Ben was having a good dream.
At least as far as dreams went, he'd call it a good dream, he wasn't sure about the objective truth of it. Eating chili fries and slurping smoothies, Julie Yamamoto sitting to his right while Jennifer Nocturne sat to his left, they each had smitten faces while handing him more and more of the smoothies as he finished them, 'This is the good life...' he thought to himself. It was indeed a good dream.
And then they were horses, pastel pink and yellow and still shoving the smoothies over, but he stopped at that, freaked out by the change in face.
"What the he-" his vision went dark as he saw how weird it all was.
There was a poking in his side while lying on the ground, his movements restricted by something tangled around his body. He groaned, feeling weird all over like he fell asleep as an alien again, the pokes continuing to come as he squirmed to get back to sleep.
"Five more minutes, mo..." the words trailed off as he heard his voice, furrowing his brows in his sleep. That was not the Tennyson branded voice he was used to hearing, 'I'm transformed again, aren't I...' he didn't think he'd do that again after the fourarms gaming experience... Maybe he transformed in his sleep?
"Come on, wake up already!" the rhaspy female voice continued with the poking. His mind clearing up, it felt more like a cup was being shoved right beneath his ribs and making him wince in pain.
"Stop it..." he grumbled with a yawn as he stretched... Tried stretching, anyway. It was very hard to do with a rope around him as his eyes blinked open to see the brown around his hands and his... Feet? Which alien has green hands and feet? a lot of them, sure, but these ones didn't look like Wildvine, Diamondhead, or even Upchuck.
"Hey, Rarity! She's awake!" the voice called again, and he looked up to see a rainbow colored horse standing over him.
...
He blinked again, shaking his head completely free from the tiredness he felt. Nope, it was still a rainbow colored horse, though only the mane while she had a blue body below that with equally blue wings. And... Butt tattoos.
...He shook his head again. Nope, the awkwardly proportioned horse was still there.
"Uhhh... Hi?" there was the high pitched voice coming from his mouth again, Funny, I almost sound like... A... he blinked again, then frowned grumpily, Azmuth, what did you put in my Omnitrix...?
The blue pegasus-horse thing reached down with its front hooves, keeping balance on the back two hooves somehow, and grabbed Ben by the collarbone, "Alright, little miss Changeling, what exactly were you after by coming here?! Trying to replace us?! After our secrets?! Gasp, Were you trying to get the Elements of Harmony?!" she shook him heavily at the last question.
Stars were spinning in Ben's eyes as a more eloquent voice spoke out, "Rainbow, calm down! The poor thing can't get a word out with all that rough-housing!" there was a grumble Ben couldn't make out as she shook her head in dismay, "Not everypony's made of steel."
"Fine, geeze!" 'Rainbow' dropped him to the ground, letting his scattered thoughts settle before he looked up again. There were another pair of horses next to the blue pegasus-mutant-creature-thing, one with a purple mane and tail and a white body with a horn sticking out of the top of its head while the other was orange with a blonde mane, and by far the most, relatively, normal horse-pony there. Except for that cowboy hat... That was weird.
Of course, such things as unicorns and pegasi like what he was seeing right now could only come from one of two... Three... Okay, four places was the limit he was willing to admit to their reality, but as it was a different planet, that ruled out Animo, Time Travel wouldn't make sense if he was, again, not on Earth, and only left either a different dimension or sector of space.
The scarier secret fifth option of it all being a dream was discounted by the pain, so he had to focus on just surviving in this bizarre world and getting back home.
"So... Where are we?" Ben decided to get the important questions out first.
"Where are we- ? Dash, you sure you din't hit 'er head, did ya'?" the orange cow-horse spoke up with a glare to the pegasus.
She raised her wings up defensively, "What was I supposed to do! She was a lizard thing trying to sneak into your covers and lay eggs in your brain! Did you want me to let this thing do creepy stuff?"
"Well, XLR8 can't really lay eggs..." Ben hummed for a second, "...As far as I know."
That brought a pause to the group as they looked back to him. The cow-horse looked confused, the unicorn looked disgusted, and the pegasus narrowed her eyes.
"XLR8? Was that the lizard with wheels on its feet?"
"Eh, it's what I call him," he shrugged to the best of his ability, "Couldn't exactly call him 'Speed Racer.'"
The unicorn shared a glance with the other two before turning back to Ben with eyebrows raised, "So 'Exellerate' is your accomplice?" her eyes hardened into a glare, "Then what does that make you? Some variant changeling?"
"Welll..." he shrugged, "I guess you can call me a changeling. I prefer 'Ben Tennyson, hero of heroes' better. Saved the universe three times, you know!" Ben said proudly.
It didn't seem like they were taking him seriously as the pegasus made a strangely human like gesture of doing a circle around the side of her head while staring at the other two.
He couldn't let the thought of him being the crazy one settle into their impressionable pastel skulls, so his mouth moved quickly, "Anyway, look, I'm sure this has all been just some big misunderstanding, how about we just kick back, have a couple of smoothies, and talk things over like adults, yeah?"
