Chapter 7

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"Get up you lazy piece of shit!" I hear a voice I don't recognize say.

I start to stir, only to feel an excruciating pain as I'm kicked in the side by a booted foot.

"I said get up you stupid fuck! Get your ass out of bed now or I'll fucking bust your face in!" the voice yells at me.

I feel my body rise up off the floor, where evidently I've been sleeping. I look down at the floor and see the blanket that had fallen off me when I stood and remember this is where I belong.

What the hell is this? I think to myself as my body starts to move of its own volition. It seems that it at least knows what to do, even though I don't have a clue. I walk out of the shack I've been in and accept the meager piece of bread and cheese shoved into my hands as I walk out to the field.

I look around and see farmland everywhere I look, field after field of corn and remember that it's my job to start picking, along with the others. I look down at my body and it isn't how I remember it. My skin is loose over my flesh, I can feel that I have strength, but I'm a lot leaner than I remember. I'm wearing little more than rags. Good thing it's not cold, I guess, I think to myself.

I get to the corn and start picking it, throwing it into baskets that are nearby, one ear at a time. I'm working in a group of about ten people, most of them smaller and frailer looking than me. I can't remember how I got here.

As I'm trying to figure out how I got here and how long I've been here, I feel a searing pain on my back and hear the crack of a whip.

"You stupid lazy oaf! Move faster you fucking moron! If you don't pick up the pace you don't get no lunch or dinner," came the vehement voice from behind me. I don't even bother looking to see who is speaking; I just try to pick up the pace.

A few minutes later I stumble and feel the whip again. This time I am angry and turn toward my attacker, a retort upon my lips, but they are having none of it and begin to whip me in a frenzy. I try to raise my hands to protect me, but my body doesn't respond and I fall to the ground. I don't know how many times I am whipped, but it is still going on as I slip into unconsciousness.

I wake after an unknown about of time, my body screaming in pain. I moan and can feel hot tears streaming down my face from the agony.

Suddenly I look up, sensing something awry, and see that my body is enveloped in a purple light. I feel very strange, my pain is stripped away, and as I look at my body it begins to change. I'm floating there, my body changing, when everything goes black and I know no more.

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I awaken slightly confused, my dream having dulled my wits. I find I am not alone in my bed, then my mind starts to piece together the events of the previous evening.

I lift the blanket and look down at our entwined forms, grinning as the details from last night all come back to me. I gaze upon Kaitlyn's beautiful body and lick my lips at how yummy she looks. Then I turn my gaze upon my own body, knowing that there are going to be more changes that have taken place while I was asleep.

I can see that my teats are more pronounced and find, upon touching them, that they are even more sensitive than last night. I look further down and see that my legs are completely encased in midnight blue fur, and that it is creeping up my waist. I can also see that there are some patches of fur on my arms, and that my musculature seems a little less well defined.

I sigh after cataloguing the changes I can see, wondering if there are any that I can't see yet. I wrap my arms around Kate as I feel her begin to stir.

"Morning," she mumbles to me as she stretches. She never has been a morning person, I laugh silently to myself.

"Good morning, beautiful," I say to her.

She finishes her stretch and says, "Your voice is higher pitched. I thought it was a little bit last night, but wasn't sure because we hadn't talked in a long time. Now, though, I can definitely tell the difference."

"Really?" I ask. "It sounds the same to me. Strange."

She kisses me and says, "I like it. You sound more like what you are, my girlfriend."

I laugh lightly, "I suppose that's true. It's still a little odd being a girl after 25 years of being a guy. One thing I'm glad of, though, is that my sexual preference hasn't changed." I grin at Kate and wiggle my eyebrows.

"Yeah, well evidently mine has!" Kate laughs and swats my shoulder, "Show a girl one night of sexual bliss and suddenly she becomes a complete slut!"

"What can I say, you've shown me how wonderful this new body can be...I can't believe I passed out from the pleasure you gave me! That's never happened to me before!" I say in disbelief.

