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Welcome to Ponyville

Brown hair. Glasses. Pale skin. A skinny, perhaps even slightly gangly body. Jeans and a grey shirt. These were the simple, basic words that Mark would use to describe himself if asked. Sure, there was lots more to the guy than just those physical features, but as far as a physical identity was concerned, that was him!

At least, that had been him before he fell asleep.

It wasn't that he was dreaming now. No matter how much he might have thought that it was a dream, no matter how much it seemed obviously to be a dream; for such things did not happen in any sort of reality, this was not a dream. It simply transpired that the human male was asleep when he dropped out of the world he knew as 'real', and landed in a new one.

A very familiar, very friendly new one.

A land called Equestria.

Of course, Mark didn't know this at first. Not for sure. When he awoke, and found soft grass beneath his body rather than a firm, cosy mattress, he thought that perhaps he had been drinking with friends the night before, or maybe he had been sleepwalking! There had to be a rational explanation for how he had come to be here, wherever here might have been. Thus he stood up, and resolved to find some sort of marker; a road, a house, a signpost, to tell him precisely where he was. His body ached, and not just the sort of aches that came from sleeping on open grassland rather than a well sprung bed. It ached like it had when he was a teenager, experiencing 'growing pains' for the first time. Nevertheless, the pain wasn't bad enough to stop him from moving, thus he progressed onward in what seemed like a good direction; towards the top of a gently rising hill some two hundred metres distant.

Upon reaching the top of that hill, Mark found himself standing beside a tree. A brilliantly lush, green tree, laden with ripe red apples. In fact as he looked down the hill, Mark could see countless other apple trees all equally verdant and spilling over with luscious looking fruit. And in the distance, beyond the acres of orchards, a farmyard. A farmyard with an entrance path, and a sign swinging gently from two posts above it.

Even from this distance, Mark couldn't help but recognise the sign and the apple emblem upon it. His eyes widened, and he smirked softly to himself as the realisation that this was surely a dream washed over him.

"Sweet Apple Acres..."

Chuckling as he turned away from the farmyard, where he could now see several small, brightly coloured shapes dashing around on four hoofed feet, Mark glanced down at the ground by his feet. There, apparently freshly fallen, was an apple. He grinned, bent down, and picked it up.

"Mark... you're watching way too much My Little Pony..."

Musing to himself about how real this world seemed despite its obvious dream-state, the human male lifted the apple to his chest, rubbed it clean on his t-shirt where it had been resting upon the grassy earth, and raised it to his mouth. He took a bite, and his eyes instantly widened.

"Mmmhhph mhh!"

That apple... that small, red, perfectly shiny apple, was the single greatest thing that Mark had ever tasted in his life. Not just sweet. Not just crisp. Not just juicy. It was heaven. Absolute heaven. He threw his head back as he swallowed that first bite, ready to groan in gleeful satisfaction and eager to have another bite. Rather than groaning though, a strange sound escaped his mouth. Not a groan, not a gurgle of guttural joy. More like... a whinny.

A moment later, Mark dropped the apple. He frowned, fumbling with it as it slipped out of his suddenly stiff fingers, but unable to get his hands to co-operate. The apple fell back down to the grass, and Mark was left staring dumbfounded at his hands. Before his very eyes, the long, thin lengths of his fingers were shrinking; growing shorter, stubbier, and beginning to meld together like strands of modelling clay being pressed into a single ball. Though unable to see it, he could feel the same thing happening to his feet; the bases of his lower limbs growing shorter and stockier, tugging and tugging at the fabric of his shoes until finally they burst open with a pop of rapidly tearing fabric, leaving Mark to stagger, teeter, and finally topple forward onto all fours.

"W-wha?!"

Try as he might to rationalise all of this as a dream, it felt far too real for Mark not to be a little freaked out as he found himself shrinking; staring down at his forelegs, his hoofed forelegs, as he grew closer and closer to the ground, his body shrinking from close to six feet in height to almost half that!

"Help! Someone..."

His voice was soft and higher pitched than normal, and escaped him as barely more than a whisper; like he wasn't really used to using it yet. When next Mark attempted to speak though, he couldn't even manage that much; only able to murmur and grunt in shock as his mouth suddenly seemed to erupt forwards; skin stretching into a muzzle even as it began to sprout a short but lush coat of sandy hair. Soon more hair, the longer, more luxurious strands of a glorious mane, began to roll down the sides of Mark's head; shining silvery grey. Mark whinnied loudly, head tossing wildly as a tail burst from the base of his new body's spine, the sudden appearance of this extra length of bone, flesh and silvery hair all that was required to push away the already sagging, now far too large remnants of the former human's trousers.

Shaking off his t-shirt with equal ease, his newly formed horn the only slight sticking point for the upper garment, Mark felt the changes that had thus far been confined to the external features of his body taking place within. She couldn't say exactly what she was feeling, but the pony was suddenly very aware of three major changes. Firstly, her organs appeared to be rearranging themselves. Secondly, the pony was no longer thinking of herself as a human; considering herself a pony as though it was how she had always been. And thirdly... well, she was a she. Not a he, any more.

