Part 3 – Viral and Exile

Sam fell out of bed the next morning. He kept thinking too hard about what he was doing, and he kept forgetting how to walk and move. He found that if he didn’t think about it, he was fine; but his mind would always gravitate towards it.

His parents were due back on Monday, and Sam didn’t know what he was going to do. The reality of just what had occurred began to sink in. He doubted his sanity, but decided to roll with it and at least believe everything happening was real to a certain extent. He came about such a conclusion by considering what would be done if he acted either way; and acting as if everything happening was real and happening in his head while he slept, he deduced, would get him further.

“Unless this is just some sort of really strange and really bad mental-breakdown due to stress,” Sam thought out loud.

Sam nosed open the door to his parents’ room and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling mirror that acted as their closet-door. He examined himself thoroughly for the first time; he was a light brown color with jet-black hair and a tail, both were very unkempt and messy…the way he liked it. He had huge eyes; no, huge was an understatement. To say his eyes were huge was like saying an apple was bigger than an orange. His eyes were gigantic. His pupils must have been severely dilated or something because they took up the most space. They were surrounded by brilliant emerald-green irises that were more vivid than his eyes normally were. Sam blinked rapidly and shook his head, hoping maybe he would be able to escape the dream and the thing staring at him. He looked like some sort of stuffed-animal a kid might own and snuggle up next to at night.

But he did have to admit, the creature staring at him in the mirror was kinda cute.

No, he thought to himself, I’m not some sort of girly man. Girls say things like ‘cute.’

He fell back on his haunches and continued to stare for a long while. Eventually he decided to try posing because he had nothing better to do. The entire time he was making faces and heroic poses at himself in the mirror, Sam didn’t realize that the window on the other side of the room was open.

He had decided to take another nap, hoping that maybe he would wake up from the entire dream he perceived he was having. The front-door to his house was opened explosively, rudely rousing him from his slumber.

Kachira, Ramon, and Jose all ran inside, pausing only briefly to close and lock the door before splitting up and calling Sam’s name.

“Mmm,” Sam moaned sleepily from under his blankets, “mm uhb here…”

He heard his slightly-ajar bedroom door swing open and his friends streamed into his room, panicked expressions on their faces.

Ramon took command, “Jose, you go close all the windows and blinds downstairs. Kachira, I want you to lock everything, go!”

“Whuz goin on?” Sam asked, peeling the blankets away from his face.

“I really hope I’m having a weird dream right now,” Ramon said, “Or else we’re going to be in a heap of trouble.”

“Wha-?” Sam tried to blink away the sleep that was attempting to subdue him, “You arrn thuh only one…”

“You’ve just gone viral!” Ramon shouted, “Are you an idiot?!”

Ramon’s alarmed tone shook Sam out of his stupor and he shot straight up, only to fall sideways because his frame wasn’t made to balance that way anymore. He picked himself up off of the floor with Ramon’s help and he sat down.

“How have I gone viral?” he inquired, his voice laced with worry.

“I haven’t watched the video yet, but it seems like someone was spying on you,” Ramon told him as he pulled out his phone and began to look up the video.

“What are you looking for?” Sam asked as he leaned in closer to get a better look at the phone.

“Jose heard it at school. Some sort of strange creature was spotted inside your house!” Ramon said as the video loaded, “Ugh, what were you doing man?”

“I don’t know!” Sam replied helplessly, “I got up, looked at myself in the mirror, ate an apple I found in the fridge, and then I went back to sleep!”

“Hold on, let’s see…” Ramon said as the video began to play.

“Hey!” Sam said in an accusatory tone, “That’s the window to my parents’ room!”

He jumped up and galloped off towards the other bedroom, forcing Ramon to pause the video before anything other than the location could be gleaned from it. He got to the window and looked out. His backyard was up against a hill; and at the top of the hill, on a tier above his house, was another street of houses. Sam looked back at Ramon’s phone to see what angle the video was shot from, and then he went back over to the window. He jumped up and put his front hooves on the windowsill and looked in the direction he had determined.