"Well, I can't believe you had multiple orgasms your very first time as a girl! That is so unfair!" she replies with a grin.

"That's only because I have such an awesome lover," I say and watch as she blushes.

"Yeah, well, that and you have REALLY sensitive tits," she teases me.

I laugh and say, "I guess that's true. I never knew nipples were so sensitive!"

Kate just smiles at me and hops out of bed, headed toward the bathroom. She shoots me a glance and says, "Dibs on the shower," and runs inside.

I jump up and run after her and catch her just as she's climbing into the shower, with the hot water already running. I follow her into the shower and kiss her, running my hands all over her body. She grins at me and says, "Behave yourself; we need to actually get clean. I'm pretty sure I smelled breakfast before coming in here, so we can't take too long."

I give her a pouty face and say, "Okay, if I have to..." giving her puppy dog eyes.

"Well...maybe just a little bit of making out..." she trails off as I play with her nipples.

In the end we took more than a little while, and used up all the hot water before we were done. We had to finish shampooing our hair with cold water, and were both shivering by the time we got out. Totally worth it, though...that was SO amazing! I can't believe how hot I am for Moon Shadow! I think to myself. Then my silly grin slips off my face as I realize what I just said. I called her Moon Shadow again...what does it mean? I quickly put the goofy grin back on my face so Kate doesn't see my look and ask me what's wrong. I don't want to try to explain this until I know what it means.

Kate dries herself off fairly quickly, while I am having great trouble with my mane and tail, "Ugh, I never knew washing and drying this much hair could take so much effort! How do you do it so quickly?"

"Well, you actually have more hair than I do now, especially if you count your tail. But the answer really is just lots of practice. It's one of the reasons women take so much longer than men to get ready to go anywhere," she replies.

"I guess I'll never be able to complain about how long you take getting ready. Seems like I'll be the holdup," I say.

"Oh, definitely. And I can't imagine how you'll do it without hands..." she trails off, realizing that may be a tender subject.

"I guess I'll just have to have you wash and dry me," I say, trying to make light of her comment.

Kate smiles slightly in gratitude and says, "We might be able to arrange that."

"Good, then I won't have a dirty mane and tail all the time. You know what they say, cleanliness is next to godliness. Or something like that," I say.

Kate smirks at me and pulls out a brush and begins to brush her hair, "You'll want to brush your hair too, otherwise it'll become a ratty mess and be impossible to deal with."

She hands me the brush as she finishes with her hair and I stand in front of the bathroom mirror, confronting my new visage. I notice that all of my facial features are subtly different. None of them are changed enough for me to say what has changed, but the overall cast of my features is decidedly more female. Of course the purple hair doesn't really help with that situation. I sigh as I start trying to run the brush through my mane.

"This is a lot harder than it looks," I say to Kate.

"Here, let me help you. You'll never get it done at that rate," She says as she comes over and takes the brush from my ineffective fingers and starts pulling it gently through my hair.

"Thank you," I say as I watch her in the mirror as she works.

"No problem, it's just like brushing the sister I never had's hair," she teases. I scowl at her in the mirror. She kisses my cheek and says, "I'm just teasing you."

"I know," I sigh. "It's just a little hard...everything keeps changing. I think I'm getting used to being female, but looking in the mirror and seeing the changes... I don't know. I'm not even sure what is bothering me more, transforming into a pony, or being a girl. Every time I look at myself, I'm different. The changes are becoming more pronounced."

"I can't pretend that I have any idea of what this is like for you, but I do know that I wouldn't handle it nearly as well as you are. I also know that you are beautiful, if you don't mind me saying. It may sound odd, but I really like your mane, and I think your tail is sexy," she says, blushing at the last. I swish my tail at her to show it off a bit and smile.

"Thank you...it's oddly comforting to hear you say that. I think I'm going to be okay, I just have my moments, you know?" I say. She nods in reply, rubbing her face in my mane.

