Author's Notes:

Disclaimer, as I've had many comments about this:
In my version of this universe, the ponies are vegetarian. They evolved in a world where 99% of the species were sapient, so it would also be considered evil to kill and eat these intelligent animals regardless. The terrible smell is there to discourage them from eating meat, regardless of whether they want to or not.

“Alex!”

I rolled over in my bed and pulled my pillow over my head only for it to hiss at me and run away. I let my head fall down to the bed and groaned in protest to being woken.

“Alex, wake up.”

“No… Five more minutes, mum…”

Suddenly, a huge rush of cold covered my head, causing me to jolt up. I felt water drip down from my hair and down into my mouth, causing me to sputter in surprise.

“What the hell was that for!?” I shouted, my voice awkwardly squeaking as I did.

“To wake you up, idiot You fell asleep on the couch, woke up like this, and freaked out.” The girl in front of me said, matter of factly.

“I would have woken up eventually.” I said and cleared my throat, trying to get the weird sound of my voice to stop.

“Are you okay now? You not gonna pass out on me again?”

“What are you-”

Oh wait.

Memories of what happened yesterday returned to me in a rush. The whole “Jack being a pony” thing and then my freakout after it happened to me as well.

“U-uh, no… At least, I don’t think I will.”

I slowly lowered my head and took in the form that my body had taken on. My… Fur? I guess that’s what it was. My fur was a bright beige-yellow colour and was strangely comfortable feeling, just surrounding my whole body in an aura of warmth, even if I was covered in water right now. Between my legs was- No! Not that type of between my legs. Look a little further back.

My tail.

Woah. I flexed a muscle that I didn’t even know I had and the slightly damp, but still quite pretty looking red tail swished back and forth.

What really surprised me the most was that, just like Jack, I had a small mark on my hips in the shape of a flower. It was a singular, beautiful rose, with a green stem and leaves. Looking at the mark filled me with a strange sensation, one I didn't really have much experience with before. Pride.

“H-holy fuck. This is real.” I deadpanned.

“Yeah, Alex. You better get used to this.”

“H-how did this even happen!?”

“I dunno. As I said, I have no idea what caused it or anything about it. I just woke up and suddenly, was like this.”

My mind rushed for answers that weren’t there. What if… What if she was contagious? I came over to her house to help her out and ended up turning into the same thing that she was.

“Y-you’re sick!” I pointed at her with my hoof.

“Wh-what!? I’m not sick!”

“Then how else do you explain this, huh? I turn up to your house, and you’re a horse! I… I breathed the air you breathed. I touched you. I got this from you. What if it doesn’t stop with us? What if we spread it to the whole world!?” I could feel my pupils contract to pinpricks.

“Alex, stop freaking out! I’m not sick, okay? This shit doesn’t happen from diseases. You don’t switch genders and you most certainly do not turn into a pony!” She screamed, her eyes now glazed a bit from the building tears.

“You… You sure?” I said apprehensively, letting my breathing and heart rate slow. Jack sighed and lowered her head, worry covering her face as she did.

“No, I’m not sure, but there’s nothing we can do about it now except for just deal with it and try to figure out what happened.”

I nodded, drips of water still falling from my hair.

“Should probably get myself dried, I guess.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “Did you need any help getting down?”

“Getting down?”

I looked over the edge of the couch, only just realizing now how small I really was. Peering off the edge of the couch seemed almost like looming over a cliff. I tentatively put a hoof out and began scooting forward off the edge of the couch. As I moved forward, one of my new back legs got caught on part of the couch and I tripped, smacking my face onto the floor heavily.

“Alex!” Jack ran to my side and put a hoof under my armpit. She pulled me upward as I tried to push myself up, the muscles my mind was controlling not exactly responding as they usually did. I still felt like I had all of the parts I usually had (besides one very special part) they just felt almost… Displaced. Like my back legs were really short and the large majority of my leg was now my foot. My forelegs were a little closer to what my arms and hands had been like before, just missing the tiny little spaghetti fingers I was used to seeing there.