It was all impossible, of course. That much the pony was still very much aware of. No matter how real it felt. No matter how concrete and vivid and utterly unshakeably real it seemed, none of this could be real.

She wasn't a pony. She wasn't a she. She was...

She was...

The pony's eyes widened.

What had her name been? Back when she was a...

A...

Oh god, what were they called, those strange creatures with two legs and no coats of glorious fur, who wore cutie marks on their clothes rather than on their flanks?

Her eyes widened even more-so.

A cutie mark!!

She whirled around, momentarily looking like a dog chasing its tail as she tried to simultaneously learn how to manoeuvre four legs at once, and look back at her own flank to see what her cutie mark might be.

Except... there wasn't one.

No cutie mark. Not yet, at least. But in a way that made sense. Surely, if she had a cutie mark, she'd know it. Such a mark would after all represent her unique talent, and it was difficult to possess a unique talent if you weren't even aware that you had one!

The pony snorted in frustration. She couldn't understand why her mind was such a haze. Why she couldn't remember anything tangible that had come before now, with her standing here on this hill above a beautiful apple orchard. She had no idea how she knew how to walk and talk, why she knew that this was Equestria and the farmland upon which she was standing belonged to Sweet Apple Acres, but couldn't even remember her own name!

It was maddening. It was infuriating. It was...

"Hey!"

A voice, a small, high pitched voice laden with a rich country twang, called out to her from close by.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Shaking her head both to indicate that she wasn't in fact okay and to hopefully shake away the tears that had been forming in the corners of her eyes, the silver maned pony looked up and saw a face that she had never seen in person before, yet felt as though she knew intimately.

"Hey, hey y'all! Come over here, there's somepony here and she's upset! Ah think she's lost or somethin'!"

Compared to herself, this new pony was very similar in height and size, therefore leading the silvery haired pony to realise that the reason she didn't have a cutie mark could well be that she might not yet be old enough to have discovered her talent! She certainly was a lot more sure of herself though, bounding up to a total stranger and introducing herself with a broad smile.

"Mah name's Apple Bloom, and this here is mah family's farm! Don't worry, y'all are safe here with me and mah sister and all her friends!"

Soon the hilltop was bustling with ponies; two other young fillies who led Applebloom off to one side to quiz her on what the new pony had said, whilst a group of older ponies surrounded the silvery maned filly and tried to reassure her, each in their own individual way.

"Oh dear... oh my, no memory? Oh that's just awful, you poor sweet little thing..."

A pink maned pegasus, hovering a foot or so above the ground, seemed as though she was using every ounce of her willpower not to rush forward and scoop the new filly up in her arms like a newborn foal.

"Hey, don't worry about it! You can hang out with us till you get your memory back. And if you don't, you're bound to turn out awesome anyway, because we're awesome."

Another pegasus, this one with a sky blue coat and a rainbow mane, grinned as she elbowed the young filly playfully in the side.

"Hey, what in tarnation do you think you're doing, Rainbow?! Don't roughouse with the lil' filly, not when she's had such a tough day already!"

An earth pony, obviously Apple Bloom's big sister, darted over to stop the filly from toppling over thanks to Rainbow Dash's playful nudge.

"Oh my dear, don't look so glum. We'll take you back into town and I'll treat you to tea and cakes, then if you like we can find an activity to take your mind off this whole fiasco. I could show you my latest collection of dresses, if you're interested..."

A unicorn with diamonds shining on her flank offered the most appealing solution yet, but she was quickly pushed aside by a speeding pink cannonball of a pony who seemed to have her own unique take on the situation.

"Butifyoudon'tknowwhoyouarethenyoumustbenewhereandifyou'renewherethenweneedtothrowyouaWelcometoPonyvilleParty!!"

Finally though, just when the silver maned filly thought her head was going to explode, a surprisingly loud, stern voice cried out over the clamouring group of friends.

"QUIET!"

Having risen several metres into the air to make herself more visible and more easily heard, a purple coated Alicorn, the Princess Twilight Sparkle, looked to her friends pleadingly.

"Look, I know you all mean well... but I think right now what our new friend needs more than anything is peace and quiet."

The pink pony with balloons on her flank piped up once again.

"ButaWelcometoPonyvillePartywould..."

Her voice abruptly trailed off as Twilight used her unicorn magic to levitate a fallen twig off the ground and waved it in front of the pink pony's face several times before tossing it away down the hill.

Barking like a dog, Pinkie Pie dashed after the stick without hesitation. The rest of the ponies giggled as they watched Pinkie rolling her way down the hill after the stick, whilst Twilight landed close to the silver maned filly and knelt down calmly beside her.

"Now, little one... let's start at the beginning. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. And no matter what happens next... we'll be here for you, if you need us. Okay?"

Sighing softly, the sandy coated, silver maned pony nodded. She was still very scared and confused, and still somehow convinced that this, despite it being all she had ever known, was some sort of dream. But whether dream or reality, at least she didn't have to face this confusion and fear all alone.

At least, wherever this was, she seemed to be amongst friends.

By Jeeves ~ 2,154 words