So, there I was, standing in my room, my pants down, my hands covering my...

I still couldn’t say it, even to myself. Suffice it to say that I had found myself in abrupt possession of the incorrect equipment down there.

The signs should have been there. Not just should have – they were there, from the very beginning. The softening of features, the girly hair, even my voice, though it had been changing slowly enough that it had escaped my attention. If nothing else, Daisy had shown me a picture of the stupid unicorn. But as ridiculous as changing into a pony seemed, I hadn’t for an instant considered that I was changing into a girl pony.

And you know what? Enough was enough. For the first time all this change stuff hit me and instead of being scared or confused or depressed, I just felt angry. You can push a guy around, give him a tail and hooves, whatever, but when you stoop to messing with a guy’s dick, well, that is where I draw the line. I guess I didn’t technically count as a ‘guy’ anymore, but— didn't matter. I wasn’t going to sit around and take it anymore.

My tail lashed out behind me in dutiful agreement. You know, I was beginning to enjoy this tail thing at least. It felt good to have at least one part of my changing anatomy that was on my side.

I strode over to my closet. Screw it, if I was going to be like this, I wasn’t going to look ridiculous in baggy clothes. I pulled down an old band t-shirt that I had accidentally gotten in a small instead of a medium. It fit surprisingly well on my now much more slender frame. I was still flat-chested. Of course – it’s not like horses had boobs. At least in the same places. Um. Not going to think more on that for now.

Instead, pants. Nah, they would just be constricting, and my legs were already starting to look sort of odd. I didn’t want them to be a hindrance if things got even worse. I found a pair of shorts that I had outgrown a while back and hadn’t bothered throwing away. A minute’s work with a pair of scissors cut a hole in the back just large enough to run my tail through.

I paused to look at myself on the computer’s webcam, running a hand through my hair to get it to optimum tousled-ness. Perfect. Opening my now large and round eyes wide, I grinned widely and took a picture.

And then after a moment of indecision, my adrenaline overcame my better judgment. I deleted the two previous pictures of myself. The next time I would take a picture I would either be a horse or back to normal. I was no longer interested in documenting the results. I wanted to change them.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my door and walked out into the hall.

Around the corner, in the living room, the cartoon had stopped. I could hear Brooke and Daisy discussing something in hushed whispers. It wasn’t hard to guess what – I assumed they were thinking of a way to console me.

I stepped around the corner and coughed theatrically to draw their attention, a smirk on my face and a plan in my head. My tail whipped back and forth behind me with excitement.

It was probably stupid. Brooke had made plenty of good points about how it probably wasn’t related and how it could just make things worse instead. But at this point, ‘worse’ had pretty much lost any relevance. I had no other leads and I was tired of letting these changes happen passively. I was going to do something, no matter how seemingly ill-advised.

“Girls,” I said, “we are going to go steal a lyre.”

“And he’s the only friend you have with a car,” I said again, grousing as I headed down the last flight of stairs.

“The only one I can trust,” Daisy said cheerfully.

I rolled my eyes. Still, nothing could dampen my spirits. If anything, I had only grown more and more excited. I looked up the stairs at Brooke, who was hanging back sullenly.

She was the one that needed convincing even to come. Or rather, I made it clear that I was going to go steal the instrument whether or not anyone else decided to join me, and upon seeing that I would not be swayed, she demanded to come along. She was covered head to toe to disguise herself, a hoodie of mine, long pants, even shoes, which I had to assume were awkward with hooves.

In contrast, I felt great in shorts with my tail out. It would be suspicious, but who cares? At this point, it was as good a disguise as anything else. Heck, if someone reported a strange half-horse robber, chances are good that no one would even believe it.

At the bottom of the stairs, I grew tired of waiting for a deliberately slow Brooke and pushed the door open, walking out into the alley behind the apartments. Where, yep, Andy stood next to his beat-up old hatchback.

Not that it fazed me at this point. I walked over to him, a smile on my face at his surprise. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. I looked him up and down. He was even wearing some sort of pony t-shirt. Sigh.

“Alright,” I said, “here’s how this works. My name is Tyler and I’m turning into a pony. As is my friend. We’re gonna go and see if we can figure out how to stop it. First, no jokes about ponies. Second, no weird questions about ponies. Third, and most importantly no strange internet memes about ponies.” I stared him straight in the eye through the entire speech, daring him to disagree.

He scratched his head and had the decency to look embarrassed. “Uh. Well, I was wondering... could I maybe touch your tail?”

