluff of mist, "Yeah, we can walk on clouds. Pretty sure we can control weather, too."

"Sweet! I can't wait to try it!" Flash grinned.

"One thing at a time, one thing at a time. We'll figure it out soon enough, but we'll have to fly out to an unpopulated area, just in case something weird happens," Soarin responded, tempering Flash's excitement.

Flash nodded, "Good point. So...what should we do now?"

Soarin smirked, "What else? Fly!"

They both took off and flew for the rest of the morning, practicing and generally showing off to each other. By the time they landed back at the house, Flash was back in full flying trim.

"Thank you for helping me get used to my body again, and thank you for taking me in," Flash thanked Soarin as he enjoyed his third serving of lunch, a simple, yet surprisingly delicious, bowl of alfalfa pellets. At first, Flash had balked, but at a look from Soarin he'd decided to try it before judging. "And this alfalfa is delicious! I never would have thought it could be so good."

"You're welcome. I'm just glad we were here to help you. Dust and I want to help everypony who's going through these changes. Having gone through them ourselves, we know how much of a shock, and how scary, it is. Nopony should have to go through this alone, though I'm certain that a good number of them will," Soarin said thoughtfully.

Flash nodded, "I want to help too. I don't want the other ponies to be afraid of what's happening to them. It's not fair."

The two pegasi shared small talk over the rest of their meal, then headed out and into the sky once again. They spent the bulk of the afternoon in the air, trying to build up their stamina.

By the time Lightning Dust arrived home from work, they were worn, but happy ponies.

After they greeted Dust and exchanged some minor pleasantries, Dust asked, "So, what is your sad story? How do you know Maddie?"

"Well, it's pretty simple, really. We went to school together, at Texas A & M. I was a cadet in the ROTC at the time, and we shared a few classes. We started talking after class one day, and just ended up hanging out together after that," Flash answers.

"I'm assuming you continued on into the military. What branch did you join?" she asked.

"I served two years in the Marines, with my brother. We were deployed in the Middle East for most of it."

"So, what brought you to us?" Dust inquired next.

"Well, after Irony changed, I freaked out because I was afraid of turning into a pony too," Flash paused.

"Hold on a moment. Irony. I know that name. Wait, you don't mean Irony Smith, the earth pony? Irony, the Shieldbreaker?! Leader of Princess Twilight's personal guard?"

Flash nodded in response to each question.

"Whoa, she was a bit of a legend. Though I don't know how much anypony really believed. When did she change?" Lightning Dust seemed a bit taken aback.

"His...I mean, her, birthday was on the 25th of April. And while I don't know the legends you speak of, I wouldn't discount anything if I were you," Flash shared, pride evident in his voice.

Dust growled deep in her chest, "Dammit. Discord must have wanted her out of the way. Princess Sparkle didn't trust anypony else to protect her. She hated needing to have a personal bodyguard, but she accepted Irony. Irony was a good leader, and I'd often heard she was ferocious in a fight. I always had a lot of respect for her."

"Well, being human for 25 years didn't change her much. She's exactly like she was back then. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a problem to deal with before I left," Flash took the next several minutes to explain about Kaitlyn getting kidnapped, how they found her, and what happened at the chop shop.

"So, she's really a master smith? And she has already recreated her armor, mace and shield?" Dust laughed. "I feel very sorry for anypony who stands in her way."

Flash nodded again as Dust continued, "Now, I remember being briefed, as a leader in the Wonderbolts, about her, ahem...abilities. Dash would know, and Soarin here, too. But none of us were ever told how she came by them, only what she could do. Do you know anything more?"

Flash shook his head, "No, unfortunately, I don't know anything else. I only saw her do it that once, and she hadn't finished her original transformation from Henry to Irony at the time." His head hung in shame, his ears flattened against his skull, "It's part of the reason I ran way."

"Judging by how much you ate last night and today, you had to've been on the road since you found your cutie mark," Soarin added.

"Before, actually," Flash said sadly. "Irony figured out that Kaitlyn and I were going to change. Kaitlyn knew, but I didn't. I said some pretty nasty things about them turning into ponies when I found out she was going to transform too. So she told me, in the bluntest of terms, that I would be going through it as well. It freaked me out. I should never have said the awful things I shouted at Irony. Henry was my brother for 25 years. Even though he changed, I still love him. I had no idea what to do. He turned into a fucking pony! And then I find out that I was going to follow in his hoofsteps? I flipped my wig! Though now, I guess I'm thankful that at least I didn't have to go through the sex change like Henry did."

Dust moved to comfort Flash, but before she got to him he exclaimed, "Holy shit!" He jumped off his stool and began to pace.