"I suppose we should get dressed and go have breakfast," I say, not particularly wanting to end our time together, but knowing that we should start the day.

"Yeah, you're right. Besides, all of our nocturnal activities have made me quite hungry this morning," she grins at me and now it's my turn to blush.

"Well, we did expend quite a bit of energy," I say with a smirk. "And had a lot of fun."

She laughs and heads out to the bedroom while I watch her naked body intently, licking my lips at the view. She turns her head and catches me and says, "Oh stop it, you. Come get dressed."

"Okay, okay...fine, party pooper!" I retort, moving out of the doorway and into the bedroom.

Kate just shakes her head and laughs at me and pulls some fresh clothes from her suitcase. I can't keep from watching her as she starts putting on her clothes. She's just as sexy putting on her clothes as taking them off... I think to myself. She catches me watching her again and, laughing, throws her underwear from last night at me. I catch them and hold them up to my nose, inhaling her scent. I can immediately feel my new sex getting damp again.

I shake my head, trying to snap myself out of it. Have to focus on moving forward! Can't let myself get distracted. I chide myself. I step over to my closet and, opening the door, begin to peruse my clothes. I look through all my clothes and realize I'm dissatisfied with everything in my closet.

"Oh wow...I think my transformation from male to female is complete," I comment aloud.

"What do you mean?" asks Kaitlyn, tilting her head to the side to look at me.

"Well, I just went through my entire closet...and realized I have nothing to wear! It's all so boring..." I say, feeling just a little silly.

Kate laughs and says, "Oh, you're right, you are totally a girl now. Well, let's see..." she comes over and starts poking in my closet. Soon she pulls out a pair of dark blue sweat pants and a black Tee shirt. "It's not great, but really all that you have that will fit right now, but...hey, do you have a pair of scissors?"

"Yeah, what do you need them for?" I ask, rummaging through one of my dresser drawers and finally coming up with a pair.

She takes them from me and says, "You'll see." Then turns and does something to the sweats with them. She turns back and hands the sweats to me, saying, "There, those should fit better now. Let me see your underwear."

I just shrug and hand her a pair of my underwear, which she immediately cuts a slit in and hands back to me, "Try them on."

I pull them on over my hooves, up my legs and onto my waist. Kate comes up behind me and fiddles with my tail for a moment and I realize that she is maneuvering it through the slit in the briefs she just made. I take the sweats from her and put them on, finding the slit in the back of them and working my tail through it myself.

"Wow, that's a lot more comfortable than either shoving my tail down my pants or wearing the pants under it!" I thank Kate with a grin.

She tosses me the shirt and I put it on. Now we're finally both dressed and ready for the day. I take her hand and we start clopping our way down the hall to the kitchen, where I can hear Jim and Sherry talking quietly.

"Well hello, Miss Irony," I hear Sherry say as I step into the kitchen. "You look very nice this morning."

I blush a little at her compliment, "Thank you Trixie, you look very nice yourself."

She gets a funny look on her face, "Did you just call me Trixie?"

"Yeah she did," Kate answers from behind me. "If it makes you feel any better, she called me Moon Shadow last night."

I flush a bright red now and mumble an apology.

"It's okay," says Sherry, but it's obvious to me that she's confused, but she decides to let it go.

"So...which one of you is the screamer?" asks Jim with a huge smirk on his face.

I didn't think I could get any redder, but I do as I slowly wave to him, wishing I could just melt into the floor and disappear.

"Jim! Behave yourself!" Kate reprimands him.

"I'm just teasing...though I actually thought it would be you, Kate. It didn't sound like He...um, Irony to me..." Jim trails off, realizing he's put his foot in it by the look on Kate's face.

Before she can say anything he raises his hands in a warding off gesture and says, "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."