I wobbled clumsily as Jack helped me to my feet, almost falling over a few times before I finally felt like I had regained a semblance of balance. I tried to take a step forward, but slipped as I did, removing weight from the wrong area and tripping over. Lucky for me, Jack was still holding on to me, and that stopped me from getting yet another taste of the carpet this morning. I looked over and smiled appreciatively. She smiled back and we continued on our way to the bathroom.

It was so strange try to learn how to walk in this body. I had no idea what hoof to put forward, and in what order. I watched Jack walk next to me and managed to vaguely follow along, which helped greatly. By the time we got to the bathroom, I almost felt comfortable enough to walk a few metres on my own. Maybe not just yet, I thought to myself after taking another small tumble on a loose tile.

Jack helped me pull a towel from the closet in the bathroom and I pretty much wrapped myself in it completely as I dried my wet hair and fur. After a short while, I was done and we walked back to the couch together.

“So.” Jack jumped onto the couch next to me after helping me up. “What now.”

Good question. What the hell could we do like this? We looked almost like tiny dogs with dyed fur and comically oversized eyes like this, so we couldn't exactly go outside. We had hardly any food left in the fridge, possibly some frozen meals and the few things that I had used some of for breakfast this morning.

The thought of breakfast made my stomach let out an audible growl which triggered a giggle from Jack.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing, just even your stomach growling sounds cute like this.”

“I am not cute.”

She laughed loudly, attempting to stifle it with a hoof.

“Payback for calling me cute before.”

I pursed my lips and glanced up at her hair, noticing that the pin was still there. I raised an eyebrow and was about to point out that she had insisted on wearing it, but decided to drop it. Honestly, any form of comfort was better than feeling completely alienated by this situation. If that made her happy, then good for her.

“So, there any food around?” Jack said, looking toward the kitchen.

“Some. I was going to go grab some food this morning, but… that probably won't be happening any time soon.”

“Crap. What do we have?”

“Uh, eggs, bacon, some milk, possibly some frozen vegetables or pre packed crap in the freezer.”

Jack put her hooves together and hummed.

“Some bacon sounds pretty good right now.”

I nodded in agreeance and pushed myself toward the edge of the couch again. I slid off successfully this time and with relatively little wobbling, regained balance and began walking toward the kitchen.

“You sure you don't want help walking there?” Jack called out, jumping down from the couch to catch up with me.

I walked forward cautiously, but was definitely getting the hang of it so I shook my head.

“I think I should be fine. Gotta learn to do it on my own some time soon.”

The walk to the kitchen, while only a few metres in reality, felt like fifty, not only due to the fact that I sucked at walking, but my substantially smaller size also made the room seem so much bigger.

I eventually reached the kitchen and with a little help from Jack, I managed to pull myself up onto the kitchen stool that we moved in front of the stove..

“Okay, now that I'm up here, did you wanna grab the stuff and I'll cook?” I asked Jack and she nodded in return.

Jack pulled out the ingredients and cooking utensils before bringing them to me. I lit the stove carefully and placed the frying pan down. It took a little bit of fumbling before I got it out, but I eventually pulled out a few slices of bacon from the packaging and threw them in the pan.

I sighed with satisfaction as I heard the sizzle of the bacon beginning to cook. I just couldn't wait, I was absolutely starving.

“Hey Alex, do you…” Jack said, sniffing the air. “Ugh. Do you smell that?”

I breathed in through my nose and was instantly greeted with a pungent odor coming from somewhere in the room.

“Ugh!” I recoiled. “What the hell is that?”

Jack walked around the room holding her breath as I glanced around from my perch. The smell seemed to be getting more and more intense, more and more rancid as time went on.

“This is gross!” Jack exclaimed while struggling to open the door to the balcony. The fresh air it let in certainly seemed to help a little, but the smell was still getting more and more intense. I turned back to the bacon the check on it only for the smell to increase tenfold. Curious, I brought my head closer to the pan and took a sniff.

My stomach felt like it just about ready to jump out my mouth and I gagged uncontrollably from the smell.