Some kid with binoculars was staring intently at the window, and when he saw Sam, he fumbled the binoculars and grabbed for his video camera. Sam ducked down in time to avoid being caught on tape again, and Ramon closed the blinds in a flurry of motion. Sam slumped against the wall and Ramon crouched next to him. Kachira and Jose had heard the commotion and they entered the room and sat on the floor next to Sam.

Sam whimpered and Kachira put a hand on his head, “Sam, this is all real, I’m sorry,” she said in a gentle voice.

Sam merely nodded weakly, not even bothering to shake her hand off of him; for some strange reason her hand provided a sort of emotional comfort that he badly needed right then. He looked up at his friends, his irises and pupils even bigger than before. He was pleading with them to make everything stop; any moment now, one of them would admit that he was dreaming and he’d wake up, plain and simple. At the same time, the fact that he was indeed awake was cemented in his brain; he felt so out of place and lost. Jose and Ramon both placed their hands on his back, showing their support for him.

Their added support helped him recover to a functional point, but not much beyond that. Sam shakily stood up and walked very slowly towards the door.

“You guys and your stupid ponies…” Sam said, not meaning to speak his thoughts out loud.

His friends were visibly upset at his remark, and Sam wanted to take it back; but he had meant it, he was starting to hate the ponies for ever coming around in the first place. If they didn’t exist, then none of what was going on would have ever happened.

Kachira seemed to get the hint first; she was always good at reading people. She silenced Jose’s and Ramon’s retorts before they could be made. They watched him go and lock himself in his room; fumbling could be heard on the other side of the door.

“What’s he doing?” Ramon whispered to Kachira, knowing she might have a clue.

“I don’t know,” she quietly admitted, “But have you guys noticed how he’s been acting really reclusive the last few months?”

“I suppose,” Jose chimed in, “But I just thought he was upset that his parents were going away more frequently.”

“That’s what I thought, but I ran into him the other day when he was on his way back to class from the office,” Kachira said, “He said something about all F’s and then moped back to class.”

“I can hear you guys out there!” Sam shouted angrily from within his room, “Go away!”

There was a clink of metal and a sharp inhalation on the other side of the door, and Sam’s friends all looked at each other quickly.

“Sam!” Ramon shouted, “Let us in!”

“No!” Sam growled, “Go away! Let me die in peace! I-um…uh oh…”

Sam had just let slip what he was doing, and Ramon had had enough. He and Jose kicked in the door and ran over to Sam. He was on the floor with a deep gash in his left foreleg; and there was a knife laying suspiciously on the ground next to him.

“GET BACK!” Sam shouted, “My life is miserable! My parents are always gone, my grades are suffering, and my grandparents just died in a car accident a few weeks ago…just…leave me alone…”

Samuel tried to back away from his friends. He didn’t even want to consider them friends, they were obviously messed up in the head; and for all he knew, THEY were behind him turning into a blasted pony!

“What’s wrong? I thought you were all better a few minutes ago in the other room?” Jose asked frantically as Ramon tried to get in to look at Sam’s leg.

“I was, and then I realized why you guys have been so nonchalant about this whole thing, and why you freaked out when I got caught on tape,” Sam retorted, bending the past events to his whim to make his twisted story sound legitimate.

“And why is that?” Kachira asked, concerned as blood began to drip onto the carpet.

“You guys wanted a pet! You like your little equines so much that you wanted a real one! I don’t know how you did it, but now that the media knows, you’re freaking out! You wanted to keep me for yourselves!” Sam spat.

Kachira didn’t know what to say, she knew he didn’t completely believe what he was saying; but he was so delirious that he was probably forcing himself to accept it as the truth. He backed away when Ramon came near, and he smacked him in the face with his good hoof.

“I don’t want to be some sort of pet!” Sam shouted, “STAY AWAY! Dying is better than being some sort of animal!”

“Dude, you know that isn’t true!” Jose retorted angrily.

“Yes it is! I don’t want to be a pet! Especially to lying assholes like you! Pretending to be my friends…BAH!”