Kate just continues to glare at him as I turn away to hide my red face, for all the good that it'll do me. I spot a bowl of freshly sliced fruit and help myself to some of it, putting it on a plate and getting a fork out of the silverware drawer. I get another plate and put some fruit on it for Kate too.

While my back is still turned, I hear Sherry come up behind me and whisper to me, "Don't let him bother you, he's just trying to make light of the situation."

I nod my head, knowing Jim even better than she does and knowing this is how he deals with things that are hard for him to get a handle on. Always with the joking when things got hard.

"Truth be told," she continues, "I was worried that my screaming might have kept the two of you awake..." And she blushes too.

"Well, I did hear you, but didn't want to embarrass you like Jim did Irony," Kate interjects.

"I didn't hear anything...I passed out from Kate's, ah, ministrations," I whisper. Sherry covers a gasp with her hand as she looks from me to Kate.

"Oh my...I've never experienced anything like that, though admittedly last night was close..." Sherry says quietly, not wanting Jim to hear and get a big head.

Speaking of Jim, "Hey, what's with all the whispering? I said I was sorry, and I mean it. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Irony. I just wanted to tease you two a little."

I look over at him and say, "Okay, I'll forgive you just this once."

Jim stands and, walking over to me, pulls me into a real hug and whispers another apology into my ear. Then, leaning back and looking at me, he says, "I kind of forgot for a moment that you're my 'big' sister now instead of my brother. It won't happen again, I promise."

I punch him in the shoulder and say, "Hey, just because I'm your sister instead of your brother doesn't mean I can't still kick your ass. You'd better remember that." I grin, and he returns my grin.

"Careful Irony, too much testosterone and you might turn back into a dude," Kate warns, making me laugh.

"If only it were that easy!" I say.

Kate gets herself a cup of coffee and gratefully accepts the plate of fruit I hand her, taking a bite of some honeydew melon between sips of coffee.

"So, how are you guys this morning?" she asks.

"Pretty good, we slept pretty well," Sherry answers as Jim takes her into his arms. "How about you?"

Kate smirks, "Well, I've just found out I'm a lesbian, and I never want to go back...oh and I slept well too."

I shake my head, laughing, and then say, "I slept well. Except..." I trail off for a moment and then continue, "I had a horrible dream."

"What kind of dream?" Kate asks, concern plain in her voice, so I explain my dream to them, leaving nothing out.

"Do you think it's another memory?" asks Jim, seeming concerned.

"Well...I don't know. It felt like my other dreams, so yeah, it felt like it could be a memory. But I was human in this dream, at least until the end...and I know I have never experienced that in my human life," I respond.

"You said your body was transforming...were you turning into a pony?" asks Sherry.

"I'm not entirely sure...but I suspect so," I answer her.

"What do you think it means?" asks Kate, nibbling on her fruit.

"I wish I knew. My dream about Discord made sense in how it pertains to what's happening to me now, but this doesn't really make any sense to me yet," I say.

"Well damn, when you said you had another dream, it got my hopes up that it would help us figure out some more about what is going on," says Jim in frustration.

I nod, "I hoped so too. It's really irritating not knowing what's going on," I say.

"Speaking of which, I want to spend some more time today researching the net. I think there's something out there to find, I just need to ferret it out," Sherry says positively.

"Okay, that makes sense, and it at least is more than nothing. What should the rest of us do, though?" I ask the group.

"I keep in touch with a couple of the guys from our old unit, Jack and Tom, you remember them?" Jim says and I nod in response, knowing where he's going with this... Jim continues, "You know they always had a way of knowing things that no one else could find out..." He trails off, looking at me for permission.

I sigh, "Yeah, you should call them, but don't tell them what's going on, just see if they'll share any information they have on strange happenings. I hate to involve anyone else, but if anyone has a clue, it'll be them."

"That leaves you and me," Kate says to me. "What should we do?"

"Frankly, I'm open to suggestions. It's not like there's a lot else for us to do. Guys?" I say, at a loss for where to go next. I feel utterly useless.

