Hearts Desire - 1

>"Are you ready, Anon?"
>My friend Mike finished tuning his guitar and looked at me.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
>He began to pluck the strings and as soon as he did, the dulcet tones hit our small audience.
>They clearly hadn't expected anything special, seeing as we were very young at the time, but they were clearly amazed
>As the song reached a few bars in, I began to sing
>The crowd sat, staring wide eyed at us.
>The song ended at the campers in front of us sat still.
>Slowly, they began to clap and both of us stood up.
>I bowed to the roaring crowd, a smile shining from my face.
>In that moment, I knew.
>I knew what I wanted to do.
>For my whole life
>That was until the accident happened.
>I had been cooking dinner in my kitchen when I started smelling something weird.
>What was that? Gas?
>I turned to my sister who was helping me cook only to see her pulling something out of the drawer.
>A small white box.
>I shouted out just a second too late.
>The spark went off and the room was filled with fire.
>I watched it spread through the air almost in slow motion.
>I breathed in in shock and felt the heat spread all through my lungs.
>The burning was indescribable, like my insides were being cooked.
>And they were.
>I passed out at that point and my body flopped to the floor.
>I woke up in a hospital, the artificial white light giving away where I was.
>I tried to talk but as soon as I did, felt an immense pain from my lungs and chest.
>I was hooked up to a breathing machine for the past few days, the doctor explained.
>My sister and I were relatively unharmed on the outside, but I had breathed in a large amount of gas prior to the explosion, causing the fire to spread through my lungs.
>I would never sing again.
>I eventually healed enough to speak, but my voice was raw, gravely, and hurt to speak for too long.
>I got used to it, but I still tend to keep my sentences short to avoid hurting myself.
>Mike remained my friend, but we no longer made music together.
>He played solo gigs every once and a while, but the loss of me as his singer threw him into a creative depression and soon enough, he stopped playing completely.
>I got a shitty job working at a grocery store and Mike got a job at a retail store.
>We moved out together and spent most of our time playing videogames and complaining about stuff to eachother.
>One day, a particular letter arrived in the mail that left both of us confused.

>"Hey Anon, come take a look at this."
"What is it?"
>"Some letter. It was addressed to both of us."
"Both of us?"
>I rolled my chair over to his and began reading the letter.
>"Yeah, thought it might be the landlord or something, but it just seems like a really weird ad."
>"Your dreams come true, your hope restored...? What the hell does that mean?"
>I scratched my chin before shrugging.
"I dunno man, definitely seems like an ad to me."
>"Look at the logo."
>He pointed to a weird watermark down at the bottom of the page.
>The hell was that? A weird star looking thing?
>"Looks like something out of that cartoon."
"What cartoon?"
>"That pony thing, the one for little girls."
"My Little Pony? Ugh, now I know it's an ad."
>"I dunno man, it seems kinda... Legit for some reason."
"Really? Legit?"
>"Yeah, I dunno why..."
"Well, you do whatever you want man. I'm gonna play some Half Life deathmatch, let me know when you wanna join."

>Eventually, Mike left the letter and came and played Half Life with me.
>Before we knew it, the day was over and we both went to bed.
>The sleep I had was always short as I snored in my sleep and the snoring caused my throat to hurt, waking me up before I had a proper rest.
>I drearily made my way to the kitchen and pulled out some cereal.
>I wanted some toast, but ever since the accident, I've felt way too uncomfortable to cook with any heat.
>Mike did most of the cooking anyway and was much better than me.
>As I poured out my Cap'n Crunch, I noticed that I had a pale bluey green mark on my hand.
>I wiped at it, thinking that some of the food dye from the Cap'n Crunch had fallen on my hand.
>What was this? It both didn't come off when I wiped but felt furry like...
>Fuck, I had a fungal infection on my hand.
>That's what I get for not washing my hands.
>My mum had warned me, but I didn't listen.
>I walked into the living room to see Mike sitting on the couch playing Oblivion.
"Hey dude, I got a favor to ask."
>"Uh, sure dude, what is it?"
"I got some weird infection thing and I gotta get to the GP sometime today."
>"Sure man, I can drive you, no problem."
"So why you up so early?"
>"Just really itchy, dude. No idea why. I got some kind of birthmark looking thing on my hand that kept me up scratching it the whole night."
>A weird mark?
"Hey, Is it on your hand?"
>"Yeah, dude, why?"
"Can I see it?"
>"Uh... Sure"
>He pulled his hand out and showed the mark to me.
>It was just like mine.
>Small, furry looking and colorful.
>But his was orange.
"Damn dude, I think it's the same thing I have."
>"Really? Fuck."
>I pulled out my hand and showed it to him.
>Both of our marks were almost equal in size, hers a little larger.
"Well, it's a good thing that you're taking me to the doctors later, you should get it checked out at the same time."
>"Sure. It opens in an hour so we can head off then."
>We lazed around for the rest of the morning before heading off to the doctors.
>As we drove, I noticed that my mark was substantially larger than before.
>Panic rose in my chest and I showed my hand to Mike.
"Dude, it's getting bigger."
>He glanced at his own hand and a grim expression spread across his face.
>"Crap, dude."
>We sat in silence, unsure of what do say.
>I mean, what could we say? I had no idea what the hell this crap was, and it was spreading faster than any fungal infection I'd seen before.
>Eventually we arrived at the doctors surgery and got in to see one relatively fast.