It was the bacon! What the fuck! In a blind panic, I grabbed the pan handle in my mouth and tipped the bacon into the sink before turning on the tap and covering the bacon in water. It helped diffuse the immediate stink, but the smell still lingered.

I hopped down and stumbled over to Jack, pushing her out onto the balcony with a hoof before shutting the door behind us. We both breathed in heavily, relishing the gift of fresh air that mother nature was granting us.

“Oh god!” Jack gasped out between breaths. “What was that!?”

“It was the fucking bacon, man!”

“The bacon?”

“Yeah! For some reason, it just stank like fucking rot!” I gagged at even the thought of the smell.

“Why? Was it off or something?”

“I bought it three days ago, there's no way.”

“Wait, can horses eat meat?”

I scratched my chin.

“Uh, maybe? I dunno.”

“Do you think… being a pony has stopped us from being able to eat meat?” She said, her voice filling with fear.

“What!?” My mind had gone blank. “N-no bacon…?”

Jack dropped to her knees and tears began to form in her eyes.

“Noooooooooo!” I screamed out over the balcony while jack began to writhe on the floor next to me.

“The horror! The horror!”

------

After we had calmed ourselves and accepted the fact that our existence was now a bacon free one, Jack and I finally let ourselves relax a little. It was still quite early in the morning and the Breeze was definitely relaxing. The sun was shining lazily on us as we sat on the few chairs I had out there.

This whole situation was honestly starting to grow on me. Don't get me wrong, I wanted my old body back, dick and all, but I found myself strangely enjoying this. It was… exciting! I mean, when does this kind of stuff happen? To anyone? Ever? It was just what I had been looking for. Something that was exciting and strange, but also meant that I didn't have to go outside and socialize with anyone. My perfect type of adventure.

I was still hungry from before, but the smell of the bacon had been so off putting that I think it spoiled my appetite. As I said that, my stomach growled again. Okay, maybe my appetite wasn't completely spoiled. I was pretty sure that I could still eat eggs, right? Regardless, I kinda felt like eating some of the leftover Chinese food for breakfast. Good thing I really liked the vegetarian dishes from there more than the meat ones.

I looked over to Jack and sighed in relaxed satisfaction I was presented with the option to either go get some food and interrupt our relaxation time together, or to just stay out here with her and stay hungry for a little longer. Both were equally as enticing, but I decided to get up and grab some food. We could always come back out here after eating.

I stood up and stepped down carefully from the chair. It was even higher up from the ground than the couch was, but I was getting the hang of how to move with these tiny, shitty limbs. Once I was down, I yawned and stretched my body outwards, Jack stepping down from her chair as well.

“So, you think the smell is gone?” She asked.

“Eh, probably not completely. It’s in the sink right now, so i’ll have to go throw it in the bin. Not too sure how I’m gonna do that without hands, but I’m gonna have to figure it out somehow.” I said as I opened the door precautiously, awaiting the horrible smell.

The air inside still had a hint of the rancid bacon, but was substantially less intense than I thought it would be. As I approached the sink, I was given a reason as to why. Leaning into the sink, head first, was Simon, who currently had a mouthful of bacon.

“Heheh, good kitty, Simon. Sorry for not feeding you before.”

The tabby mewed happily, not seeming to care now that he had bacon instead of dry cat food.

“Well, I guess that kinda answers our theory.” Jack said as she walked beside me. “Simon can eat the bacon, so it must just be us now. Damn.”

With the bacon now sitting in my cat's belly, the fresh breeze soon cleared out the remaining horrid smell and left the room almost stink free. I walked toward the couch and was about to sit on it when I noticed the wet spot from when Jack had “woken me up” before.

I decided against sitting there right now and instead, made my way to the fridge. I opened it and after pulling myself up a bit, managed to grab ahold of the leftover Chinese food and pulled it out.

I hopped up on the stool again with the assistance of jack and threw the takeaway containers in the microwave. After a minute or two, I opened it up to the incredible smell of leftover takeaway.

I pulled it out, being careful of the heat, and placed it on a plate. I handed it down to Jack before jumping down myself and heading to the kitchen table.