"Do you still have all of mom and dad's old stuff in storage?" Jim asks me out of the blue.

"Yeah, I do. Why?" I return, not understanding what he's getting at.

"Well, it occurs to me that there might be some clues in their stuff, namely the old adoption paperwork, or maybe some letters or articles that could help. Did you ever go through it?" Jim explains.

I shake my head, "I never did. I just couldn't do it back when we put it in storage, and later it didn't seem important. It's a long shot, but I suppose it's possible they knew something, or had some information they didn't understand, that could help. Good Idea, Jim. Kate and I will go over to the storage unit and begin searching. If you find anything call me, I'll have my phone."

"Okay. I don't know if any of us will find anything, but better than sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting for the inevitable, right?" Jim states. I nod and clasp hands with him before Kate and I say our goodbyes and head out to the car.

"How much stuff do you have left over from your parents?" Kate asks me.

"Unfortunately, quite a lot. I've got a 10' by 30' storage unit that is almost full of their old stuff. I guess you accumulate a lot of stuff over a lifetime. The good news is we shouldn't have to go through all of it, just their old paperwork. The bad news is that there is still a lot of paper to go through, and I'm not sure how well organized it is," I answer, unlocking the car and opening Kate's door for her.

"How long do you think this will take?" she asks as she slides into the passenger seat.

"Well, unless we get lucky, my guess is most, if not all, of the day," I say.

"I guess we'd better get moving then," Kate responds, smiling hopefully up at me.

"Indeed," I respond, climbing into the driver's seat and cranking the engine over.

The engine roars to life and I back her out of the garage and down the drive. It doesn't take long to get to the storage unit, as it is pretty close to my house. We pull up to the automatic gate and I enter my code. Once the gate opens wide enough I pull through and down an alleyway to the unit I rent. These units open to the outside, so I just pull up alongside it and get out of the car. I use my key to unlock the roll up door and open it.

We step inside and I pull the chain on the lone light bulb, revealing what was left of my parents' things after they passed away. I stop for a moment as I feel a wave of emotion flow over me. Even after all these years...seeing the things from their lives still has a profound effect on me, I realize in sorrow.

"Wow...this is going to be harder than I thought," I say. "I didn't think seeing their stuff would have this much of an effect on me."

"Are you going to be okay?" Kate asks me.

"Yeah...I will be. Not like we have much choice, anyway, right? We need answers, and they might be in here," I say in response.

After another moment I right the overturned dining room table that has been, up to this point, occupying the side wall near the door. I then grab a box marked simply 'papers' and set it on the table, "I'll dig through the boxes and see if I can get all the ones with paper in them out here, can you start digging through this box and see if there is anything important in there?"

"No problem," Kate replies, opening the box and digging in.

I start shuffling boxes around, setting any that say anything about paperwork aside and opening others to be sure they aren't mislabeled. I soon have found four more boxes full of papers. I move them up next to the table and continue my search. After another hour of moving and opening boxes I have found two more likely suspects but, more importantly, I have managed to make my way through all the rest of the boxed items in the unit.

I carry the last two boxes to the table and, setting them down, say, "Well that's all of them, eight boxes of papers out of all those boxes."

"I finished the first box and am about halfway through the second one. The first box was all old receipts, and this one seems to be old tax information. Nothing too exciting yet," Kate says, pushing her hair out of her face.

I grab a box at random and put it on the table, open it up and start to dig. This box seems to be Jim's and my old report cards and school work that mom must have saved for us, but I diligently work my way through the whole thing before moving to the next one. The next box is a bit more promising. The first packet I pull out has mom and dad's marriage license as well as certified copies of their birth certificates. The next pack of papers I come to has Jim's and my birth certificates, as well as our adoption papers.

"Jackpot," I say.

"You find something?" Kate asks me.

