Megan's head throbbed as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain gathering at the back of her eyes. It pulsed with her heartbeat, building pressure that made her head feel like it was going to burst. Her mind was foggy as bits and pieces of the outside world tried to form around her, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Wallowing in her sorrows was one of Megan's favorite pastimes and, as of right now, there was no better time to feel sorry for herself.

"Why me?" she moaned.

Life had never been fair for her. Every day was a struggle to keep herself out of prison and to just buy food for herself and her band of thieves. Sure her methods for living were not ideal, but she had to do what she did to survive. Then when life took pity on her, a stupid ancient monster woke up to blast her into oblivion. Fate had a cruel sense of humor if that was its idea of punishing her. It wasn't like those baby Larvitars went to a poor home, nor was it bad she pointed out the irregularities of certain buyers to her employer which revealed them to be Pokemon Rangers. All those people she had scammed and profited off of recovered their loses and even went on to do better things than she ever did. Still, life had portrayed her as a villain and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Oh my goodness!" a soft voice called out. "Are you all okay?"

Megan groaned and tried to roll over, but her body felt heavy. This was all she needed right now; someone finding her washed up on shore who would either rob her silly or turn her in to a hospital where she would be immediately identified and detained. Great, just flipping great.

"Go away," she whined.

"Oh dear, you look hurt! Hold on, I'll get help," the voice said. It had a very soft tone, one that made Megan want to fall asleep.

"No. Please don't," Megan said.

"J-Just hold on! I'll be right back, you poor little thing!"

Megan could swear she heard wings flapping and tried to curl up, but her body refused to move yet again.

"Twilight!" the voice shouted as it faded into the distance.

Megan sighed as she lay still, trying to go back to sleep. Whoever found her was evidently not too bright if they named their pokemon Twilight, but she would probably come back with at least five Rangers.

"Oh well," she mumbled. "Might as well get some sleep before they interrogate me."

"Hey, wake up!" came a scratchy voice.

Megan groaned again as she rolled over, wanting to be as far away from the voice as possible.

"Go away," she said. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Aw, come on! You gotta get up! You've been asleep for the last four hours!" the voice responded. It sounded more like a whiny child than a Ranger. "Besides, the others are super boring! All they want to do is swim in the pond."

"Big deal," Megan replied. "Why don't you go join them?"

"Because I hate the water!" the voice shouted. "It feels all wrong on my hide and hurts when it moves!"

"Not my problem. Now leave me alone."

"Why?" the voice whined before a stomp rang out.

Megan turned her head to the voice, barely opening her eyes. Bright blobs of color assaulted her vision, so she made sure to squint as much as she could.

"Because I said so!" Megan shouted.

Another stomp rang out just as she finished speaking.

"You're no fun," it whined.

Megan rolled her eyes under her eyelids.

"Oh, grow up," she mumbled.

"Once I bite through these bars, I'll find some better friends than all of you."

Megan blinked, opening her eyes a little more.

"Bars?" she asked.

"Yeah, the ones keeping us in these cages," the voice said.

Megan turned to look around, but the colors were still mostly blobs, making it hard to distinguish anything, It was bright outside, which made it easy to see dark lines surrounding her. Groaning, she threw her head back and stared at the ceiling, watching as the mass of brown became more of a slab of wood than a mess.

"Perfect, just perfect," she moaned.

"What are you whining about?" came another, more sage-like voice. "They've been fawning over you more than anyone else."

"Shut up," Megan grunted. "I'm probably more of a high profile detainee than you."

"High profile? Sweetie, you may look pretty, but you ain't nowhere near better than me."

"Oh, can it, Helix," yet another voice said. "We're stuck here all the same. Getting snippy with her won't change that."

"Doesn't mean she deserves any more special treatment than you or me, Kubo," Helix answered with a venomous edge in his voice.

Megan groaned again and squeezed her eyes shut, wanting nothing more than the idiots to be quiet. She tried to cover her ears, but while she felt her arms move, they didn't touch her head. In fact, they felt fully outstretched, but she could feel them rubbing against her chest, which itself was devoid of one of her most definable features.

"I don't hear Shrimpy over there complaining about Lily getting more attention than him, so stop it already!" came the first voice.

"Rex, I said shut up!" Helix called.

Snapping her head forward, Megan looked down at herself. A mass of bright blue stung her eyes and she blinked, trying to brush away the games the light was playing on them. However, blinking only revealed more features, such as four stumpy appendages and a tail that swished against the wood below her. The body was round and plump, almost like a ball, and a long neck ran from the body, right up to where her head was. Megan screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to push herself away from the body.

"What is this?" she screeched.

"Ouch," Rex whined. "Too much noise."

Megan screamed louder as she tried to back herself away, but the body responded to her every move. The front legs wiggled about when she tried to move her arms and the rear ones kicked in the air when she meant to push with her legs. Her other appendage, the tail, swung wildly from side to side, as if it was trying to swim.

"What is this?" she shouted. "What happened to me?"