"Suuuure, sugarcube... We just, uh, need to talk fer a second over here. Dash, Rarity?" with a nod from the other two, they walked to the other side of the cave they were in. From the doubtful looks they were casting each other Ben didn't like his chances at getting out of this in one piece.
Though now that he had a chance to gauge the surroundings, the place he was tied up in was the cave he'd entered earlier, the same night if the moonlight streaming in was anything to go off of.
And down here... Ben could take more serious stock of the transformation he was.
The ropes were bound around four mint green furred legs, each ending in a flat and rounded stump at the bottom. Up from there he could make out a barrel of a body, a horse butt with a black tail sticking out of it, and the omnitrix symbol tattooed on at least the left side of it. He could only assume the other cheek shared that design.
Obvious enough that he was transformed into one of the locals, a glance upward confirmed the unicornness he was now experiencing.
"Stupid Omnitrix..." Ben grumbled under his breath to the collar around his neck with the face of the watch on it, Surrrre, 'The user should transform when getting new DNA in the Omnitrix to understand the form's capabilities,' well screw you Azmuth!
Ignoring the current plight of being transformed for who knows how long after this clunky old 'young Ben' watch got this strange new DNA, he struggled at pulling the ropes against each other and trying to escape the bindings while the horse aliens weren't paying attention. But, alas, try as he might at the bindings, his legs remained stuck inside there.
"You think she's a changeling?" his ears flicked up at the sound of whispers over to the side.
"No way, she was transforming while knocked out."
"But what else can transform like that?"
"Maybe it's Discord?"
There was a pause at that as Ben looked over to see a group of three smaller horses with the same mix of pastel colors hiding, terribly, behind a stalag- stalact- a big pointy rock on the floor of the cave, silently debating that last option.
"...Nah. Discord would've shown himself by now if it was him!"
"Right, and this gal ain't weird enough to be him either."
"'This gal' can also hear what you're saying," Ben flatly responded to the conversation, making the group flinch back in shock. Their tails were still showing behind the rocky cover as he heard them whispering.
"Uh-oh..."
"We should leave, I don't want Rarity seeing us talk to her."
"Well I wanna know what she's like!" the other two failed to hold back the orange pegasus with purple hair from walking away from the cover, confidently taking steps forward to glare with as much authority as her small body could hold, which to Ben's eyes amounted to as much as a chihuahua's. She stopped a few feet away from him.
"And who might you be?" Ben asked to start off with.
"You don't get to ask the questions when you're our prisoner! You're gonna tell me what you're doing here, what you want, and how you do that transforming thingy!"
"The first two are almost the same question..." the yellow horse with a bow in her red mane walked forward, frowning at the pegasus. The third one remained where she was behind the stalagactite, only peaking out her head with a white horn and green eyes, and a head full of purple hair.
To his expert eyes as an intergalactic traveler, the smaller and younger sounding creatures in front of him were definitely children, mischevious and going behind their... Mother's(?) backs.
They reminded him of himself and Gwen back in the day. These three were just... Horsing around a bit more.
"Well, I'd like to say I'm on vacation and got lost..." Ben sarcastically said before he narrowed his eyes, "But instead, I was in a fight against this evil time guy and ended up being sent here. So for what I'm doing here? What I want is to find the nearest spaceway back home to go and kick his butt."
The pegasus and normal horse children looked at each other skeptically while the third one finally walked up, "You're from space?"
Another shrug, "Well, I'm definitely not from here. Usually not some horse guy either."
"Horse guy...?" the white one looked even more skeptical, "But you're a mare."
...
Ben sighed after a short pause, again bemoaning the design of the watch and its many flaws before she spoke up again, "Yeah, yeah, horse girl, whatever. Just waiting until the watch changes me back."
"Oh yeah, there was a watch..." the relatively normal one rubbed her chin, in a way that Ben was certain limbs shouldn't bend, "And then it turned into that necklace ya've got on. Is that how you transform?"
"Yeah, it lets me do a few other things too," she grinned at the children, "Man, you guys would love to see Humungosaur!"
"What's a man?"
"Eh, not important right now. But now that I've answered a those questions..." Ben tried the most winning smile she could manage at that moment, "I think it's only fair you answer a couple of mine."
"What?! No way!" the orange one turned around with a huff, "You were being all creepy earlier when Rainbow Dash kicked your butt! You could be lying to us about all of this because you're a sore loser!"
"Wha- I'm not a sore loser!" Ben stuck her tongue out at the child, "Nyeh! I could've totally beat her in a real fight!"
"In your dreams!"
"Girls!" the yellow one got in front of Ben to block the argument, "Let's just stay calm and talk like proper ponies, okay?"
"*Grumble* Fiiiiine..." the orange one turned back around, "What do you wanna know, 'Hero of Heroes?'"
Ignoring that jab, Ben went for the obvious question to determine location, "Which planet am I on right now?"
"What kind of idiot doesn't know-"
"Scootaloo," a stern look from the unicorn shut up the pegasus(Scootaloo?). She turned back to answer, "From what I remember, I heard Twilight say that we call the world 'Equis.' And you're here in Equestria, the best principality around!"