"Not necessarily, but this is what I was looking for as the most likely place: adoption papers," I tell her.

I begin looking through the file on myself first. There isn't a lot in it, but what is there has a fair bit of information. I was born to a 16 year old mother who didn't know, or wouldn't admit to knowing, who my father was. There was a note in the file suggesting that my existence may have been due to rape and that my mother was afraid to reveal the truth. I clench my jaw tightly as I read that, I hope either that isn't right, or that the bastard who sired me in this world got his in the end. Sadly, I will never know...

I slowly calm myself down and continue reading the file. I immediately went up for adoption and amazingly enough went from the hospital I was born in home with the parents I had grown up with. That's amazing...especially since mom and dad always said Jim and I came home with them at the same time. Wait, why was l in the hospital long enough to go home at the same time as Jim?

I look, but there isn't an explanation about that in the adoption file. Next I look at Jim's file, and his comes across as a little more normal. Born to teen parents, both listed on his birth certificate, mom 16, dad 17. Adopted within a few days of birth by our parents. Okay, nothing really interesting in his file, not that I expected there to be, I think to myself.

I set the adoption files, birth certificates, and our parents' marriage and birth certificates aside to take home with me and continue digging in the box. The next things I pull out of the box appear to be medical records.

Out of curiosity I open the first one. The folder contains the records from my birth. I pause for a moment and then take both folders and sit down on the ground with my back up against the wall.

"Did you find something?" Kaitlyn asks me, looking up from the box she is going through.

"A minor mystery, and maybe the answer in the form of my birth medical records," I reply. "I doubt it'll amount to anything, but I want to know for sure now." Kate nods and goes back to digging through her box.

I reopen the folder and start reading, a lot of it is vital signs and the known medical history of my birth mother. Then down at the bottom of the page is a note stating: baby boy being held for observation due to abnormal skin color. It goes on to explain: At first believed to be O2 deficiency, baby O2 SATs remain normal. Then it states: Mother refuses to breast feed, and I quote, "That dark blue monster."

A note added at a later date states: Abnormal coloring lessens day by day, normal hue is returning, baby expected to be ready for release in five more days' time. The last note on the page states: baby boy returned to normal healthy color this AM, scheduled for release later today. That note is dated the same day that I was adopted by my parents and taken home, the same date that Jim was adopted.

Holy shit! I think I just found my smoking gun! No way is it coincidence that my fur is dark blue and my skin was when I was born! I exult to myself before calling Kate over and sharing my find with her.

Kate looks at the medical report and I see her eyes get really wide, and then she says, "Well...I would say that is indicative of your situation. How fucking crazy is that? It can't possibly be a coincidence that your skin was not only blue, but dark blue, at birth. The fur growing in on your body is midnight blue, for crying out loud!"

I nod to her in response and then say, "I'll take this home with us and read the rest later. This is interesting, but it doesn't say how I came to be here. I'm going to read Jim's report and then finish that box. Have you found anything important?" I ask.

"No, not a damn thing," she replies, shaking her head.

"Okay, we'll keep looking, there might be something still," I say. Kate nods and goes back to work on the box of papers on the table in front of her.

I open Jim's medical record and start perusing it. It's actually almost identical to mine, in that we were both born in the same hospital and had healthy vital statistics when we were born. I look down at the notes section and see that there are a couple of notes, the first one says: baby boy under observation for apparent jaundice, skin more orange-gold than usual yellow color. The next note says: tests for usual causes of jaundice all come back negative. The last note, dated the next day, states: baby skin color starting to return to normal, with no cause found for original jaundice, being held overnight with planned release tomorrow.

I lean back and think, Whoa, does this think what I think it means? Can it possibly be? No...it can't be. I mean, what are the odds? They have to be like winning the fucking lottery or something! I feel...I don't know for sure what I feel.

"Kate, can you come here for a moment? I need you to look at this and tell me what you see," I say, trying to keep my voice calm.

