“Mom! Please get up!”

As quickly as the fleeting voice brought me back alive it left me in that darkness again.

I heard people calling a different name now. Someone named ‘Brian’ needed to wake up. It took me a while to feel a floor underneath me and orientate that the voices were coming from above me. Me. I became aware I had a body again. I was heavy and awkwardly shaped. I found my legs and found the end where my head was. I found my eyes on my head. I could move my eyes but everything was still black.

“Brian, please open your eyes!”

Open my eyes? With that clue I found the switch I was looking for and my eyelids came up. Nurse Reed was kneeling over me and Mr. Brown was leaning against the door frame. Another nurse stood behind him. Everyone was looking at me. They were expecting me to say something.

Looking at them and seeing how their bodies were shaped I started remembering how to move mine. I felt my brain haphazardly reprogram everything back in again. Speech came back online.

“Sorry,” I told them with a distant voice. I stayed on the ground.

“Brian, you passed out in Mr. Brown’s room. Do you know what year it is?” Mrs. Reed was talking to me.

At first I wondered if this was a trick question. Then replied, “2020?”

“I need you to repeat five words back to me, okay? The five words are: pumpkin. calendar. hay. sand... rose.”

I stared at her for a second then repeated the words back to her. She nodded approvingly when I finished and told me to do it again. I did so. She then asked me to do it one more time.

“Do I have to?” I asked annoyed. There were nurses and residents gathering near the bathroom door now to see what was going on.

“No, fine,” she submitted. “Do you know where you are? What state are we in?”

“...Misery,” I replied. There was awkward laughter among the people crowding in the door. The nurse sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Close enough. I think he’s going to be fine,” Reed told the nurses and residents who had gathered nearby. Soon enough they started to disperse until it was just Nurse Reed and Mr. Brown with me in the bathroom. I started to get up slowly to a sitting position.

‘I got up too fast’ is what Nurse Reed said had happened earlier. Then I passed out when I got to the bathroom and fell. I didn’t tell her about the demonic hallucination I had in the bathroom. The horns were gone but all the mulberry in my hair was still there. I figured my eyes weren’t red and yellow anymore because no one said anything. So, everything before stepping into the bathroom really happened and everything after that was the hallucination? According to them I was out for less than a minute and considering I was only now feeling the effects of the bourbon I drank I believed them.

I was terrified because I knew what was happening: the hallucination must have been from alcohol withdrawal. It was never this bad before though. Usually I could have a drink in the morning then not start drinking until I got home. I was worried the only reason I was okay now was because I had alcohol back in my system.

And to make my day even worse, someone was clearly playing tricks on me today. Somehow they dyed parts of my hair without me knowing and I still had that cutie mark. The hair color was the same as Berry Punch’s and I had her cutie mark. The pranks had to have been by the same person. Was there a way to delay hair dye? ...something that gets stronger with time? Exposure to sunlight? Maybe they make something like that?

I sat with Mr. Brown while he ate. He was keeping me company instead of the other way around. The TV was back to its usual loud volume so we couldn’t talk. After a while sitting idly I did what everyone usually did in my situation: I took my phone out of my pocket to look at it. As I did my hair fell in front of my face. Oh yeah, it was longer now too somehow. I had to find an answer to the dark purple at least.

Before I could begin researching my hair I saw I had a dozen messages and two missed calls. I had set my phone to silent because I couldn’t risk getting fired. It looks like today that was a mistake.

Connor, Monica, Brianna and my roommates Ian and Markus had been texting me. I had two missed calls from Connor.

Naturally I needed to check on Monica first. Her messages read:

Monica: “Waiting to get CT scans now.”

Monica: “Your phone’s on silent, right? There’s nothing on TV. I’ll keep you updated.”

Monica: “The CT scans came back normal. They’re telling me the double vision is from subtle bruising. And the dizziness and headaches are from the double vision. And when the swelling goes down it’ll all go away. I’m free to go. I’m supposed to come back if the symptoms don’t go away.”

Monica: “I’m okay though. It doesn’t look that bad, right?”

She then sent me a picture of herself. It looked like she was sitting on a hospital bed. The bruising wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Despite the bruising she was beaming as happily as the day she got her braces off.

Monica: “Carrot Top was nearby so she dropped me off at home. She said she had to get back to work but Chad’s getting off work early to watch me.”