Without being able to get an answer, a loud crash shook the cage. Megan snapped her head up to see probably the most bizarre sight she had seen in the last ten seconds. A tall purple ponyta stood in a doorway with wings outstretched and horn glowing while the gigantic eyes looked around the room. Instead of fire, the mane on the back of its head and neck hung down like Megan's hair.

"What's wrong now?" the ponyta asked, causing Megan's jaw to drop. "You all were making so much noise..."

As soon as the ponyta finished speaking, its eyes locked onto Megan.

"Oh thank Celestia!" it shouted in a very feminine voice as it ran up to the bars. "You finally woke up!"

Megan screamed again as she tried to push herself back, managing to only roll over a couple times. She huddled against the back of the cell while the giant mutant ponyta stared in.

"Aww, it's okay," she said brightly. "I know you're scared and I'm not going to hurt you."

Megan shook with fear as she tried to force herself into a ball, wishing this nightmare would end soon.

"G-Go away!" she shrieked.

The ponyta tilted her head, revealing a small frown.

"You poor thing. I'll get Fluttershy. She found you, so maybe she can calm you down."

Thankfully the ponyta turned around and took off back through the door, leaving it wide open. Megan, however, remained in a ball as she stared at the door, still shaking from the shock.

"Well, she's taken a liking to you," Helix said.

"She's also the only female here besides Lily," Kubo snorted.

"I think it's because she's pretty," Rex said. "She does have those big eyes and colorful eyebrows, like the pony."

Megan risked glancing around at that point, wondering what other horrors this nightmare had. She got her answer when she saw a dinosaur with a huge, tooth-filled jaw smiling at her from behind a set of wooden bars.

"See?" it said with Rex's voice. "She almost looks just like them!"

Megan screamed again, causing the dinosaur to flinch and back away, trying to rub its head with tiny arms.

"Too loud! Too loud!" it shouted back.

Megan kept screaming as she spun around, seeing a rather large spiral seashell sitting behind the bars on the other side. At the bottom, tons of little blue tentacles wiggled around while it looked at her with eyes that seemed to peek out from under the shell.

"Will you please stop it!" the creature said with Helix's voice. "You're only going to make it worse!"

"Yes, please knock it off!" came Kubo's voice. Megan snapped her head up to see another cage on top of Helix's where two glowing red eyes looked down from underneath a brown dome-shaped shell. "You'll upset Archy and then he won't--"

A loud screech mixed in with Megan's screaming and she noticed Kubo back away from the edge of his cage.

"Noise! Noise! Make lots of noise!" a new voice shouted just as loud as her.

"Dang it, now look at what you've done!" Helix roared.

"What on Equestria is going on here?" demanded the voice of the purple ponyta.

Megan snapped back to the doorway to see the mutated ponyta standing there with a few new ones. A yellow one with an extremely long set of pink hair stood next to her while a much brighter pink one jumped around behind them.

"Oh dear, they're all upset!" the yellow one said in a very familiar soft voice.

"I know what can calm them down!" the pink one shouted. "A 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!"

"No, Pinkie!" the purple one shouted over the screeching. "That's the last thing they need right now!"

"Aw, come on, Twilight!" Pinkie whined. "At least let me do one for the birdie! Then he can shout himself silly and nopony would care!"

Twilight sighed and turned to the yellow one. "Fluttershy, can you calm them down?"

"Uh, I think so," Fluttershy answered before taking a step forward. She looked around at each cage before fixing her gaze on the spot above Megan's. "Easy there, Mr. Birdie," she cooed. "There's no need for all that."

"Noise! Noise! Need to make noise so the monsters don't come!" the screeching voice continued.

"Oh, no. There's nothing that will hurt you. We won't and all the other ones can't get to you up there," Fluttershy answered.

"No monsters? Okay!" the voice shouted before quieting down.

Everything breathed a collected sigh of relief at the welcome silence. Megan flopped her head back and stared back up at the top of the cage, wondering what could've induced this kind of dream. She knew days of psychic pokemon therapy would be needed just to rid herself of the memories of this when she woke up, much less the horror of having her body mutated.

"They seem fine to me," Fluttershy said, peeking into the cages one at a time. "I've never seen these kinds of animals before, but they all look healthy right now."

"Oh good," Twilight said, letting out the breath she was holding. "Then I can still study them and find out what they are and where they came from."

Megan glanced back up to see the two giant green eyes of Fluttershy staring into her cage before flopping her head back down. She had seen just about enough to be sure she was either dreaming or on one heck of a drug.

"Aww, she looks so sad in there," Fluttershy cooed as her hoof pressed against the cage. "Can you come here, cutie?"

Megan froze at that while she could hear Rex stifle a laugh. Did the hallucinogenic induced apparition just talk to her like she was a Poochyena?

"Pretty please?" Fluttershy asked. "I promise I won't hurt you."

Megan lifted her head and glared at the mutated Ponyta known as Fluttershy. If this was a nightmare, she would most definitely try to maim her in some way when she went up to her. Then again, pain or fear of pain always woke someone up from a dream. Deciding she was willing to take the punishment for now and have it removed later, she rolled over and tried to stand up, but found her legs and arms were too weak to support her, making her fall forward and slam her chin into the bottom of the cage.