“Not if you want to keep that hand,” I said in a matter-of-fact manner. “Also, that counts as a weird question about ponies. Strike one.”

“Damn,” he said, with an apologetic grin.

Daisy had joined us and she punched me lightly in the arm. “Don’t be mean,” she said.

I shrugged and impatiently motioned for Brooke to hurry up. She was standing in the doorway, peering out into the alley to see if anyone else was around. It was night, and dark, meaning the streets were more-or-less deserted. Plus, y’know, anyone interested would have been paying way more attention to me than her.

She scurried out and hopped into the backseat. Andy tilted his head, but thought better of asking any questions. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. I hopped in the back along with Brooke.

“OK,” I said, as soon as Daisy and Andy were aboard and the car had started. “There’s an alley between the Physics and History buildings. It opens out onto a cross-street that they close during the day, but which is deserted at night. We’ll park there.”

“Wow,” Daisy said, slightly impressed, “you actually have this planned out.”

“Do I!” I exclaimed. “Though, to be fair, this took five minutes. There’s only like three security guards on campus at night, so it’s not as if I’m expecting any real trouble.” That might have been a slight bit of exaggeration, but seriously – we weren’t breaking into the Louvre here. I doubt they even had the budget to pay for alarm systems or anything.

I looked over at Brooke, gloomily sitting next to me. She really wasn’t looking forward to this, and I felt briefly guilty about dragging her along, even if it was pretty much her decision. I owed it to her to at least try and cheer her up.

“So,” I said, looking directly at her. “The next important step: code-names!”

She just rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched slightly.

I paused for a moment, tapping my head to indicate deep thought. “What about... Bonnie and Clyde?” Daisy snorted from the front seat. At least someone appreciated my bad attempts at humor.

“Not anything Bon-related,” Brooke said firmly.

“But I was going to be Bonnie...” I said in a mock whine. “OK then, even better, what about Harpo and Sweetiebutt?”

Brooke let out an annoyed sigh, but this time she was definitely having to hide a smile. “That’s just... Ugh. Those are the very worst names possible,” she said.

“I don’t hear you making suggestions,” I said, smirking.

She stuck her tongue out at me. “How about Tyler and Brooke?”

I took a haughty tone. “I don’t think you quite grasp the intended purpose of code-names.”

“How about Tyra and Bron-Bron?” Daisy offered helpfully, prompting a groan from Brooke.

“OK, scratch my last comment,” she said. “Those are the worst possible names.”

“See, Bonnie and Clyde aren’t looking so bad now, huh?” I said, laughing.

Brooke smiled at me, causing my own grin to grow even wider. “I guess,” she said.

It lasted only a moment before a hint of sadness entered her eyes. Her expression dropped again, the smile disappearing as quickly as it had come. “I just... what if we’re stuck this way?”

“We’re not giving up yet,” I said emphatically. “And, even if worst comes to worst, you’re discounting all the fringe benefits that come with being a pony!”

She looked at me skeptically.

“Um,” I said, thinking. “Well, kids would love you, for sure.”

“You’ll spend way less money on clothes,” Daisy chimed in.

“I really like your... mane?” Andy said. Daisy giggled softly.

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m going to have to assume that’s a reference to something and tentatively penalize you one additional half strike, mister.”

“Damn,” he said.

Brooke looked exasperated, but her eyes were brighter. I put one arm across her shoulders and swept the other forward in an expansive gesture. “Trust me,” I said. “Everything is going to be okay!”

Campus was quiet. Sort of spookily quiet. A few lights were on in some of the upper offices in the admin building across the way, but there were no signs of movement or activity. Perfect.

Daisy, Brooke, and I had made our way to the front of the history building, trying to stay in the shadows as best as we could. Technically there was no reason why we couldn’t be here, as Daisy and I were both students, but better to draw as little attention as possible. Particularly when there’d surely be a fuss when someone noticed a missing piece from the collection tomorrow.

They kept the buildings locked after ten PM, but that wouldn’t be a problem. I had my student ID, and they had a simple keycard lock so—

“Hey,” Brooke whispered. “What if they record which cards are used to open the doors?”

I blinked. “They can do that?”

Daisy shrugged and peered at the little sliding scanner for a moment. “Maybe, maybe not. We could try something different though.”

She slipped into the bushes to the right of the entrance, the leaves rustling with her movement. A moment later a hand popped out, impatiently gesturing for us to follow.