I had never heard Monica call her Carrot Top before, but I knew she probably meant her old roommate Claudia. She was a red-head. Monica insisted Claudia was a good person but she always came off as a cold beauty queen to me so I thought this sounded in character.

Connor seemed the most desperate so I checked his text messages next:

Conner: “There’s a couple of different waterproof and semi-permanent tattoo products. I tried the removal methods for all of them off their websites and none of them worked. I’m starting to think these are legit.”

Conner: “I’m going to send some texts at work and see if anyone at the party saw anything suspicious.”

Conner: “I tried to be vague but no one I texted or called had any weird marks on them after the party. But a bunch of people think I need to go see a doctor, one friend thinks I have an STD now and one person thinks I was abducted. So that’s cool.”

Conner: “What the hell my hair is longer and it’s blue. Please please please tell me that this is happening to you?”

Comet sent a picture of himself standing in front of a bathroom mirror. His hair was indeed a cobalt blue. Just this morning the sides of his head were a shaved low fade but now his hair covered his ears.

Comet made two attempts to call me about an hour after this. It looks like he gave up and started texting me again afterwards:

Conner: “We’re cursed. This is a weird curse and I don’t believe in magic but I’ve been in an office all alone all day grading tests and my hair won’t stop growing and it’s blue.”

Conner: “Didn’t you date a Wiccan once? What else could happen? Am I turning goth? Are piercings going to appear?”

Conner: “Please tell me I’m going crazy but do my eyes look different? That’s impossible right?”

I scrolled down to the picture Comet sent and saw his eye color. It was a close up picture of his eyes but they were still blue like they always had been. I felt a sigh of relief escape me that I didn’t know I was holding. They did look a little lighter but I think it was just lighting and him being paranoid. It’s not like they turned red and he sprouted horns.

I sent a message back to him saying my hair got longer and turned purple. I also told him he was overreacting about his eye color.

I wasn’t so eager to read Ian and Markus’s texts. From the preview I could tell they were just bitching about the house being destroyed and about me needing to pick up. They both knew I was at ‘work’ so I couldn’t do anything right now. I skipped those for now because I could tell Brianna sent me pictures.

I clicked her name and was greeted with a large drawing of Twilight Sparkle half finished against a blue background. She was looking back over her ‘shoulder’ at the viewer. Her wings were gently outstretched, her horn was longer than I remembered, her mane and tail were blowing in the wind, some in front of her face, and she was giving a graceful grin towards the viewer. Her whole head and particularly her muzzle were slightly more pronounced and less cartoon-like than in the show, making her look more horse-like but still diminutive. I never saw Brianna draw one of the ponies in this style before. She was usually a stickler about making it look just like the show. I loved it, it looked more mature. Something to be proudly hung up. The detail in the shape of the wings and feathers told me she must have been looking at pictures of birds because they looked absolutely lifelike.

What really blew me away was the coloring job so far though. The wings looked soft and the coat looked fuzzy. I wasn’t sure how she did that. A special blending technique?. I didn’t even realize there were that many shades of light purple. Her body outline was thin but present. Her mane and tail were what was left to color.

Brianna: “Almost done! Just gotta do the hair. I just had to make it hard on myself and have it blowing in the wind. I'm feeling really good about this though.”

Before I could comment I finished scrolling to see a pencil sketch of three little fillies bounding down a steep hill after each other. Two were unicorns and one was a regular pony. I enlarged it to get a better look at them. They were about the same style she had drawn Twilight Sparkle. I could make out all the happy expressions on their faces.

Brianna: “This is the sketch I was working on this morning. The unicorn in the front is Dinky, the earth pony is Aura and the unicorn in the back is Ruby Pinch. They're playing on a big hill somewhere between Sweet Apple Acres and Whitetail Woods. I'm wanting to capture that childhood joy of playing with friends. You have no idea how many times I redrew the expressions on their faces."

Brianna: "I'm really eager to color this."

I studied the fillies better. I had looked at a picture of Ruby Pinch when we made the connection of our tattoos with My Little Pony. Brianna had drawn her mane and tail longer than the pictures I saw online. I liked her version better.

Me: “I'm eager to see that colored! And Monica is going to love that Twilight."

Oh shit. She doesn't know about the car wreck. Comet doesn't know either. I informed them both.

