Chapter Text
Mmmmh, the bed’s feeling very comfy and warm today. Did I go to sleep on top of the duvet? And why do I feel a brush of air on my face? Did I leave the blinds open last night?
For a few more minutes, she didn’t move, simply enjoying the warm sensation over her body as she rested, midway between a sleep and awake state, listening passively to the cold yet delicate whisper of wind that ran over her hair, the bugs that buzzed past her ears, the frogs—
Wait, frogs? She thought, the croaking of the peaceful amphibians well audible close by. Where did they come from? What about the insects, too? Had they also entered through the window left open? Gosh, I hope I wasn't 'attacked' by mosquitoes as usual…
With one last, big yawn, she stretched, her lips moving as her eyes began to open to reveal the world around her. Immediately, her mind spun; the shock and adrenaline in her veins removed any drowsiness left in her bloodstream as she realized she wasn’t where she had gone to sleep last night.
Instead of her apartment, she found herself in a small clearing, full of flowers and with small bushes that grew here and there, while strange trees, similar in some ways to oaks but much smaller, surrounded the clearing in a semicircle. In front of her, instead, was a small, narrow stream, whose water was as clear and crystalline as a finely wrought diamond, and on the opposite bank were other trees and bushes. There were bugs that flew around and crawled among the grass, and she could hear the chirping of birds in the distance.
Yet, the most amazing thing was how nature, all around her, seemed so much more alive, flourishing, and beautiful than it had ever been before. The grass in the meadow and the leaves on the trees were such a bright, bright green that they seemed to sparkle whenever the sunlight shone on them; the flowers were such vibrant colors and emitted such pleasant scents; the gurgling of the river, the rustling of the wind in the trees, and the buzzing of insects almost seemed to compose the rhythm of a song; even the air seemed different and had a sugary, lively aftertaste that reminded her of sugar candy.
“No way… where am I? Did I go sleepwalking—WOAH!” Her thinking aloud got interrupted as the lost soul tried by instinct to get back on her feet, only to fall forward, her arms slamming onto the ground as she fell on all fours. Yet, she didn’t feel pain, but, rather, relaxed, like her own posture was supposed to be that way.
“What the—” She turned around to look at her hands, only for her eyes to widen in shock, her voice dying as she saw she had no fingers. Instead, they were replaced by hooves! White hooves at the end of her arms, and covered with fur!
The shock was such that the girl lost control over her limbs and fell down on the ground. It took a few more minutes and several efforts for her to be able to get back on her ‘hooves’ (her feet, just like her hands, had been replaced), the struggling creature moving slowly yet steadily toward the river, trying to get close enough to see her reflection in the water.
What she saw was astonishing.
From the clear, limpid natural mirror made by the water, a tall pony looked back at her. Her fur was pure white, her mane was dark red (with a large, lush tail of the same color), wings tucked tight to her sides, a tall unicorn horn that departed from her forehead, and, on her flank, a picture that depicted an ink bottle and a black quill.
She couldn’t misunderstand it: the pony in the reflection was the Fausticorn, aka the ‘ponysona’ she herself had drawn, a long time ago.
For her name was Lauren Faust, and, unbeknownst to her, she was finally home.
“No, no, no, no, no, no!” Lauren screamed for the -nth time, pacing back and forth before the stream, each time yelping as she looked at her own reflection, only to see a tall, winged unicorn instead of her usual human self. “This is not true; this is not true! You were probably overworking yourself again, so you ended up passing out cold in the office, and, later, Craig put you back to bed, and now I’m having a crazy dream where I’ve become my own ponysona, and I’m going to meet all the characters!”
Well, if it was a dream, it surely was a well-made one, since all previous attempts on Lauren’s part to ‘snap’ herself out of it had ended in failure, the human-turned-alicorn now forced to acknowledge her situation. Perhaps she was in some kind of deep, lucid dream where she felt like she was awake. Or maybe something had happened to her, and she was in a coma, trapped in a hospital bed with a machine that kept her alive, her family and friends waiting for her to wake up someday while she was trapped in her head.
“There is no way I have actually transmigrated, and now I am in Equestria, the very own world I have created, in the body of my own original character! This sounds like the stupid plot of some crappy fanfiction!” She stopped talking, closing her eyes and trying to focus, trying to wake herself up by sheer will.
“Come on, you have a family. You have a husband, Craig, and a daughter! My dear Quinn… do not worry, Mommy is coming back to you! Come on, come on…”
And yet, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate, the dream didn’t dissipate around her. In fact, the green, lush nature that surrounded Lauren seemed even more real than anything she could remember from the ‘real’ world.
“I guess it’s no use.” The woman transformed into her own ponysona sighed, giving up after several minutes, still there in the same clearing. “I guess either this dream is stronger than I assumed, or the only way I could wake myself up is by doing something extremely reckless, like trying to kill myself. And there is no way I’m going to do that, even if this is a dream.” And besides, her mind began to add before stopping abruptly.