>"I'm sorry, boys, I don't know what to say."
"Maybe you could ask another doctor or something?"
>"Anything, man! This stuff is growing!" Mike sounded desperate.
>"Well," The doctor continued, "I can refer you to a dermatologist, but honestly, I've never seen something like this before. I'm not sure they can do anything for you." The doctor put bluntly, organizing files as he spoke.
>"So you don't know what it is?"
>"I'm sorry, but no. It honestly just seems to be skin with small hairs growing out of it. Could be some kind of latent birth mark, but again, I've no idea."

>We walked out of the doctors surgery with even less of an idea than what we walked in with.
>The dermatologist was booked up for a whole month and there was no way that we'd get to see someone anytime soon.
>Not much to do now except... Nothing.
>Go home.
>Play more video games.
>Waste my life.
>I sighed, looking out the window at passing tree's.
>My mind wandered to the accident and I pushed those thoughts from my head.
>I've relived that enough, I don't want any more worries bringing those thoughts back.
>We got out of the car and walked inside.
>I threw my bag down on the floor and collapsed on the couch, happy to spend the rest of the day distracting myself with videogames.
>What else could I do?
>As I was sitting, I saw the letter Mike had shown me before, lying on the coffee table.
>I picked it up, curious to give it another read when I spotted something down the bottom of the page.
>In a section marked "Sign here", Mike had signed her name. And mine.
>What the fuck, Mike.
"Hey dude."
>I said to Mike, who was sitting nearby, looking at her phone.
"Why'd you sign my name on this thing?"
>"That? I dunno. Not like we can send it anyway, there's no address to return it to and no instructions on it either."
"Still, dude, you're way too good at copying my signature."
>"Heheh, yeah. Anyway, just trash it. You're right, it probably is a scam or an ad or something."
>I scrunched up the piece of paper and threw it in the bin.
>Eventually, I got tired of playing videogames and went to bed.
>Yes, I didn't do anything but play videogames the whole day.
>Did I mention I'm completely useless?