"Ow!" she cried. "Ow, ow, ow, ouch!"

"Oh no! Did you hurt yourself?" Fluttershy asked, sounding like she was struggling not to gasp.

Megan closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear away the stinging in her chin.

"Twilight, we need to get them all some blankets and pillows right away! They all look like babies!" Fluttershy said, turning away from the cage. "Some of them don't even know how to walk yet!"

Megan stared after Fluttershy, wondering if she thought hard enough that Fluttershy would regress to an egg. Apparently her nightmarish apparitions were just as dumb as she thought they were.

"I'll see what I can find. Pinkie, come on!" Twilight said as she spun around and took off through the doorway. Pinkie followed, jumping each step of the way.

"Did she just call us all babies?" Helix asked.

"We all haven't evolved, Helix. Of course we look like infants to them," Kubo said.

"I most certainly am not a child!" Helix shouted, causing Fluttershy to turn around and look at him.

"Don't worry," she cooed. "Twilight's getting some things to make you all comfortable."

"I'd be more comfortable out of this cage and in the pond again," Helix answered.

Megan closed her eyes and pressed her head to her chest, wishing this stupid dream would end already. There was no way all of this was real. She was not a pokemon, there were no mutant ponytas keeping her in a cage and there was no talking pokemon. This was either a very surreal nightmare or a hallucination brought on by oxygen deprivation, some extreme drug she took or a psychic type pokemon trying to get her to admit something.

"You do that a lot. Is it because your head feels nice?" Rex asked.

"Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!" Megan screamed. "You're all not real!"

"Really? I sure feel like I'm real," Rex replied.

"Stop it! I give! I'll tell you anything you want, just make it stop!"

"Sweetie, I know waking up here is a shock, but you screaming is not changing anything," Helix quipped.

"Oh no," Fluttershy said. "Did you hurt yourself again?"

It was at that point Megan decided there was no other alternative. Opening her eyes, she stared at one of the stumpy legs and lunged forward, clamping her teeth down on it. Pain rocketed through her body as every instinct screamed at her to let go, but she but harder, hoping that either she would wake up or the illusion would break.

"TWILIGHT!" Fluttershy screamed. "TWILIGHT, HELP ME! ONE OF THEM IS BITING ITSELF!"

Megan felt her cage rattle violently and looked up to see a mass of yellow approaching her. She closed her eyes and forced her jaw to try and close more, cringing as tears started to stream down her face. In an instant, she felt something wrap around her and she was pulled out of the cage. Glancing up, she saw Fluttershy looking down at her, her giant eyes now tiny and a terrified from on her face.

"Stop it!" she shouted as Megan felt something grab her neck and begin to pull. "Stop hurting yourself!"

Megan renewed her effort in attempting to wake up when all the other voices began shouting.

"Good Arceus, knock it off!" Kubo roared.

"Quit biting yourself! You're making it more upset!" Helix shouted.

"Bite with your back teeth!" Rex called out. "You bite harder with the back ones!"

"Noise! Noise! Make lots of noise!" Archy began shouting again.

"We're here! What's going--" Twilight said as she came through the door, locking onto Megan. "Dear Celestia! Fluttershy, make it stop!"

"I'm trying!" Fluttershy shouted, her voice cracking. "She only bites harder when I pull!"

Megan squeezed her eyes shut yet again as the pain became too much. Surprisingly, she hadn't felt her skin break, but there was sure to be some nasty marks on it when she was finished. Giving in, she let go as Fluttershy tugged her head away, stretching it out to the full.

"Quick, get something so she doesn't bite herself again!" Fluttershy yelled.

Megan blearily looked around as she saw Twilight approach her, the horn on her head glowing.

"We'll use rubber bands for now," she said as Megan saw black shapes wrapped around her head before snapping her jaw shut. "That should keep her from biting herself until I can find a muzzle small enough for her..."

Twilight broke eye contact and looked around.

"Is it colder in here?" she asked.

Fluttershy looked up from Megan and glanced around before she saw a snowflake drift to the ground where it instantly melted.

"Twilight, did you see that?" she asked with a hint of nervousness.

"See what?"

"There was a snowflake in here," Fluttershy answered before turning to Twilight. She gasped when she saw another snowflake land on her mane.

"Feels like winter in here," Twilight mumbled as she rubbed a hoof against the opposite leg.

"Twilight, I think it's snowing in here," Fluttershy whispered before glancing at the ceiling.

Above them, a mass of roiling gray clouds formed a perfect circle around them. It took a bit, but sure enough another snowflake fell from them, spiraling down before landing on Flutterhsy's nose.

"What in Equestria?" Twilight gasped, staring up at the clouds. "Where did that come from?"

Fluttershy looked back at the strange creature in her hooves, but it looked like it had fallen back asleep.

"Twilight, what are these things?" Fluttershy asked, dreading to know the answer.