Greek Ponies 1

The sun streaming through the cracked blinds on my bedroom window and the blaring of my alarm clock, combined with the noisy stumbling of my ditzy roommate, would normally have been enough to rouse me from sleep. However, this morning, those three forces would have to contend with the fact that I'd spent all night tossing and turning in a rather restless, dreamless daze that just barely qualified as actually sleeping.

Finally, a mass of down-filled cotton pillowcase slammed into my face, causing me to jerk upright and smash my head into the ceiling before lying back down, holding my aching head. Hooray for super-lofted beds. While I'm at it, hooray for overly-perky, stereotypical blonde bimbo sorority sister roommates. Katie's perpetually-upbeat demeanor all but ensured that she got a bid on Bid Day, and that same permanently, innocently cheerful personality earned her the rather uncreative nickname of "Bubbles". She'd been assigned a "Big Sister" who was decidedly her polar opposite, someone sarcastic and cynical. Someone like, say, me, Sarah.

Needless to say, I was overjoyed at the selection.

"Bubbles, really? I don't have class until 2:30 and I feel like I just got bucked in the head by a crazed horse."

Bubbles just responded by giving that oh-so-charming giggle that the rest of the sisters just adored about her. "Oh, Sunny," (god I hated that nickname), "don't you remember? Tonight is the big formal with your boyfriend's fraternity!"

"Ugh. Is that really tonight?"

Bubbles only nodded and giggled again.

Fuck. Don't get me wrong, I was looking forward to seeing Dan actually wear something besides cargo shorts and a polo for a change, but at that point I just wanted to chug some NyQuil and go back to sleep.

Rather than supporting the rest of my body's demands, my stomach decided to voice a few loud concerns of its own. I couldn't lie, though, the stomach was making some pretty convincing arguments in support of food relieving my discomfort. I sat up, pulled my tangle of chestnut-colored hair back, and slowly climbed down the ladder from my ceiling-high bed.

I pulled my nightshirt off to replace it with, well, another t-shirt.

"Where ya going, Sunny? And what's that funny rash on your back?"

"Food. Breakfast. Rash?!" I turned my back towards the mirror on my door, and sure enough there was a bizarre-looking splotch, roughly the size of a silver dollar coin, colored a sort of dark red/pink, almost plum colored. I tried to touch it, but its location right between my shoulderblades made that tough.

"Weird. Guess I'll drop by health services on campus later. First, food."

"Okay! I think Kat and some of the other girls are making waffles, sausage, eggs, and bacon downstairs. I think I'm just gonna stick with my oatmeal because I wanna try going vegetarian because..." Bubbles' voice trailed off as I exited the bedroom without her noticing.

Walking through the hallway and down the stairs, I began trying to formulate a plan to change roommates. I liked Bubbles, really I did, I even voted to give her a bid to join us. It's just that, even when I'm feeling 100%, I'm not a morning person, and Bubbles has only two states: asleep, and completely wired. I don't know how she does it.

Once I entered the kitchen, an absolutely vile stench hit my nostrils. It was immediately recognizable as the sausage that the girls were cooking, but for whatever reason it smelled almost spoiled.

"Hey girls, you sure that sausage isn't expired?"

Kat, the redhead, nodded an affirmative. "Yeah, brand new package. Smells fine to me," she turned to the other girls, "What do you all think?"

Tara, aka "Timmy" due to the pink t-shirts she always wore like the character from Fairly Odd Parents, spoke up, saying that she thought the meat was fine, too.

"Oh well, guess I'm just not feeling sausage this morning." I stepped up to the serving counter and grabbed a few pancakes, some oatmeal, and a glass of orange juice.

As I ate, I began to feel a lot better, to my relief. I began thinking that maybe I'd just go to class, grab my notes, and then just crash at home until the formal. Or maybe I won't even go to the formal; Dan had been torn between coming to the formal and going to some concert in the city. If this headache and general feeling of malaise and exhaustion didn't let up, I wouldn't begrudge him ditching the dance.

---

I came back from class still feeling exhausted, but otherwise better than before, though a growing stiffness in my limbs was a new symptom. The only thing that could explain my condition was the possibility that I caught something from my lab partner in genetics lab the day before. He wasn't looking so great, but then again... He never really does. Or, maybe it was that stuff he accidentally spilled on me? Who knows. I figured I'd give it another day, and if I didn't feel any better, THEN I'd go to the infirmary.

In the meantime, I figured I'd crash for a while. I flopped down on the couch underneath my bed, startling Bubbles.

"Oh, hey Sunny! You feeling any better? How's that spot on your back?"

I responded with a grunt as I shifted around to find a comfortable position to lie in. Seconds later, I felt Bubbles' hands lightly tugging at the back of my shirt.

"Uh, Bubbles, what the hell are you doing?"

Smiling that saccharine grin of hers, she responded, "Checking your back, of course! Oh, man, Sunny, you really should get that looked at, it's gotten bigger!"

Momentarily forgetting the invasion of my personal space, I sat back up. "What? No way. It's only been like a few hours since you first noticed it."

"Seriously, Sunny, you should get that checked out..." Bubbles looked me in the eye with a confused look on her face. "And, aren't your eyes normally green?"

I stood up in front of the mirror, and sure enough my eyes had changed to a deep blue, and the plum-colored rash had spread unevenly a few inches in every direction. Fuck. That's definitely going to be noticeable in my dress for tonight.

"What the fuck..." Groaning, I dropped back down to the couch. "Screw it, I'm just gonna hole up in here for the night, there's no way I can cover that thing up for tonight and I'm too exhausted to run to health services... Better let Dan know I guess..."

Thankfully, Dan wasn't too disappointed about missing the party, though he was concerned about me and said he'd crash the party later tonight to check on me.

With my plans for the evening wiped out, I decided to try getting some rest.

---

A few hours later, I awoke to the sounds of the party slowly gearing up. I felt surprisingly refreshed and rested, a welcome development from earlier in the day. Still lying down, I stretched out in an attempt to work out the stiffness my limbs had developed while asleep. As I continued to writhe around comfortably in my bed, my body felt tingly all over, almost as though my entire body had "fallen asleep", but minus any discomfort.

After a few minutes of consciousness, it became clear that no amount of shifting around would cure my stiff joints, I gingerly climbed down from my bed. On the last rung of the ladder, I stumbled and fell to the ground. As I began picking myself up from the floor and onto the couch, I quickly saw what had caused me to slip:

My legs no longer ended in my well-pedicured, ten-toed feet.

I had hooves.