Ben's face fell flat, "Equestria."
"...Yes?"
"That's the name."
"Got a problem with it?" Scootaloo prodded.
She stayed silent for a second before sighing, "No, no problem. I've just never heard of Equestria before..." 'And that pun of a name rules out this being my galaxy... Gosh I hope this isn't a prank, "So, what are your names? I assume you guys go by more than orange and yellow."
"Oh, sure, my name is-"
"Not gonna be told to you!"
A leg swept down from above to cover the yellow horse's mouth and drag her backwards from Ben. The other two children looked back to see Dash had grabbed her while the other two horses were standing beside them with glares on their faces.
"Oh- Oh, uh, hey there..." Scootaloo smiled nervously while the unicornbeside her seemed to wilt.
"Ah' think you girls should go back to the tents," another pointed glare from the cow-horse, "Now."
They didn't need too much convincing to hurry on their way, rushing back deeper into the cave. Their steps fading asay, Ben could only look up to the group of three in front of her.
"Sooo..." she drew the word out, "Decide what to do yet?"
They shot a few glances to each other before the orange horse walked forward, "We decided we're gonna have ta' keep an eye on ya' until our friend can verify you're safe. For now, yer gonna have to come with us."
There wasn't any big problem with that deal. Being safe, Ben would get through all those questions easily. Proof of being an alien? Held on her neck right now. Depending on how long it took, it might take a week at most to get back to civilization and be declared as a safe and stable person.
The only problem right now...
"Am I gonna be hopping the whole way, or will you be carrying me?"
"Hopping?" the unicorn's eyebrow raised, far too human of an expression to be on a horse's head, "Whatever do you mean?"
A waggle of her feet brought their attention to the bindings there, "I can't exactly walk like this."
The other two looked to the orange horse, who hummed for a second and scratched her head with a leg before sighing, "Alright, I don't see why you should be bound and gagged the whole way back. Not like we were eager on keeping anybody prisoner tonight..."
"Thanks. I just don't want to time out while tied up like this."
"'Time out?' What does that-"
Before Dash could finish speaking, she was interrupted by a steady beeping coming from the Omnitrix symbol on Ben's neck that had a flash of red on the face accompanying each beep.
There was a flash of red light that caused the three to cover their eyes.
Left lying on the ground in place of the unicorn was Ben's semi-regular human form, in the same baggy pants and white and black shirt. The Omnitrix was back to sitting on his wrist as it was supposed to. And all the body parts back to how he was used to them.
The best change in that moment for Ben was the slackened ropes around his hands and feet. He couldn't get a good comparison before, but thankfully the horse body was larger than his human one. He slipped out of the ropes and stood up as the three stood defensively, looking him up and down like they were preparing for any other surprises.
"Soooo..." Ben held out a hand at the now chin-height horses, "Introductions. Hi, I'm Ben Tennyson."
Ben hid underneath a fallen log, eyes wide as he kept tapping at the watch on his wrist. He kept taking shallow breaths like grandpa Max had taught him to keep the noise down. Out in the woods he could see bright lights spreading around like search lights, each the same golden-white hue of color.
Gwen would get a real laugh out of this, he grit his teeth, Finally a teenager, and I'm running away from a flying unicorn! I'd never hear the end of it!
Whatever that Eon guy had done to him, he was in some place full of horse mutants. Had he set this up with Animo to try and steal the watch? But why horses? Why the castle?! Were the Forever Knights here too?!
He didn't know what question to ask first. The best he could do was to get out of this mess and go XLR8 to get back to Bellwood. He could find out whatever the villains had done after that.
"Wherever you are, you have assaulted the capital of Equestria and I will not stand for it!" the woman's voice rang out through the forest like thunder, "Come out peacefully and explain your plans!"
"Yeah, right," he whispered sarcastically, I'm not falling for that! As soon as the watch recharges-
"So that's where you are," his blood ran cold as he saw the lights all around start streaming toward his location under the log. Backing out from underneath it, he stumbled up to his feet and started running with wide eyes.
"Oh, shi-!" he couldn't get a sentence out before something landed in front of his path, cratering the ground and sending up clouds of dust. Coughing, he saw a yellow light sweeping the cloud away with the white unicorn with wings and gravity defying hair standing there and glaring at him.
"So, you are the one known as 'Rath', correct?" she took a step forward as he kept tapping the watch while locking eyes with her, "Power far surpassing the average changeling... Tell me, what kind of creature are you?"
"Me, uh, well," Ben's eyes lit up as he finally heard the new Omnitrix activating and looked down to see the core already popped up, "Oh, just... A superhero..."
"A 'superhero?'" she seemed surprised by that as she too looked down to his wrist, "What are you doing?"
"I'm just gonna kick your butt, that's what I'm doing! It's hero time!" he slammed his hand down on the core and had a bright green light flash out around him.
Baxk to writing this. Boy, I sure do hope the internet is forgiving of little old me and my laziness!
...Like that's ever gonna happen...
Here's hoping I'm more committed this time!
