Crash Course


                                            >Walking down the street in the late afternoon

                                            >You feel the reverberating bass of a song blasting out of a car

                                            >Slightly annoyed, You turn around only to see that the car is filled with what looks to be candy colour horses

                                            >As you watch swerve wildly down the busy street, You try your best to give it a wide berth

                                            >It rolls on ahead, peeling around the corner and it crashes into a barricade

                                            >Glass spraying onto your body, You brace yourself in a panic shortly before a lime green beam from the car follows it

                                            >After a few moments, You look up to see the damage done, and as you glance at the ruined car, your clothes are much baggier than they were before

                                            >When you try to stand up straight to get a better look at what happened, your legs give out, and you flop on the glass littered asphalt

                                            >Your hearing drops out into silence for a few seconds and your face is feeling like it's being molded into something else

                                            >Trying to wiggle your fingers, toes and thumbs, You panic even more as your brain screams out something isn't right

                                            >Closing your eyes tightly, with tears streaming out the side, your jacket is now a giant blanket for your small body as it gets warmer and softer

                                            >When you open up your eyes, you're now covered in soft, oaken brown fur with hooves to match

                                            >Loud sounds slowly come drifting back in, from the crackling staccato of a well-sized fire, to the moans, groans and re-assurances that someone's okay

                                            >You hear a panicked clopping of hooves coming towards you as you feel something brush against your hind legs and you start hyper-ventilating, an occasional but incessant neighing coming out every so often, and you back into the sleeves of your coat to calm down

                                            >A vanilla coloured horse with a coral mane unzips the coat, and with a shaky voice full of worry asks, in perfect equis- English!

                                            >"Are you okay?"

                                            >You stare at her,no sound coming out of your mouth, until she lies down next to you and breaks down crying.


                                            >Not knowing what else to do, you wrap a hoof around her neck and bring her tightly against your body

                                            >The tears slowly stop running down your body and her muzzle as you hold onto her on the side of the streets

                                            >"T-thank you" she mumbles into your chest

                                            >With that, you can feel your heart go doki-doki

                                            >Lifting up her head with hoof, you look her in her light pink eyes

                                            >Her mane is a mess and her coat, now that you've actually had a little time to compose yourself , is a little covered in dirt and blood,

                                            and she has a very noticable blush on the cheeks

                                            "W-what happened?" You squeak out, surprised at how much deeper your voice sounds

                                            >"Me and my friends went out to lunch at the university, had a few drinks, and decided to cab it back to my place. After a short while, Rose just started giggling to herself and hugging everyone out of nowhere..." she sighed, those tears of hers coming back again before she carried on

                                            >"I just thought it was the drinks until, she.. she had those... those.. ears on her head!" She flails a hoof at her own floppy ears

                                            >"Then, my hands and feet felt like they were on fire, and the taxi man was screaming as a horn was growing out of his head! Rose in the meantime, was almost rolling on the floor, laughing as she wrapped some wings around her body

                                            >"The taxi driver passed out as his horn grew brighter and up until... Y'know" She motioned to the wreck in the street

                                            >"Oh my goodness, I forgot to tell you my name! It's Cora.. Coral.. Coral Reef!" she bubbly speaks up, before catching herself on what she just said.

                                            "My name is.. Barl...." you trail off, trying to remember what it was

                                            After a moment or two, you finally say "Barley Cask?" in a tone quite unsure of yourself

                                            >"Nice to meet you, Barley." Coral says definitively, booping her snoot against yours

                                            >The light moment comes to an end as you hear something call for help from the wrecked heap of the crashed taxi


                                            >You and Coral get up and kick up shards of broken glass and dust as you run (gallop?) to the taxi

                                            >At least Coral does, You trip over your hooves trying to get going after a few steps and and least fall back onto the jacket

                                            >Standing back up on your four hooves shakily, you try again, making sure each hoof hits the ground in a steady pattern

                                            "1, 2, 3, 4 ; 1, 2, 3, 4..." You mutter under your breath as you make your way there, quickening your pace and count as you get closer and closer to the car

                                            >When you get there, You and Coral see a green unicorn still strapped into the drivers seat through the broken door window, struggling with the seat belt

                                            >Well, that explains that beam from earlier

                                            >"Are you okay?" Coral asked them , with her forehooves on the door

                                            >"Do I look like I'm okay?! I'm some kind of bucking horse, due to your friend going! off! the! deep! end!!" The male unicorn yelled, his horn glowing and the car honking as he slammed his hooves down on the wheel

