The home world
Daniel spent the rest of the day worrying as he awaited the rest of the household's return. If Jake and david were aware of his anxiety, they didn't show it. What was planned for him was a big deal to Daniel, so it should've been more important to them, as well, but they treated the whole affair with a kind of casual attitude that seemed wholly alien. Then again, wasn't that what they were? "So, what's going to happen?" He asked aloud to anyone to respond, that same mystical feminine voice coming out of his own lips that he didn't know if he could ever get used to.
When niether of his friends gave him an answer, it left him wondering if this thing they had planned for him was meant to be a surprise. Surprises could come in two varieties, and his misgivings on the matter didn't exactly help. When Gassan and Pammy arrived back from their errands, they didn't act as if anything was out of the ordinary, either, acting as if this was normal for a human consciousness to come back into a pegasi body. No doubt it was, but they seemed particularly nonchalant over it. "This was sooner than I thought. We'll need to take her to the experts before he ruins this whole operation for us." Gassan was the first to speak, probably because he was the only one with direct access to the homeworld. No one else seemed to disagree with his assessment, so it seemed the normal course to take.
Daniel was finishing off what was left of the apple drink as he listened with both ears swivelled forward even if he didn't want to see them in motion for himself. "We can't all go. Some of us have to stay behind and keep along some sembleance of normalcy. Five people vanishing all at once and a house left vacant for a month? That's the sort of attention our colonization doesn't need." Pammy said, after a brief time had passed from Gassan's little speech. She was right about that too, a practical woman who could see all aspects of a situation and react in kind.
Just as he finished the last drops from the wide pitcher, Gassan assigned Pammy and David to the task. He had to watch as quick changes took over both of them with the growing of fur and wings as bone structure warped almost in seconds. What struck him as odd immediately was that they both became male pegasi. Strange, because Pammy was a female human now becoming a brown-furred winged stallion with tight clothing about to break apart. He suspected that the pegasi were a very gender fluid species who were not bothered by such swaps, perhaps because the society they came from didn't put such importance on pronouns.
While Pammy was brown as chestnut, David was now grey like spun silver with strange empathyful eyes of starlight. "Feels good to be back in my skin again." The silver steed observed with a stetch and slight flex of sore newborn wings, trying to get the cramps out of them as his muscles adjusted over the new equine skeleton. Daniel was at first stunned by the speed of their transformations compared to his own, but quickly came to realize that they had a lot of practice at this and he didn't. Of course with all the opportunities they had, the transformation would be quicker and no doubt less painful than the shock of going through the process himself.
David seemed to speak for all of them, as Jake and Gassan looked on him and the formerly female Pammy in what appeared to be frank envy. "It's not all sunshine and smiles, silly. We turned for a reason, you know." It was a strange declaration by a now masculine Pammy, a male pegasi that still had her patterns of speech and movement, like he had forgotten that he wasn't an Earth girl anymore. The contrast was a bit amusing, until both laid firm paws on him and reminded the black mare where he was and what was going on. "Open the door to homeworld, Protector Gassan." Stange language and honorifics indeed!
He was even more shocked when the Lebanese transfer student from another world opened up a bluish electrified portal in the ceiling by using some strange incantation and white light coming out of his fingertips forming into glowing hot starry hooves. Briefly, Daniel wondered why he would put a gateway in the house's ceiling where one would need a stepladder to reach, but then, wasn't that the reason every one of these alien critters was born with wings? Already, he could feel their muscles tensing ready to spring, wings spreading for one powerful pushing jet upwards. His nervousness only grew as they gripped him tighter but with care as pointed equine muzzles were pointed intently toward the portal.
A sudden whoosh of motion left him feeling very disembodied as sudden strong winds buffeted him at all angles, not to mention a stong tingling sense of cold that began with the electric crackling of the portal membrane tearing across his fur all the way up to the no doubt ridiculous height and atmosphere he was forced to endure for a brief moment of terror. He had his eyes tightly shut, but he could feel how high in the air they were by the way breathing suddenly became more difficult and how each breath not only lacked oxygen but stabbed at his lungs with icy daggers as he tried to breathe through his warm furred forearm to avoid most of the chilly sting of the air. "That breeze, always so refreshing after a long hiatus from our country. Don't worry, too much Danny. You'll be used to it soon enough." Came the strange authoritive voice of Pammy, most of his words could barely be overheard on the stormy winds.
What struck him as odd most was that they were actually flying higher, as he managed to touch some of the dew of dark condensation-laded stormclouds on the way up until the climb was suddenly arrested by three sets of hooves clattering down onto flat stone. Daniel looked down at his feet to see the artisan-styled brickwork of the ornamental platform, a big wide caramel brown circle that was no doubt meant to be used as a landing pad similar but not exact to the designated purpose of a helipad on a skyscraper in a given city. "What's this we got here?" It was a voice that was all command and bluster, someone who almost seemed regimented and militaristic, if said pegasi could be considered anything other than pacifists. Too tired from his ordeal to care, and lungs burning with the sorrowfully scorching icy air, he passed out before he got to see this new atypical stallion guard.
Written by FluffyPony on 12 October 2015