Eating was super strange as a pony. I had watched Jack eat last night and tried my hardest to emulate. She had gotten quite embarrassed when I looked at her before, but observing her eat was definitely helping right now.

I was both using my tongue and lower part of my mouth to scoop up the food before chewing. My new tongue was surprisingly dexterous and managed to work almost like a limb in my mouth from how flexible and useful it was. It was gross thinking about using it for anything else, but it felt like it could definitely help me carry stuff sound or do finer motor functions without hands.

Soon enough, our bellies were full and we were satisfied. I sighed in relief, finally fed, and made my way back to the now dry couch. Jack and Simon both followed me there and jumped up beside me. As Simon landed on the cushion, I noticed just how big he was. Or more realistically, how tiny I was. With my new size, he was only a small amount shorter than myself and Jack, which felt very weird. I knew we were small, but where we really that small? I guess so.

I was lost in thought when Jack spoke up.

“Hey, you alright Alex?”

“Huh?” I snapped out of my stupor. “Oh, uh, yeah. Just thinking.”

“About what?” Jack scooted a little closer to talk to me.

“I don't know, really. I’ve been kinda thinking about our ass tattoos I guess.”

“These?” She looked back at the three lilies she had plastered on her flank. “I don't really know what they mean, but looking at it makes me feel all weird though. Like I did something to earn it.”

I nodded.

“I get what you mean. Like some strange sense of undeserved pride. Of all the weird shit that has happened over the last couple of days, these marks are kinda the most strange thing that appeared.”

“But that’s the thing…” Jack said quietly. “I didn’t earn this mark. So why do I feel like I did?”

“I…” I paused, unsure of what to say. I knew what she meant, the feeling of pride that I felt when looking down at the rose I had on my butt. It was so strange to not know why I was feeling it, but to still feel it. “I guess it’s kinda better than being proud of nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… My whole life I’ve done nothing, you know? I finished high school only to get a job flipping burgers for four years. I moved out here to try and find a job, and the only reason I haven’t been kicked out of this apartment is that I’m draining my savings completely. I’m just… I’m a waste of space, and I should not feel “proud” of anything, especially not an ass tattoo.”

Jack sat silently, nodding as I spoke and her eyes beginning to tear up.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you or anything.”

She wiped her eyes and forced a smile.

“No, no, it’s… It’s fine.” She sniffed out. “I just… I kinda did the same thing. I mean, you know, we met at a fucking bar for fucks sake. How many people go to a bar alone to do anything but be with friends, hook up with a girl or drink their worries away? You are really one of the only friends I have, and… Thank you.”

“Why are you thanking me?”

“For being a friend, d-dummy. You are the one person who was willing to talk to me, even if you only started up a conversation because you were “Bored”. I… I don’t think I ever asked what you were doing at the bar that night?”

“I was…” I didn’t really want to say it, but I trusted Jack. “I was stood up. I had been waiting at a restaurant for the past two hours, waiting for her to turn up.”

“I-I’m sorry, man, you don’t have to-”

“No.” I interrupted. I looked down at my hooves before continuing. “I owe you this much. I got tired of waiting, knowing that she wasn’t coming, so I went to the bar. Just felt like I really needed a drink, y’know? I saw you there, and you just looked super bored. You didn’t have anyone else around you and you were just staring off into the distance, blankly. You kinda know what happened from then.”

I looked back up only to see even more tears coming from her.

“What’s wrong?” I said, worry in my voice.

“N-nothing, I… I just never thanked you before today and I really should have… I think I kinda owe you an explanation as to why I was there. I… was going to do something that I really shouldn’t have done. I knew it was a mistake, but I was just so… alone. Have you ever had a group of friends who you thought would never abandon you.”

I stayed silent.

“I did. We were friends all the way through school. We went out every weekend, we played video games together, all that kinda stuff. I just never… Never thought that I could do something so mundane and have them all leave me. I was going to… Hurt myself.”

She paused for a while to wipe the tears from her eyes. I took this opportunity to move closer and put a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up and me and I gave her an encouraging smile, or at least, tried to. It seemed to work and she smiled back at me.