Me: "I'm sorry, it's been a weird day. I forgot to tell you about Monica. She was in a wreck earlier today. She went to the ER but she's fine! Her car’s in the shop now. I don't think we can make it there tomorrow."

I forwarded Monica's selfie to quell any fears that Monica wasn't fine. Then informed Comet as well:

Me: "Monica was in a car wreck. She's totally fine and home now but a little shook up. I don't suppose you want to give us a ride to go see my sis tomorrow?"

It was worth a shot.

I heard the television go silent. I looked up at it to see it was off. I looked to Mr. Brown. He was looking at me concerned.

"...Bobby?" he asked as he stared me down with uncertainty. When I looked up at him, he seemed even more scared. His fear infected me.

I let my phone fall to the ground and searched the top of my head for horns in my hair. My hands found nothing but thick curly hair. I was relieved but still scared: there was one thing I couldn't check without a mirror.

"Your hair’s all purple now and...," He said bewildered as he kept eye contact with me. "...and... your eyes."

---

I left straight from Mr. Brown’s room and waited for my ride. When Comet’s brown Civic pulled up I got in. When we saw each other we just stared bewildered at each other for a while. With Comet’s shaggy dull blue hair and long bangs I hardly recognized him from earlier this morning. I imagine I was a sight too.

After gawking, we agreed on a plan. It made sense to go back to my place, where it started. Comet had exhausted our phone leads but maybe among the party refuse there was still a clue.

Other than the furniture put back in place, the living room and kitchen were still a huge mess. Ian was in the living room playing some video game, sitting among the celebratory debris. I started picking up bottles and cans while looking for anything else. Markus and Ian were giving me shit about picking up anyway. Comet was checking trash cans carefully for any suspicious packaging that might explain our current situation.

By the time I filled three garbage bags Comet came to me empty-handed, there was apparently nothing suspicious in any trash cans anywhere. No tattoo papers, no weird product packaging or bottles.

Comet said he needed a cigarette. I readily agreed.

We stood and smoked in relative silence in the dark until Comet finally shared what he was reading on his phone.

“Eye color can change because of genetics, injury or illness,” Comet read from his phone screen.

I took a drag from my cigarette as I thought about that. Comet was pressing links on his phone. Probably looking at the same things I was wondering. “What are the illnesses?” I finally asked.

“Says things like pigmentary glaucoma. It says that’ll occur in your 20s and 30s,” he read off his screen.

“Alright. But can it make your eyes go from brown to mulberry?”

“It doesn’t say, but I know purple is a really rare eye color. Albinos with some blue pigment in their eyes and the red underneath make’em purple,” he said.

He held the cigarette in his mouth as he searched something else. I took the time to flick my butt away and light another. After I drew mine out, I quietly made a mental note there was one left in the pack now.

We sat in the dark. I quietly watched Comet read his screen. In the light of his phone I could make out his long blue bangs were swept to the side away from me. The reflection of the phone screen made his eyes nearly glow. He took a drag from his cigarette and then took it out to talk again.

“It’s not pigmentary glaucoma. It doesn’t usually develop in both of the eyes at the same time.”

“Alright, then what are the injuries?”

“Blunt trauma to the eyes. You don’t have any swelling around your eyes so it’s not that,” Comet shut down that possibility. He flicked the last bit of ash from his butt, inspected it, then grinded it against the sole of his shoe before tossing it into the coffee can next to us.

“So, we’re cursed,” I admitted. I drank from the bottle of Old Crow as we arrived back at our original hypothesis.

“I can’t think of what else is going on,” he agreed and put his phone away. He pointed towards my cigarette. “You got one more for me?”

I smiled at him before I answered, “Of course.”

I put the cigarette in my mouth and lit it for him. Then carefully put the crinkled, empty pack back into my pocket. “No more though, you gotta start buying your own.”

He nodded as he took the lit cigarette. “You know, I only smoke when I’m hanging out with you,” he informed me. “You’re a bad influence.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. Thirsty?” I offered him the whiskey.

He took it, took a shot and handed it back to me. We leaned against the house in the dark for a while. There was a strange sense of calmness being in the dark with a friend. I thought we were both watching distant streetlights until I saw his face was tilted upwards; he was looking for stars through the urban light pollution. I looked up as well to see if he could actually make out anything. I certainly couldn’t.

“So. I’m Comet Tail,” he finally broke the silence. “The blue hair made the search easier.”