>The next day came again and I immediately looked down at my hand.
>Fuck.
>This was not a fungal infection.
>No fucking way.
>Fungus didn't do this.
>My hand was contorted and strange, the fingers bunching together at the tip, forming what almost seemed like a hoof, and my thumb was curled up and had migrated a few centimeters up my wrist.
>My heart raced and I looked down at my other hand.
>It was equally fucked up and mangled looking.
>Suddenly, I heard a huge bang from the floor in the room next to me.
>Mike's room.
>Oh shit, Mike must have seen the same thing that I did.
>I got up from bed only to find myself tripping over and smashing heavily into the floor.
>Thank god I had carpet, but the impact was still enough to knock the wind out of me.
"Argh, Fuuuuuck..."
>What?
>Why did my voice sound... Normal?
>It had lost it's gravelly sound and attained an almost... Melodious feel.
>Whatever, that's the least of my worries right now.
>Clumsily, I pushed myself to my feet and walked to the door.
>I didn't bother to look at my feet right now as I was more worried about Mike.
>Just because some weird shit was happening to me doesn't mean I'm not worried about my best friend.
>Just as I turned the corner, the wind was knocked out of me again and I felt myself flung to the floor.
>I looked up to see... Mike? Maybe?
>The person looked like Mike, but their face was more... Androgynous.
>Like, I had no idea if they were a man or woman.
>"Anon...?"
>The voice... It was still Mike's, but... Not quite.
"Mike?"
>My voice was equally as different.
>"H-holy shit, dude. Your voice!"
>I lifted a hand to my throat only to feel my hoof-thing bump into it.
>"You got these weird things too?"
>I glanced back to him to see that her hands and feet hand changed from the normal appendages you'd see on a human to similar freaky limbs.
>Oh shit.
>Feet.
>Mine were fucked up too.
>They had almost completely changed into a strange greeny blue stump, very similar to my hand but further along.
>Had I not even noticed my feet changing yesterday.
"This is fucked up, man."
>I began to pant.
"This is real fucked up."
>My breathing got faster and faster.
>"Hey, dude! Calm down!"
"Fuck you man, I am just as calm as anyone else would be! Not at fucking all!"
>"Seriously, we can't panic. I don't want... To bring any attention to us."
"What? WHY!? WE SHOULD BE GETTING TO A HOSPITAL OR A DOCTOR OR SOME-"
>She slapped me across the face with the side of his new limb.
>"Chill, dude! We can't go to a hospital!"
"Why not!?"
>"Because, dude. First, I seriously doubt anyone has seen this shit before. I don't think they usually have guys coming in for "acute-turning-into-a-fucking-freak-itis", OK?"
>I ran that idea through my head.
>He's right.
>We can't let anyone see us, they probably lock us up.
>If there's one thing I liked more than singing, it was the freedom I had to live my life by my rules.
"O-ok, sorry, AJ."
>"No problem. Sorry for hitting you before."
"Is cool, just... Maybe a little lighter next time. Those hoof things are solid."
>"Hooves... This is so fucked up dude."
"Yeah... So, what next?"
>"I dunno, man. Your voice sounds kinda weird too. Better, almost."
"Better? What was wrong with my sexy gravelly voice?"
>"Not funny. And it was not sexy, no matter how much you wish it was. Just sounded like you had been smoking for the past 40 years."
"Fuck."
>We sat quietly in thought before I realized that we were still sitting on the floor.
"C'mon, let's get some breakfast."
>"Uh, sure, but I don't trust myself too much with these fucked up hands."
"I'll just make us some cereal. Can't be too hard, can it?"

>It was.
>Well, not to make, but you try lifting up a spoon with these things.
>Eventually I found a way to grasp it in my hardly working thumb, but the grip I had was weak at best.
>Half way through a bite, the spoon suddenly dropped to the ground and splattered my feet.
"Argh, fuck."
>I looked at my shitty hooves to find that they had progressed.
>My thumb was missing and there was no sign that there used to be fingers.
>It was just a hoof.
>A fucking stump.
"Fuck, dude."
>"Yeah. Fuck."
>Mike was staring grimly at her own hands. Hooves. Whatever.
"So, got any ideas now that we got food in our stomachs?"
>"Hmm, maybe we could look this shit up on the internet?"
>Not sure how that would be able to help, but I didn't really have any better suggestions.
>There was something nagging me in the back of my skull...
>Something I had forgotten.
>For the moment, I would have to leave it. Focus on what I already know.

>It was very hard to hard to type with these fucking hooves, but AJ managed to grip a pen between her hooves and use that to press keys.
>It was definitely slower than normal hands, but absolutely faster than using our hooves.
>I inwardly laugh at the image of me smashing the keyboard, random symbols and letters popping up in the search box.
>So far, our search had not come across anything fruitful.
>Apparently, there was a whole fetish around this kind of stuff.
>But this was not a fucking fetish.
>I did not like a thing about what was happening.
>Regardless, that seemed completely fictional.
>Something about a few of the pictures reminded me of something, though...
>That was it! The mark!
>I hobbled over to the trashcan and pulled out the crumpled up letter from yesterday.
>"What are you doing?" Mike commented as I rummaged through the bin.
"That letter, dude. There was a little mark at the bottom."
>"You don't think the letter has something to do with this whole thing, do you?"
"That's my best guess."
>I pull the letter out and uncrumple it before placing it back on the table with us.
>I skim down the letter as I vaguely remembered the contents, to the small mark at the bottom of the screen.
"This."
>I pointed to the mark.
>"Yeah... I think I've seen it somewhere before..."
>AJ turned to the computer and typed something into the search bar.
>As soon as she pressed go, a bunch of pictures appeared of a cartoon character.
>A purple pony, with a purple and white star mark on it's butt and a horn sticking out of it's head.
>The exact same mark on the letter.
"AJ, what the fuck is this?"
>"It's that shitty pony show I was talking about before, My Little Pony."
"My Little Pony?"
>"Yeah, it's got a lot of older dudes watching it and stuff."
"Could that letter have been from that pony?"
>"Dude, it's a fictional show. It's not real."
"Yeah, well last time I checked, this doesn't happen in real life either, Applejack."
>I brought my hooves up and shook them, Jazz hands style.
>"I guess so, but that's still kinda outside of suspension of disbelief. Who knows, this could be some sort of disease or experimental virus or something."
"But look, our hand things look like theirs as well. Normal horse hooves and shit don't look like this, smooth and fluffy. Normal hooves are hard and stuff. Not like these."
>"Yeah, but I'll believe that cartoon shit is real when I see it."