“T-thanks.” She finished wiping the tears away and continued. “I never thought… I never thought being bisexual could cause so much hate, you know?”

She was bi? I mean, I kinda always thought she might be, but I never took the time to ask. That was her business, not mine.

“Y-you don’t hate me, do you?” She muttered nervously.

“O-of course not! Dude, you’re my best friend. You’re my… Only friend.” Now it was my turn to feel my eyes sting a little as tears began to build up. “I’m s-serious. Something like that is not going to make me feel any different about you.”

Jack smiled brightly through her tears and threw herself onto me, hugging me tightly. It was a bit of a shock seeing her act like this, but I returned the affection all the same. I could tell she needed this, and turning into an entirely different species was traumatic enough without me making it harder for her.

“Th-thanks.”

“You already said that, Jack.”

“Uh, sorry.”

I poked her in the nose with a hoof, which seemed to confuse her a bit.

“Stop apologizing too. You don’t have a reason to.”

She laughed nervously and muttered out another sorry.

“So. What now?” I said after a short while.

“Uh, I guess we could look up what’s happening to us on the Internet?”

“The Internet? You do know we're gonna get some really weird stuff if we search “Suddenly turning into small horse”, right?”

“Yeah, I know. Got a better idea?”

“I guess not.” I laughed lightly and picked up my phone between my hooves.

“Uh, hate to tell you, Alex, but hooves don't work on the touch screen. I only managed to call you after fumbling with the phone for half an hour, trying to use my nose to call you.”

Crap. Forgot about that.

“The best we can really do is use the laptop.” Jack continued. “I guess I can use a pen in my mouth to type.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

------

Clearly not the best plan, unfortunately. We spent hours trying to get the laptop to do what we told it to and even once we finally got it to search what we wanted, the results were exactly what I had expected.

Now tired from the days events, I decided to go to sleep. I was about to head to my room when I saw Jack's face as she lay on the couch. Her face was filled with sadness as she lowered her head to the pillow, clearly stifling her tears.

“Hey, what's wrong?” I said, walking up to the couch.

“A-Alex? Uh, nothing! I'm f-fine!” Her eyes darted back and forth.

“No you're not.” I hopped up on the couch next to her. “What's wrong?”

Jack looked away from me, a frown showing subtly on her brow.

“Please? Jack, I care about you.”

“...Promise you won't laugh at me? That you won't think I'm messing with you?”

“Of course. I promise.”

She looked back towards me.

“...I don't want you to call me Jack anymore.”

“Okay.”

“Wh-what? Just like that?”

“Yep. Just like that. I promised you that I would take you seriously, and that's what I'm gonna do.” I gave her the most welcoming smile I could.

“Th-thanks…”

“Can I ask why you don't want to be called Jack anymore?”

She fidgeted with her hooves for a few seconds before continuing.

“Because… I didn't like Jack.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jack is… Jack was a loser. He had no friends, a family that hated him, no prospects, nothing. He had a shitty apartment and a shitty job that he hated. He just… doesn't feel like me anymore.”

“Well… What about you?”

“I'm… Lily.” A smile began to flicker on her lips as she said that. “She's… confident. Proud of herself. She has a great friend who helped her when she really needed it. Who actually wants her to feel happy. Like this, she's… a new person. Like, this is a new chance to do it again and not fuck up this time, you know?”

I did know… I knew all too well. She was just like me. No real friends, no career, nothing. Where was I headed in my life? ‘Cos the way I was going right now was goalless. I didn't really know what I was going to do with my measly existence, but this whole pony thing felt like a new start. Maybe one day we would be able to leave this apartment, join society, start our lives again properly. Maybe there were even more people out there like us? Who knows. What I did know is that the old me… was sad. This strange new version of me was genuinely having a good time being here with my friend, even if it had been a learning experience. It was exciting. And I loved it.

“Lily… It's a really cute name.”

Her eyes seem to light up at that and her lips began to slowly curl into a smile.

“I… I think you're right, Lily. I think that this is a perfect chance to begin again.”

“R-really?”

“Yes, and that's why…” I glanced back at my flank and smiled at the mark. “I want you to call me Rose.”