“Not that, the part about us doing this, it wasn’t our fault. But we honestly have no way to fix this. Just roll with it until we CAN find a way. If it makes you feel better we’ll come here every day and do research into what caused it and how to fix it,” Jose yelled as Ramon lunged at Sam, catching him by the slash in his leg.

Sam let out a bloodcurdling scream and Ramon used the distraction to his advantage; he peeled his bloodied hand away to look at the injury. It was deep, but not particularly life-threatening. With surprising strength, he ripped off the sleeve of his shirt and tied it around Sam’s leg.

“Well what are you waiting for, Kachira? Call the ambula-no…the vet. Sorry Sam, but they’re more qualified to treat you,” Ramon said as Sam weakly tried to fight his way free.

Kachira darted out of the room to grab a phone. Ramon loosened his grip on Sam, who surprisingly didn’t fight back or move away.

Jose picked up the switchblade on the ground; it had teeth-marks in the handle from Sam handling it. He rolled it over in his hands for a moment before pointing it at Sam.

“How long?” Jose demanded.

“Wha-?” Sam asked, staring at the tip of the blade.

Jose jabbed the air, “How long have you had this and been planning on killing yourself?”

“It was my grandfather’s…he made the mistake of leaving it to me in his will. I was planning on ending myself for the last few weeks, but I just couldn’t…I needed something to push me over the edge,” Sam cried to himself.

“That isn’t the ultimate solution to everything,” Ramon said, “It’ll get you nowhere, and end up hurting us as well.”

“Is that all you care about? You guys getting hurt? Is that why you don’t want me dead?!” Sam recoiled.

“No…think, why would we be hurt if you die?” Ramon said quietly.

Sam hung his head in shame, he should’ve realized that before. He wanted to cry, but it wasn’t the manly thing to do; he choked on his tears instead.

“It’s okay, big boy,” Kachira was standing in the doorway with a phone hanging in her hand, “We don’t care if you do.”

“How do you know what I want to do?” Sam said, his eyes already starting to water against his will.

“Your eyes are tearing up, your life has just fallen apart around you, and you think it’s the fault of the only people you thought you could trust. That, and you only now told us that your grandparents died,” Kachira analyzed him.

Sam didn’t bother to reply and instead collapsed and buried his head in his hooves, soaking them with salty tears that made the cut on his leg burn. His friends stayed back and decided to let him finish pouring out tears before talking to him again. His snap and subsequent breakdown had scared all of them; and nobody knew quite what to say.

Once Sam was done having an episode, he pulled himself up on his bed and gestured for his friends to get up onto it as well. He was done trying to be macho around them, and he couldn’t really degrade himself much more than he had already. Kachira leapt onto the bed and squeezed him; Sam was fine with the gesture until both Jose and Ramon did the same thing, causing him to grit his teeth from the awkward feeling his gut was giving him. He was officially split 50/50 on what he wanted right then. Half of him wanted to keep his friends off of him because guys just didn’t hug guys…did they? What did he call that handshake and pat-on-the-back that he greeted his friends with? The other half of him wanted to not care and just let them because it showed that they cared for him.

For the second time in just a few minutes, Sam felt as if he had recovered somewhat; however, contrary to the first time, he was feeling almost completely better, and he was sure that he wouldn’t lose it again anytime soon.

The trio plus one pony were all startled out of a contented nap by the doorbell. They had fallen asleep in a strange tangle of limbs, and they were all cramped and relatively stuck. Ramon was the first out of the lock and he ran down the stairs to get the door.

There were a few news-vans parked on the other side of the street, and a couple of full news crews were hanging out by them. He scanned the area to make sure nobody noticed that he had opened the door, but the reporters weren’t stupid; they had posted lookouts who alerted their crews to the open front door.

“Ahem,” The man at the door wasn’t quite sure why he was being ignored.

The kid who had opened the door ushered him in and closed the door before the mob of reporters could get onto the porch. The man carried only a bag of medical equipment and a pair of glasses.

“I didn’t know vets still made house-calls,” Ramon said, breaking the silence.

Kachira appeared at the top of the stairs, “Of course they do, some people have pets that can’t be taken to the vet. Most farm-animals can’t be put into a car and driven somewhere.”