Brooke and I ducked and scrambled to push through the foliage. The bushes that lined the building were pretty thick, but once you got through the exterior there was a narrow gap between them and the wall. Daisy was making her way along the building, stopping occasionally to reach up and try the windows.

Sure enough, one was unsecured, and upon Daisy’s gentle push it slid up, allowing entry into an empty classroom. This was turning out to be just as easy as I expected.

“OK,” I said, “Brooke, you wait here and keep an eye out. Daisy, we’ll—”

“I’m coming with you,” Brooke said, with a tone of voice that allowed no disagreement.

I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you thought this was a bad idea.”

“I do, which is why I’m coming along. To make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” She forced a smile at me, but still seemed entirely too tense.

Daisy spoke up, indignantly. “What, you don’t think that I could keep him out of trou—” She couldn’t keep a straight face anymore and started snickering, one hand over her mouth to try and mute the noise. “Okay, okay, you two have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

I grinned and peeked into the window, confirming the darkened room was empty. “No promises,” I chirped, and scrambled up and through, Brooke following close behind.

As awesome as hooves were, there was one very distinctive downside. They were loud as hell. As much as I tried to move carefully and quietly, each step was marked by a clopping sound as hoof struck tile, echoing throughout the building.

Brooke fared much better with her shoes, though she also seemed to be considerably more unsteady than me. She was pretty jumpy, and the noise I was making had her particularly on edge as we made our way down the deserted halls. I would have reassured her, but as soon as I opened my mouth to do so, she pressed a finger against her lips and glared at me. Psh, like I could say anything louder than the racket my hooves were already making.

At least we were on the right floor, though due to the layout of the building we had to walk further than expected. It took several long hallways to get back around to the front lobby, where the museum area was located. Since there wasn’t much other than classrooms at this level, it meant no reason for anyone else to be around. There might be a professor or two still working in one of the offices on the upper floors, but we’d be in and out without them even noticing.

Sure enough, we reached the front lobby without seeing signs of anyone else, and I happily skipped across to the display case that held my lyre. Well, the lyre. The lyre that would be my lyre in just a minute.

It was exactly as I remembered, simple in construction – no, not just simple, elegant. Seven strings, the precise number to allow for more complicated compositions without being needlessly flashy. The perfect size to make it easily manageable when I—

OW!

With no warning whatsoever, a sharp lancing pain struck me right in the center of my forehead. It was as bad as ten ice-cream headaches at the same time, but all of them focused at a single point at the front of my head rather than at my temples. I stumbled forward, arms flailing to grab something for support, and felt Brooke catch me from behind to steady me.

What was that? I blearily turned to look at Brooke, my eyes involuntarily watering from the pain. “I-I’m fine,” I said, weakly. The pain had already started to recede, as fleeting as it was intense.

Her face was pale and her eyes focused on something above me. I looked up, and then behind me, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. She shook her head. “You... you have a horn,” she said.

I reached up, my hand running through my hair until it hit a sudden obstruction. A solid nub, just barely sticking up out of my head. It felt sore, and even a slight touch was enough to trigger a weaker echo of the previous ache, but it was firm. Like one more piece of my skull.

Well. Couldn’t be a unicorn without the horn, right? Knew this was coming sooner or later.

I shook my head to clear it. The pain seemed to just be a temporary thing, and we had more important concerns. Brooke still looked concerned, but I pointed up at the lyre with a grin.

She shrugged, unimpressed. How could she not see how awesome it was? Some people wouldn’t know craftsmanship if it bucked them in the face. Sigh.

“How are we going to get it out?” she asked in a whisper.

I lightly pressed the plexiglass sliding panel that made up the front of the case. It wobbled slightly, showing a bit of give. The lock was a basic one, a metal bolt that prevented the door from moving over unless the key had been inserted and turned. Simple enough. Except I had completely forgotten about needing to deal with this part.

Hm.

I raised one hoof and tapped it against the tile, thinking deeply. Turning around I looked back across the rest of the lobby-slash-museum and repeated the process, gauging my footing. Maybe...

I motioned for Brooke to stand next to me, and grabbed ahold of her shoulders firmly, getting the angle just right. It felt a little weird, but it would probably be best to go partially from the side.

One leg drew up as I used my grip on Brooke to keep my balance. Her mouth opened in horror as she realized what I was about to do. Too late!

