Dealing With An Infection
Chapter 10: Part 2: Change
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Chapter 10: Change
Earl slowly regained consciousness, but kept his eyes shut. His head felt as though a forest fire was rampaging through it, and it throbbed harshly with each heartbeat. He didn't want to open his eyes, it would only lead to more pain. Over time, he realized he could hear music, faintly playing next to him.
I was brought up to believe the universe has a plan...
His eyes quickly snapped open, and were instantly assaulted by a barrage of light. Earl groaned loudly and shut them quickly. After a few moments, he could hear a door opening across from him.
"Hello?" He said, slightly choked.
"Hey." Twilight replied.
Earl instantly opened his eyes again and sat up, trying to block the sun with his arm. He then noticed how colorful everything seemed. Everything was bright and vibrant, and happy. From the decor he assumed they were in Twilight's library.
"You're OK?" He asked worriedly.
"I'm fine." She said with a smile.
The purple unicorn levitated Earl's music player from the table next to him and used her magic to shut it off.
"Well that's good to hear." He said with a content sigh as he layed back down.
Earl was relieved to find that he had been placed on a soft bed that was surprisingly the right size for him.
"What happened?" He asked, shutting his eyes again.
Twilight walked to the edge of the bed and looked at him.
"We went through the portal, but the massive amount of magical energy knocked you unconscious." she said calmly.
"You didn't get knocked out?"
The mare chuckled slightly.
"I've been around magical energy my entire life."
Earl replied with a nod and cringed slightly at the growing pain in his skull.
"God, is this headache part of that too?" He asked, rubbing his head.
"No, that was a side effect of the spell."
"Aghh... what spell?"
There was no response.
Earl quickly snapped his eyes open again and looked towards the unicorn. Her expression was completely blank as she stared back at him.
"I'm still really surprised it worked..." She said, slightly awestruck.
"What worked?!" He asked, starting to get worried.
"The spell."
"What spell?!" He asked, leaning towards her.
Earl unfortunately leaned too far and came tumbling out of the bed and down onto the hard wood floor. Twilight's expression was still blank.
"Well?" He asked, still on the floor.
Earl then tried to return to his feet, but, almost naturally, he was on all fours.
"What the..." He said to himself.
After falling to the ground again he looked at his hands.
But they weren't hands.
"You turned me into a freakin' pony?!" He asked, naturally returning to all fours again.
Twilight backed away defensively.
"I'm sorry! I just didn't want to bring an unknown creature through town, so I found this spell-" Twilight said.
She was instantly cut off as Earl wrapped his newly acquired forelegs around her.
"Uhmm..." She said awkwardly.
Earl pulled away and looked down at his coat, which was a light gray color.
"Thanks! This is... just amazing." He said, moving his hooves around. "I'm a pony."
"You're handling this a lot better than I thought you would..." Twilight said, in the sustained awkward tone.
"Are you serious? Ever since I saw the show I thought of how awesome it would be to come here!" He said cheerily.
Earl quickly ran his right hoof through his mane, but hit something pointed on his head before he could reach the back.
"What is... YOU MADE ME A UNICORN?!" Earl shouted, a massive smile plastered across his face.
A few seconds later, a familiar purple dragon opened the door and nervously walked into the room.
"Uhh.. Twilight, is everything OK in here?" Spike asked.
Earl spun around quickly.
"Spike! I'm a freakin' PONY!" He shouted happily.
The dragon raised an eyebrow and looked towards Twilight, who simply rolled her eyes and motioned for him to leave. Realizing she was OK, Spike simply shrugged and left, shutting the door behind him.
"Wow, is he OK?" Earl asked, raising his eyebrow as well.
"He doesn't know you." Twilight replied.
"Oh... that's a very good point. My bad." Earl said, running his hoof through the back of his black mane.
"It's fine, just calm down a little bit. I know you might be excited, but you can't go letting everypony else know that you're from a different world. You might raise some... suspicion."
Earl simply nodded and continued examining his new body.
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind and he instantly spun around, trying to look at his flank.
"What is it?!" He asked frantically.
"What is what-?"
"A baseball bat?" Earl asked confused.
"Well, yeah. The spell used what my knowledge was of you to create the mark. The thing I remember most is the uhh.... stuff with your bat..." Twilight said, looking to the floor.
"Hey," Earl said, trotting over to her. "That's all over now, alright? You're home, we're safe, I'm a pony."
Twilight looked up to him and smiled.
"So, a baseball bat, huh? I kinda like it." Earl said, returning her smile.
The purple unicorn nodded happily.
"Oh, one more thing," Twilight said. "The spell only lasts two days, I'll have to find a better version of it if we want to make the spell permanent."
Earl nodded and looked around the room. Everything was even more colorful than in the show. The warm glow of everything seemed so inviting, so happy. Earl had never felt so much pure joy since he had been alive.
A thought quickly wormed it's way into his mind and he turned to Twilight, his mouth agape.
"Can I meet the Elements?" He asked after a few moments.
* * *
The bright portal was still shining far out in the Everfree Forest, and after a few hours, the new inhabitants of Earth were making their way through the portal. Aimlessly wandering around, chewing om random on bits of vegetation, growing hungrier and hungrier by the second. As time went on, the zombies were able to corner a few small creatures, but it was hardly enough to quell the massive amount of hunger that was coming over them. They hungered for something more, and a lot of it....
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