>Oh good. 'Cos we were just about to get an eyeful of it.
>A huge flash erupted next to us and we were sent to the floor, stumbling away from the explosion.
>In my mind, I was back in the kitchen.
>The fire was spreading through the air, like the nothingness was somehow alight.
>The burning returned and I screamed.
>But it was gone, faster than it arrived.
>I stared around the room.
>No fire damage, no markings, no more burning in my throat.
>In fact, if anything, my throat felt less in pain right now than it ever had.
>No time to dwell on it as a voice spoke up that I didn't recognize.
>"Hello? Is anypony there?"
>A female voice, and not the weird androgynous sounding voice that Applejack had now.
"Wh-who's there?"
>As I said that, I saw a head pop up from behind the couch.
>A purple pony with a horn sticking out of her head.
>THE purple pony with a horn sticking out of her head.
>If I could see it's ass, there would no doubt be a star there.
"Y-you. You're not real. You're from that show."
>"Oh, you mean "My Little Pony", right? Pretty neat, huh?"
>She put a hoof to her chest.
>"It was my idea. What better way to teach the magic of friendship to an alien species but to show them just how amazing it really is?"
>I sat and stared open mouthed at her.
"I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about."
>"O-oh, sorry. I had assumed you had seen the show."
"I know about it. And I know that you're not real."
>"Well, I can assure you that I most definitely am real. My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am the Princess of Friendship."
>She said proudly, puffing out her purple chest.
>"And you must be Coloratura!"
"Y-yeah. How...?"
>Wait, that wasn't my name.
>But it was.
>I recognized it as my name, but for some reason I couldn't remember ever being called that before.
"Wait... That's not my name."
>What was my name.
"Why can't I remember my name!?"
>"Oh, sorry! That's part of the spell! It rewrites your name in your brain to help ease the transformation. You should also notice yourself referring to your friend as Applejack and using female pronouns too."
>WHAT.
"Why are you doing this to us!?"
>"Well, you did sign the form, right? My powers are strong enough to grant your hearts desire."
>"Not... Not exactly."
>I heard Applejack say to my right, where she had been sitting in silence.
>I noticed myself call her a "She" just then.
>What the fuck.
>"What do you mean?" The princess asked.
>"I... Kinda signed it for both of us."
>"Oh no." Her pupils shrank.
"What. What's wrong?"
>"The spell targets both of you if you signed it individually, but... Since Applejack signed for both of you, there's no telling what will happen!"
>"Oh fuck."
"Oh fuck indeed, AJ! What the fuck were you thinking!"
>"Hey, don't blame me! I had no idea it was some sort of magic fucking letter."
>Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle had been looking at the letter while her horn glowed a faint purple hue.
"What's going on?"
>Her brow furrowed before turning to both of us.
>"I... I'm so sorry."
"Damn right you should be sorry. Now change us back."
>"I can't. But that's not the worst of it."
>"Well what is the worst of it? Don't leave us hanging, horse." AJ shouted.
>"R-right. Uh, I don't know how to say it, so i'll just be blunt."
>She cleared her throat.
>"It looks like the leylines in the spell I wove got crossed when Applejack signed that letter for you. The spell targets your deepest desires and gives it to you, but when Applejack signed it, it kinda... Granted her deepest desire for you as well."
"What? You wanted to be a fucking pony, dude?"
>"What?" He looked shocked. "No! I don't... Really know what my deepest desire is!"
>"You wanted two things. An escape from this world was the first! Now that was easy to grant, I would simply turn you into a pony and take you to my world!"
>AJ looked like she wanted to object, but her face became increasingly worried looking and she just stared at the pony in silence.
>"The second was a little more difficult, but I managed to do it by incorporating it into the first spell. I saw deep down in your heart that you wanted to be a mare."
"A mare? That's a horse! So you did want to be a pony!"
>"No I didn't!"
>"Oh, sorry, my mistake. That's just the pony terminology. What I meant to say is that she wanted to be a woman."