My leg lashed out, kicking at the plexiglass panel and scoring a direct hit on the lock. The sound was like a gunshot, practically deafening me. My leg felt even stronger in action than I expected it to, but the plexiglass didn’t break. Science: 1, Lyra: 0. But, see, the great thing about brute force is that if it doesn’t work at first, it just means you aren’t using enough.

Brooke looked horrified as I kicked again... and again, the unholy racket just as loud as before. On the fourth blow, I heard a snap before a wailing sound kicked in. I bounced up in joy and turned to look – sure enough, the area around the lock had shattered, meaning it was trivial to slide the door open and seize my prize.

I hugged the lyre close to my chest, ecstatic at our success. I was shaking, I was so happy! Or wait, that was more violent than usual. Opening my eyes I saw Brooke shaking me roughly and realized something else that was probably important. That wailing I heard? Breaking the lock had triggered some kind of alarm, from the sound of it maybe even the same system as the fire alarm. Uh oh. Maybe they protected their stupid ancient junk better than I had expected.

OK, no problem though, this is why we planned ahead and had a getaway driver ready. We would just exit via the convenient front door and make our way to our clever escape route. I thought of explaining this to Brooke, but the blaring alarm was too loud to talk over, so I just ran to the door. Right as it opened.

To reveal a campus security guard, obviously investigating the alarm.

I came to a screeching halt, and realized the lyre was still in my arms, making my guilt completely apparent. Plus I didn’t particularly want to field questions about my admittedly bizarre appearance on top of the criminal charges. “RUN!” I shouted, as loud as I could.

Initially upon seeing me, he looked as surprised as I was, but me taking off in the opposite direction cleared up matters, and he chased after us, in hot pursuit. I flew down the hallways, Brooke close behind.

One useful realization: as loud as the hooves were, they were also fast. I bet I broke a few sprinting records as I skidded around a corner and kept going. I thought back to Brooke’s insistence on wearing shoes. Who’s the smart one now, eh?

That’s when I realized that she was no longer behind me. I slowed my pace, looking over my shoulder, just in time to hear a scream from around the corner. She was in danger!

Without any hesitation whatsoever, I reversed course and ran back down the hall to find the guard grabbing at her arm, trying to restrain her. I stood still for one moment, then instinctively crouched down, dropping the lyre to free my hands. My ears lay flat against my skull and one hoof brushed against the floor, measuring my traction.

“Stay away from my Bon-Bon!” I screamed, launching myself at full speed. At the last moment, I leapt into the air to crash into the guard, landing right on top, and from the looks of it, knocking the wind out of him.

I saw Bon-Bon move towards me out of the corner of my eye and I raised a hand to stop her. “Go!” I ordered “I’ll catch up!”

I had to do something about this first.

Uhhh.

I was still sitting on his chest, but I grabbed the guard by his shirt and his shoulders off the ground, my adrenaline giving me a rush of strength. I stared right into his eyes and realized what a sight I must have been. Which gave me an idea.

I flared my ears out, opened my eyes as wide as they would go, and yelled as loud as I could directly into his face. Something about a strange and furious half-horse creature full-body tackling you and then screaming like a banshee tends to cause panic, if the guard was any indication. He produced a strangled yell in response and I dropped him to the floor, leaving him stunned as I galloped off after Bon-Bon, stopping for only an instant to scoop up the lyre as I went.

We still had option #2 for escape: just ducking out the window we came in. Coming into the last hallway, I saw Bon-Bon waiting at the door to that room, apparently being on the same wavelength as me, as usual. I ran in right behind her, relishing the look of relief written across her face. We wasted no time at all diving through the window and back out into the bushes, the sound of the alarm still loud but not quite as deafening in the cool night air.

That had been close! Now we just needed to—

A flashlight shone into the bushes, where our leaping arrival had made a conspicuous noise. “Who’s there?” a deep voice demanded.

We froze, trying to avoid making any sound or movement. My eyes frantically swiveled, trying to find a suitable escape, but there was no good way out of things this time. I could try and attack again, but there was no telling how many guards there were, or if they had friggin’ tasers or something.

The footsteps approached all too fast, as the light drew closer, piercing into the bushes...

“Oh, thank god!” I heard a familiar voice say. “I just saw these weird people run off! You better hurry and catch them!”

“What? Where?” the deep voice asked, alarmed.

“That way! Hurry!” The light from the flashlight vanished and the sound of running trailed off into the distance.

“Am I good or what?” Daisy said, peering into the bushes at us. “Now let’s get out of here before anyone else shows up. I think you guys woke up the whole university!”