There was a third option that could explain her current situation, even if she refused to acknowledge it: what if the reality around was actually real, and she had transmigrated into the world she had contributed to creating, and she was reborn into the pony version of herself? Lauren knew that such a plot was popular among fans of the show; she herself had found delight in a couple of stories where the main character was a human who ended up transmigrated or reincarnated into Equestria (usually a fan of the show who knew enough about the world to orient themselves). A few stories even featured her as the main character.
Still, none of those stories could compare to the actual thing.
With a side of curiosity, the red-maned Alicorn re-approached the stream of water with the intent to get a good look at her Alicorn physique. To be honest, she didn't look too bad; rather, she was stunning, majestic, the horn sprouting from her forehead and the wings on her back making her look just like—
“What the heck?!” Lauren gasped again as her eyes fell on the reflection of her cutie mark area. “My butt, or rather, my flank… it’s huge!” She lamented, noticing how pudgy and inflated it looked. Was that perhaps a side effect of her status as an Alicorn? Or was it something else?
Then, her attention moved to her wings. Perhaps she could use them? If she could fly, surely it would be a great way to move and keep herself safe from danger.
Silently, Lauren focused once again in an attempt to control her new back appendages. It took a full minute, but, finally, her wings unfolded completely, spread full to her side, which made her figure look even more majestic and grandiose.
And then, they started to flap.
“Okay, so, I can say that, while I can control my wings enough to move them at will, it will still take some time before I’m able to fly on my own,” Lauren conceded, her body aching. “Ditto for magic. Of course, I never had wings or magic before, so I guess I did enough for my first day, all considered.”
The great success, however, was walking; while movement on four limbs was harder than simply two, after a bit of practice, she could easily walk as she did when she was a human, even managing to ‘trot’ from time to time. Perhaps, with a bit more practice, she could trot as long as she wanted, or perhaps even gallop.
“The jury’s still out if this is an overly detailed dream, perhaps with a chance of coma, or if I have transmigrated in Equestria for real. That said, if it’s the latter, does that mean that I created Equestria, or perhaps it existed already and I simply guessed it?”
She looked away, taking a deep breath and letting her now equine lungs fill with the fresh, sweet air of the magical-filled world she had dreamed of ever since she was a little girl. Dream or reality, she felt ecstatic at the chance to be able to explore such a world for real. Yet, she felt her wings flap once again, and her mood soured as she remembered a key flaw.
I can’t go out and explore, not like this! Lauren thought, looking with a note of sorrow at the winged alicorn looking back at her from the reflection in the water. Only alicorns are supposed to have wings and horns, and the only alicorns are Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. The transformed storyteller grimaced, thinking back at the pink alicorn of love that she had spent so much time arguing about with Hasbro. Then there’s Twilight, if we’re already past Season 3… and Flurry Heart, she added. The little alicorn filly, while she had no say in her introduction later in the show, had caused her so many headaches, especially after her design had been leaked before time.
Damn German Hasbro, already gave away the surprise by selling the toy earlier than planned.
Nonetheless, the issue was evident: if a new, unrecognized alicorn would waltz into Equestria, folks would get alarmed, and they would call for the guards, and that would have drawn much more attention than she hoped for. How would the princesses react once they found her? Would they listen to her explanation and perhaps offer her a way home? Or would the enemies of Equestria find her first?
“Wings are much easier to hide than the horn.” Lauren nodded, looking back at her back, her wings folding back into a resting position. “I just need some cloth that I can use to cover them, at least for now. Something like a blanket, or a cape, or maybe—”
She stopped talking as her eyes caught sight of a scarecrow on the edge of the clearing where she was, seemingly guarding a few shrubs of bright red berries. The scarecrow itself wasn’t too refined; just a rudimentary figure made with a wooden stick and a dark brown cowl with a hood attached to it, the cowl resembling the kind of dress someone from the Middle Ages would have worn. And it looked large enough to cover her back, and thus, her wings.
“Okay, either I just received an incredible stroke of luck, or someone over there is watching over me,” Lauren said, looking around to make sure no one was in sight. “That said, beggars can’t be choosers, and I suppose I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” She chuckled, walking to the scarecrow and trying to pull the cowl out of it.
It took several minutes, especially since Lauren had to do things by hoof instead of by magic, but, eventually, she managed to pull the cowl over her body, the dark fabric covering her back and flank up to her belly, showing only a part of her tail, the cowl over her head providing her further camouflage by hiding most of her hairdo and her horn while still maintaining, visibly, its shape beneath. While she still looked much taller and statuesque compared with other pony physiques, as long as she kept the disguise on and didn’t draw too much suspicion, she would be able to meddle without worries.
“Now I only have to be careful to not remove the cowl unless I’m safe and be careful never to lose it by accident… or pass too close to Carousel Boutique,” Lauren joked, trying to imagine what kind of reaction Rarity would have if she ever saw her.