“I resent the comparison to a simple farm-animal!” Sam shouted from the other room, obviously having recovered his sarcasm.

The vet had a quizzical look on his face to say the least. Ramon ushered him upstairs quickly. The man paused to make an unnecessary adjustment to his collar before pushing open the door to Sam’s room.

“So tell me why your pet is in the bedroom and not outside. And why are there reporters around?” The man inquired immediately as he walked into the room.

“I am NOT A PET!” Sam shrieked, obviously annoyed, but coming across as more than he actually was.

The vet’s eyes widened to rival Sam’s (figuratively speaking, of course) when he heard the strange creature on the bed talk. His shock was quickly replaced by intrigue.

“What is this thing?” He pointed at Sam while glancing back at Ramon.

Sam mock-growled through gritted teeth, “I’m an intelligent being; we can start with that.”

Again, the vet was surprised, but he recovered faster than the first time. He moved over to Sam and looked at him with a very curious expression that, quite frankly, was creeping Sam out.

“Doc, stop your gawking and just look at my leg, okay?” Sam said, his voice trembling with uncertainty.

“Right right…what are you?” He replied with wonder, “Your anatomy must be…wow…”

“Less talk, more helping,” Jose guided him along.

“I’m…er…I was human…but no more talking! Just look!” Sam said, offering his hoof to the doctor.

“Fascinating…” the vet replied to Sam’s comment as he gently took Sam’s leg and began undoing the shirt that was tied around the wound.

He set about cleaning the wound, causing Sam to holler in pain; and he eventually began to stitch up the wound. Jose wimped out at the sight of the needle and turned his head away. Ramon wasn’t even in the room, and Kachira was gripping Sam’s good hoof as he bit down on his pillow from the pain.

Once the veterinarian had finished, he leaned back and gave his prognosis, “Keep off of that leg and you’ll be fine, but I can’t say whether or not it’ll scar up. How did you do this anyway?”

Sam looked at the knife on the nightstand, the blade had dried blood on it. The doctor picked it up and looked it over.

“Can I have this? I want a blood sample,” He asked.

“Absolutely not,” Ramon entered the room, “We need to figure out why our friend was transformed, and we’ll have none of you doctors poking your noses where you don’t belong. The last thing we need is a group of curious scientists chasing us down and trying to dissect Sam.”

“How did this happen anyway?” The man asked, leaning back.

Kachira started, “We don’t know, but-”

“What are you though?” The vet turned to Sam, “Some sort of small horse-thing by the looks of you.”

“A pony,” Sam deadpanned, not liking the answer he had to give.

“Ponies don’t look like you do-” the doctor began.

“A little pony,” Kachira emphasized ‘little.’

“Oh…” the man said simply, “Never mind, I won’t ask any more questions. Just wait until the guys hear about this!”

“You are NOT going to tell anyone about it either,” Ramon jabbed, “No matter how hard it is to believe, we aren’t going to risk someone validating your story. Why do you think we won’t give you a blood sa-”

“I get it, I get it,” the vet said, “Not a word. I owe confidentiality to my patients anyway…or usually, my patients’ owners.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed at the comment, but he kept his tongue in check; he wasn’t about to start another scene. The vet left and was immediately bombarded with reporters asking if there was some sort of strange creature in the house. He silently pushed his way through the crowd, got into his car, and drove away.

Sam peered out of the blinds at the end of the hallway to see just how much attention he had gathered. There were quite a few reporters, but none that he recognized from TV; they must’ve been rookies or something. As he pulled his hoof back from the blinds, it got caught in the string, and before he knew it, he had an entire set of wooden blinds crashing down on him. Sam shrugged it off, but the reporters had heard and seen him do it, and their cameras were trained on him. Jose tackled him to the ground before they got more than a few seconds of footage, but it was already too late.

“You’re going to have to go into exile, man!” Jose said loudly as Sam’s slip-up played over and over on the news in the background.

“But where will I go? And more importantly, how do I get out of here without being seen?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” Ramon put it simply, “I don’t know…”

End Part 3