                                            >"We'll get you out of this! Barley, get in there and see what you can do!" Coral pleaded with him

                                            >You don't know what you got yourself into, but this could be the only way you're getting answers

                                            >You use Coral's back to help you get into the back seat of the cab, and clambering over the centre console to help the poor lad out

                                            >Looking at it all, he got the buckle to press in, but the belt itself is catching on it

                                            "You're gonna wanna hang on to the belt!" You say as you position your hindhoof over the buckle and slam down on it

                                            >The seat belt comes free and You and the unicorn cab driver high tail it out of the car

                                            >As you meet Coral back on the side of the road with the unicorn, People start coming out of their vehicles to get a better look at you all

                                            >You slowly trot towards them, as if bound by instinct to go cuddle them

                                            >Coral yelled something at you, but it seemed so quiet compared to this

                                            >Next thing you know, she and that green unicorn are dragging you by the tail into the alley.


                                            >Once Coral and the recently rescued unicorn dragged you into the alley, and let you go, you let out a hiss of pain

                                            "What the hell was that for?!" You yell at the two of them, your voice echoing off the walls

                                            >"Barley, you have no idea what you were about to do! We had to stop you before what happened to us happened to them!" Coral stamped her hoof on the ground

                                            >"So, what exactly happened to your friend that drove her so crazy, anyways?" Unifriend pops in, tapping on his horn as to get it out of his view

                                            >"She... got touched by one of those other horses, I guess..." Coral nervously said

                                            >"Well, *I* could've told you that!" The unicorn snapped, an emerald glow wrapping his horn, sparks lighting up the alley

                                            "Excuse me, but what's your name?" You chime in, raising your hoof to point at him in confusion

                                            >"My name? You wanna know my name, huh, Barleyboy?! It's-" He hollered, with spittle flying from his mouth and his horn blindingly bright until he disappeared with a blast, dislodging bricks and dust with the shockwave of it

                                            >You and Coral lower your hooves from your eyes and get used to the dark of the alley once more

                                            "We should probably hightail it, Coral" You worriedly say, the post-shock silence being filled in with the haunting wail of police, ambulance and fire trucks coming down the freeways

                                            >"Just try not to get too touchy-feely with the folks out there, I don't want them rocking a set of hooves because we had a brush with them"

                                            >She said, trotting up to your side and brushing it with her light pink tail

                                            >You could've sworn a small gust of wind had blown along your neck as she lead the way down the alley away from the crash

                                            >As the two of you slink through the back streets, you can't help but look at her form and she can't help but steal a glance every now and then.

                                            >Night falls, and the two of you find some solace in an abandoned parkade, eager to get some rest


                                            >Curling up between a couple of cars and the short wall of the parkade, You and Coral cuddle to keep warm in the cool autumn night

                                            >"So..." Coral trailed off, while playing with some stray rocks, "What brought you here anyways, Barley?"

                                            "Well, I was raised in a small town and wanted to see what the city had for work, but I wasn't expecting for this to happen.." You chuckle

                                            >"I hear ya, I wasn't expecting my girlfriend to go crazy and turn us into horses." Coral motioned to her toned body with her cute hooves

                                            "Hopefully you and Rose catch up so you can give her a piece of your mind"

                                            >"Well, it's not exactly her fault, but I'm going to if we see her again..."

                                            >As the two of you chat and giggle over your lives before hooves, a genuine smile on both your muzzles as you nuzzle, the contact almost intoxicating


                                            >Meanwhile from the rooftop of a local relic of an apartment in the moonlit night, a pair of pegasi listen in...


                                            >"Well, we found Rose's friend and it looks like she's got a coltfriend now too...~" The lavender mare sighed dreamily at the pair of earth ponies cuddling

                                            >"I'm surprised that out of all the things to change, it's easier to form meaningful connections as a pony, especially with somepony like you~" The blue stallion whispered in her ear, nibbling gently

                                            >"Stahp!~" she giggled out as she rolled on to her back, jokingly hitting his snoot with her wing

                                            >"Watching them is making me a little jealous that we aren't doing that too" He said as he stuck his muzzle in her chest tuft

                                            >"Well, how about this? We can do whatever you want once we get back to the herd and let Rose know the good news" She smirked, rolling onto her hooves and flapping her wings.

                                            >"That's more than fine by me" He playfully responded, following suit