“‘Comet Tail’? I like it. What does Comet Tail do?” I asked Comet.

“I have no idea. I don’t remember him. He must have just been a background pony,” he sounded a little somber about that.

“Like Berry Punch?” I offered. “Were they ever in the background together?”

“Like I said, I don’t even remember Comet Tail. It’s been like seven years since I watched that show. I only remember Berry because some things she did in the show made us think she was an alcoholic. Which was funny for a kid’s show.”

And I had her cutie mark, hair color and eye color now. Was that what the person who cursed me was trying to say; that this is how I was going to be remembered? They were probably right. Was Comet contemplating being forgotten? I took a few gulps of Old Crow. The nail polish was just swallowable but it complemented the bitterness in the back of my mouth well.

“I’m sorry I talked you into coming over to my party. I know it’s my fault you got the tattoos and hair, “ I apologized.

“Nah, you didn’t make me come over. I wanted to. Besides, my eye color didn’t really change. I can just dye and cut my hair back. You can too,” he told me.

“What if something else changes though? My eye color changed,” I reminded him.

“I’ll admit the eye color thing is throwing off the easy theories,” he started, “Your eyes match your hair now, right? And my hair and eyes match now. Maybe whatever reaction causes the color changes is being… ‘expelled’ and this is just how it’s released? Like it’s a poison leaving? Then it clears up?” Comet didn’t sound like he believed himself. If it was the truth then this was some weird science.

“And what about the tattoos?”

“This is going to sound crazy but the cutie mark is kind of growing on me. And I think it kind of suits me: I like the colors and it is astronomy related. Plus it’s easy enough to hide,” he was avoiding the question about how we got them. But I knew he didn’t know either. We had no theories left. “It’s a blackout tattoo from your birthday party. I couldn’t ask for a better story for how I got a cutie mark.”

I noticed him turn to look at me. I couldn’t quite make out his face in the dark but I thought I heard a grin when he spoke, “Besides I had to come to your party. You were always there for me when no one else wanted to be my friend. You supported me at the track meets when my parents didn’t even come. I know it’s been a while since we talked but… when I got your text the other day I knew I couldn’t miss your party.”

I’m glad it was dark because I could feel my face grow warm. Since when did I blush? Something he said reminded me of something I meant to ask. Ideally at a time when I didn’t risk ruining a happy moment. “So, uh, did you hang out with your parents yesterday?”

“No. But Mom called. First time they talked to me in a while. She wanted me to come visit but...” he hesitated. “I had already made plans with some of my college friends to go to this restaurant downtown. Didn’t want to cancel on them either.”

“Anyone I know?” I humored a change in topic.

“Trevor and Adam?” he questioned.

“Is Trevor the one you like?” I asked. I strained my old memories of his friends to its breaking point.

“No? You’re thinking of Tyler. We dated and broke up like a year ago.”

“Oh. Shit. Sorry to hear that,” I apologized. He gave a shrug and an apathetic grunt that told me he was long over it.

“Anyway, I’m heading to the store later to buy some hair dye. I wanna get it back to normal before we go pick up Monica tomorrow. You want me to get you some black?”

The plan to pick up Monica and go see Brianna as a group was on. Monica didn’t want a little car wreck to ruin a fun trip and a reunion.

“Sure,” I accepted. “I’m fine going to my AA meeting tonight with purple hair but I’d rather not see my sister looking like a cartoon character.”

My cigarette was done and I flicked the end. Comet quickly followed suit and we went back inside. The living room was mostly cleared but the kitchen was still a wreck. Ian was still on the couch playing video games.

“Did you hurt your ankle?” Comet asked me as he followed me in. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about but I looked down at my feet to see. I was standing with my heels raised. I hadn’t even noticed. I felt a little less certain with my steps but I blamed it on the alcohol. I pressed my heels down to the ground, they were stiff and complained. Maybe I did hurt them? Wait a minute...

“You’re doing it too,” I said pointing down at his feet. He looked down confused at his own feet and saw I wasn’t lying. He tried several times to push his ankles to the ground like mine but seemingly couldn’t.

“Stiff ankles,” he pondered this development trying one last time then looked at me. He took in my purple hair and eyes. We both knew this must have been related to the color changes and cutie marks somehow. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?”

“Hey,” Ian interrupted us from his seat on the couch. “If you two are done flirting with each other, all this shit still needs to get thrown out.”

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