Soarin, looking at him in confusion, asked, "What's wrong, Flash?"

"Sherry! Damn it all to hell! I just up and left. I can't believe I left her there. We were just starting to get serious, too!" Flash shook his head.

"Oh man, that's hard. Do you want to call to see how things are going back home?"

A look of near panic crossed Flash's face, he dropped to the ground and covered his head with his hooves, "She's going to hate me now. Heck, we're not even the same species anymore!"

Dust tried to console him, "I wouldn't count her out. Love is a funny thing. You might want to give it a shot."

Flash just continued to lie there, whimpering softly. When it became clear that he wasn't ready to face this particular problem, Soarin tried changing the subject, "How did you manage to survive for nearly twenty-four hours more than Dust and I?"

Flash looked up at Soarin from his place on the floor, "When the order to flee was passed down, we scattered. In every possible direction. I chose south, at random. When the adrenaline finally stopped pumping and I looked at my surroundings, I found myself near Appaloosa.

"I saw a lone wagon trekking across the desert. I recognized it as belonging to Trixie. You know, from the show? I stopped to tell her about what had been happening, but she already knew most of it. She asked me to go with her, it seemed like a good idea, and I was scared, so I went with her.

"We tried to get away from any populated areas, figuring we could hide out in the desert until Discord had finished his bag of tricks. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Evidently he had a very long list of ponies he wanted to banish. Late that night, while we were resting from our long gallop, Discord appeared right in front of us.

"I'll never forget the words he said: 'Ahh, Miss Lulamoon, you would not believe the trouble I have gone through to track you down.' Then he looked at me and said: 'And you, my little Wonderbolt. You are all alone now. Your team is gone, your precious princesses done for.' Then the most evil smile I have ever seen in my entire life spread across his wicked visage.

"Trixie shouted for me to fly away as she started charging her horn to fling spells at the horrible monster. You know, she was actually a surprisingly good Mage. She managed to keep her cool as she launched blast after blast at Discord. When I saw him launch his curse, the one I'd already seen strike down so many other ponies, I just knew it was going to hit her. Without any active thought, I dove in front of her, hoping against hope that I could give her a little longer to somehow find a way to stop him."

Dust hopped off her chair, put a wing over Flash and said, "You two fought valiantly. I don't think anypony could have stopped him at that point. He'd already taken out the mane six, as well as the princesses. We were nothing more than mop-up operations to him."

Soarin joined them on the floor, and they all huddled there together, wings wrapped around each other.

After a while, Flash disentangled himself from the others. He excused himself and, exiting through the back door, flew up to land on a low-hanging cloud. He curled up, lay his head on his hooves and cried softly until he had no more tears.

Sometime after that Soarin hovered into view, saying "Hey Flash, mind if I join you?"

"Sure, pull up some water vapor," Flash replied, eventually. Soarin nodded and settled down nearby.

"Soarin, do you remember anything from Equestria?" Flash asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Feelings, insights, some bits and pieces. Not a lot of whole memories, aside from the fight with Discord. You?" he replied

"Yeah, that's what I figured. It's the same for me. I remember that I was in awe of you and Dust, but I don't really remember knowing you very well. Now that I've met you again, I really wish I remembered more."

"Don't we all..."

"I suppose that is the simple truth."

"At least we remember our human lives. Those are still real."

"That is a good point. And as I recall, you were a bit of a nerd back in school," Flash teased.

Soarin blushed, "Yeah, well, that's still true. Of course, I remember you as a wannabe jarhead that didn't know the first thing about computers."

"Guilty as charged. You know, I'm still extremely grateful you took pity on me and helped me in those tech classes. Without you, I never would have made the grades to stay in the cadet program," Flash said, smiling.

"Yeah, well, it went both ways. You helped me to get out of my shell once in a while, taught me how to have a little fun. Though it seems I never figured out how to pick good boyfriends," Soarin laughed, then, gesturing at himself, "of course, maybe this explains why..."

Flash laughed politely, then asked, "Do you think that's why we never dated?"

"No. We never dated because you never asked. If you had, I would have said yes, though I suppose that might have complicated things now..." came the reply.

"Well, maybe things turned out for the best, in light of our current situation. Thank you for always being a great friend to me. I don't know what I would have done without you, then and now."

"I'm glad that we met. You're an amazing pony, Flash. Now we can work together again, this time to help the other stranded ponies," Soarin said, extending a hoof to touch Flash's shoulder.

"Thanks again, Soarin. For everything."

"No problem, always glad to help a friend. Hey, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tired now. Let's hit the hay," Soarin yawned.

Flash nodded. They both stood up, said their goodnights, and flew down to the house and their rooms.