>"I... Oh god..."
>She threw her hooves to her face to cover it, but from behind them, I could still see the tears flowing from behind them.
"Dude... I... I never knew."
>"I couldn't ever tell you... I was going to let it die with me. I would never... Be how I wanted to be."
>"Well, you will now! The only downside is that... So with Coloratura."
>Shit. No no no no no.
"Are you kidding me!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?"
>I was shouting at Twilight, but as I turned to AJ, I saw the look of fear in her eyes.
>Oh crap.
"I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to... Uh... Fuck, this is so fucked up."
>"I'm sorry, Coloratura, but I can't stop the changes now. Once they've started, they'll work their way through until they are completed. It's possible that I can change you back when it's done, but... I'm still not sure."
>There was a chance.
>Immediately I felt a weight off my back.
>There was a chance this could be changed when it was all over.
"Alright... OK, I can do this..."
>"So do you know what your hearts desire was, Coloratura?"
>I had an idea.
"My voice."
>"Yep! You wanted to restore your voice so you could sing again!"
"But... What about Applejack? She has hooves now, and you can't really play guitar with them. I want to perform with her! She's my best friend and there's no way I'm doing it without her."
>"Oh, don't worry about that! Everypony has a little bit of magic that allows them to grip things with their hooves. I can't stay long enough to teach you how, but maybe once your changes are done and you're in Equestria, I'm sure I can teach you both!"
>"Wait, how long will all this shit take to finish?" AJ spoke up from her silence.
>"Hmmm... Should be done in a few days and I'll have enough energy to transport you both to Equestria in about a week, so you'll have a few days to get used to your bodies before we go." She smiled happily. As she smiled, she began to turn see-through. "Oh! Looks like my time is up! I'll see you in a week...!"
"Don't go yet, I don't want to go to another world!"
>Too late. She was gone.
"Fuck!"
>I looked over at AJ who still had tears in her eyes.
>A huge wave of guilt washed over me.
>All this time, She had wanted to...
>"You hate me."
"What? No! No, I... It's just that I never expected you to want to... You know."
>"You do hate me. And it's my fault that it's gonna happen to you."
"No, dude! Twilight said she could change me back."
>"She said "Maybe", man. That's not a definite."
"It... It can't be that bad, right? Being a girl?"
>"Rara, I... I didn't just want to go to another world. I wanted to... Die."
>What!?
>"Being in a body you don't like... Being male, for me, is hell. How do you think you'll act once you're a gender you don't like? I /hated/ myself, man! I wanted to die!"
"Yeah, well... I'm strong. I'll get through it."
>"You say that, but... I know what will happen."
>I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing.
>AJ sat, not saying anything.
>I needed to end this silence somehow.
"Hey, how about we play some games? I need a distraction from all this shit."
>"Yeah, sounds good to me too, but... What about the hooves?"
>Crap.
>Forgot about that.
>Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in my head.
>I got up and walked to the cabinet where we kept our gaming peripherals and began searching through it.
>"What are you looking for?" AJ said from behind me.
"This!"
>I pulled out a medium sized board with a large joystick in the middle and six buttons off to the right.
>"Dude! Perfect!"
"Yeah, the buttons are just the right size to press with these hooves, and we shouldn't have too much of a problem moving that stick with these clunky things."
>I set up the arcade joystick after a small struggle with my hooves and put in the only game I knew worked with them.
>Skullgirls.
>We played for ages and before we knew it, it was lunchtime.
>I yawned and stretched my arms back, flexing my wrists from the stiffness they got from playing for so long.
>As I flopped them back down again, I looked over to AJ to see something weird on her head.
>And then they twitched.
"Dude, what the fuck is that?"
>I 'pointed' with my hooves to her head.
>She looked upwards and put a hoof on her head, brushing the things before freezing.
>"Dude. I can feel them."
"Oh fuck.