The car was started and waiting for us. Daisy hopped up front again and Bon-Bon and I dove into the back, sprawling across the seat.

As we took off, I couldn’t help but erupt into laughter, my infectious joy causing everyone to join in. Even Bon was overcome with giggles. Now that right there, that was a crazy caper at its very best. You never remember the ones that go well, it’s always when things are on the verge of disaster that it’s a story for the ages.

“The look on your face when I kicked that display case!” I said, between snorts of laughter.

“I can’t believe you!” Bon-Bon exclaimed, but she couldn’t suppress that marvelous smile. “I thought you had a plan!”

“Oh Bonny, you should know my plans by now!” I said happily. “Step one: get inside. Step two: improvise!”

She looked at me strangely, but it just caused me to laugh harder. She always complained, but she would go along with me no matter what. I knew she secretly enjoyed the excitement just as much as I did.

“Tyler?” Daisy said from the front seat. Probably talking to the guy driving.

I poked Bon-Bon in the side, still grinning. “I can’t believe you wore shoes! No wonder you couldn’t keep up when we had to run.”

“Tyler!” Daisy said.

Bon-Bon started to sit up and pulled away from me. I looked over at her, confused. She wasn’t laughing at all any more. In fact, she looked scared. Terrified.

“Whoa, Bon-Bon, you look like you just saw a changeling. Are you okay?” I smiled, trying to make light of matters. She had nightmares for weeks after the whole changeling invasion thing, but we had worked through it together and could joke about it. Even if it was in slightly poor taste.

“Lyra?” Daisy said, quietly.

I looked up at her, realizing how quiet it had gotten. “Huh? What?”

I was confused. We had lapsed into silence, Daisy apparently deep in thought, but I had no idea about what. Eventually she had demanded the driver guy pull over to the side of the road, both her and Bon-Bon staring at me like I was some sort of wild animal.

“Get out,” she said, her voice cold and hard.

I obliged and stepped out of the car. The moon was out, bathing our surroundings in a silvery light. It was a nice night, a good night for a walk, or to watch stars, or to compose a new song.

The three others surrounded me, my back to the car. What was going on? Daisy stood in the center, shaking slightly but her expression that of anger. The guy who had been driving kept looking to Daisy uncertainly, as he stood to the side arms slightly lifted. I knew that posture. He would try to grab me if I ran. Why would I run?

And Bon-Bon. She was standing the furthest away from me, as if she couldn’t stand to be too close. She stared straight at me but her eyes were full of fear. Didn’t she recognize me? Why would she ever be scared of me?

“I am going to ask you some questions,” Daisy said. Her tone was icy and tightly controlled. “I want you to think very carefully about the answers.”

I nodded, feeling frightened myself. Whatever had happened, it was something really wrong.

“What’s your name?” Daisy asked.

What? That was it? “Lyra Heartstrings,” I said. Daisy winced, but what was she expecting?

“What’s her name?” she asked, one arm thrust back to point at Bon-Bon.

“That’s Bon-Bon,” I said. “What are you—”

“What’s my name?” Daisy interrupted, continuing her line of inquiry.

“It’s Daisy,” I said. “Do you think I don’t know who you are?”

She paused for a moment at that. “I... wasn’t sure. But how...” Her voice trailed off as she looked away. After a long moment of silence, she turned towards me again, her face more serious than I had ever seen it. “If you know who I am, you know how we met. Right?”

Well, of course. It was at...

Huh.

When was that, again?

We were... We were at a party. That’s right.

Pinkie had thrown a party for... Wait.

Pinkie wasn’t there at all. A party where Pinkie Pie didn’t show up? Inconceivable!

But she wasn’t. I was there as part of the band, playing my... Huh? I should have been playing my lyre, I didn’t play any other instruments. That wasn’t right either though.

I was...

I...

Who was I?

I covered my face with my hands. What was going on? I heard Daisy say something, then the voice of... Bon-Bon? Or no, the voice was right, but the name wasn’t.

Who was I?

I had done something wrong. Horribly horribly wrong. I didn’t mean to! I just... Things just happened!

I could fix this. I had to fix this.

Who was I?

This was important.

Who was I?

I looked up to see my vision sliding further and further away, as if looking back as I traveled into a long, dark tunnel. The world turned sideways and the ground drew near. Then, as my sight had almost vanished entirely, I saw Bon-Bon’s face, tears in her eyes.

Sorry, Bon. I had to fix this. You’d do the same thing.

And then everything went dark.