"What is it?" she asks as she comes over. I hand her the file and she begins to look it over. After a couple of minutes of looking she stops and looks at me, "Does this say what I think it says?"

"I don't know...that's why I'm asking you, to see if you see the same thing I do," I say.

"What I see...is a second baby born in less than a week with an abnormal skin color, this time golden orange instead of blue, but still, without any kind of assignable cause. What I think I see...is another pony, with a different color of fur. One that matches the normal skin color of a human being a bit more closely, and so may be discounted as a normal malady. But what do we tell Jim?" she finally asks me.

"I'm not sure. We could be wrong, it could be nothing and we're just jumping to conclusions. But I guess we'll know for sure in a few days," I say.

"What makes you so sure we'll know then? What's so special about the next few days?" Kaitlyn asks.

"My changes started on the morning of my 25th birthday, starting with the cutie marks on my hips, and I suspect that if he is going to exhibit the same kinds of changes, that it will be on his 25th birthday. Which is the 1st of May," I reply.

"I'd forgotten his birthday was the 1st, which is funny because you would think I of all people would remember it. I remember now, how we used to celebrate all of our birthdays together, because yours is so close to his, and since the first of May is my birthday too..." she trails off, obviously thinking about the coincidence.

I ponder the new information for a few more minutes and finally say, "I think we need to warn him of the possibility. We don't know for sure, but I'd rather say something and have nothing come of it, than say nothing and have it come to pass. I know I would have liked some warning, even though it probably really wouldn't have helped."

"Yeah, I think you have a good point. I know I would want to know if it were me," she says, thoughtfully.

I hold my hand out to her and ask, "Would you come and sit down with me for a little bit?"

"Of course I will," she says, taking my hand and lowering herself gently into my lap.

I sit there quietly for several minutes, just holding her close to me. I kiss the top of her head and just look at her, deep in thought. I squeeze her tightly and finally say, in a low voice, "Kate, I think I need to tell you something."

She glances back at me and smiles a small, faintly sad, smile. Then she speaks quietly, "I think that maybe I already know, Irony. I have kind of been wondering about it since last night. And then what I heard this morning made me think even harder about it." She groans lightly as she stretches her legs and arms out, then, "When is Sherry's birthday?" she asks me.

"Um, just after midnight on May the second. She and Jim thought it was an amazing coincidence they were born only minutes apart, since he was born just shy of midnight on the first. I thought it was kind of a crazy coincidence too," I respond, still being rather quiet.

“So we have to tell them, don’t we? We can’t leave them in the dark about this, even if it comes to nothing in the end! But how do we tell them? We can’t just come straight out and say, ‘hey, by the way, you guys are both going to start turning into ponies in a couple of days too.’ What are we going to say?” Kate asks me, almost desperately pleading with me to provide an answer.

"I think that's almost exactly what we're going to have to do, though. There really isn't a gentle way to put this. We have to be honest and up front with them, we can't beat around the bush about it at all. I just hope they don't think I've lost my last marble with this transformation. I'd rather not be committed, or experimented on," I say, trying to make a joke at the end, but it just falls flat.

"That's not funny, Irony. Don't even joke about things like that. It would destroy something deep inside me if you were taken away like that," Kate says, almost crying.

"I knew it as soon as I said it, I'm sorry baby," I say to her, squeezing her tight again.

"I'll forgive you this time, just don't do it again," she says. Then she asks me, "So...do you know who they are? What ponies they will become?"

"If I'm right, and the more I think about it, the more I believe, Sherry will be 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' and Jim is Flash Sentry. I guess only time will tell..." I trail off.

I bite my lip for a moment and then decide I can't leave it to chance... I say to Kaitlyn, "Baby, you do know what this means, right? It means..."

She lays her head on my shoulder and sighs into my neck and I feel a tear drop onto my skin as she says in a barely audible whisper, "It means that I'm Moon Shadow, doesn't it?"