An Out of Body Experience [Closed]

"I wath coming here, a noth from I am guething Violet told me to come here." Kestrel said, answering Mona's inquiry. He then continued to speak with Jasmine. Her constant upbeat attitude was rather...grinding on his own mood. He'd have to try and get her to calm down. Normally he'd just demand she chill out but without a body to back up his words it was rather pointless.

The whole lisp thing really didn't help either.

"Firth thingth firth. Drop the 'happy-go-lucky' attitude in public, ith about ath far ath you can geth from me. Nexth, I'll do the talking ith we meet anyone. Ith were lucky we wont be having that ithue though." Kestrel explained. His plan was simple. Help the group with their search, then get back to his campsite. Then...then he didn't really know. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

"Thould we therch this building more? Or Thplit up now?"

Violet glanced over at Kestrel. “You know Kestrel, you’ll probably have as much luck getting Jasmine to not act ‘Happy Go Lucky’ as I would getting you to participate and enjoy a pie-eating contest. Meaning: Zero. No offense Jasmine, but I don’t think you’re going to be acting like Kestrel anytime soon. Probably should just focus on the rest if you don’t want everypony thinking you’re a silly griffon now.” she told the two.

“As for searching the building...Probably won’t amount to much. I doubt whatever happened was focused on here, especially since only two of the six of us, assuming there isn’t more swapped people, where even here when it happened. Splitting up to cover more ground will probably work the best for us. Even though splitting up is a tactic I usually really don’t like, although that only really applies to abandoned bunkers and such.”

Zestari looked over towards Mona as the zebra gave her a pat on the back, a concerned look upon her face.

There was momentary confusion as to why Mona gave the gesture, but before Zestari could align it with anything, suddenly she was being hugged. “Huh?” was the best she could manage as the warmth of the gesture swept through her body and she felt a little better. She finally connected the comforting gestures as the others trying to reassure the typically animated zebra. She was surprised they could tell she was struggling through the façade of emotional stonewalling, but appreciated it nonetheless.

Hugging Violet in Bakewell’s body, and feeling unrealised tension leave her body, she came to the realisation that with the support of her friends, she could probably make it through this wall, hopefully with her own sanity intact. When the filly Violetwell was thrust towards her, she hugged her tightly, too.

“Thanks I needed that.” She said, her voice coming out as even as Mona would normally speak.

Addressing the issue of where to start looking, she had no idea. The whole phenomenon just seemed so impressively illogical. Why this group? How did they coordinate it? Was there more than one?

“So if not here, then where should we start looking, and what should we be looking for?”

Kestrel nodded as his question had been answered and went back to waiting. Violet had a point, he probably wasn't going to have any luck calming Jasmine down. It was like trying to stop a flood with a straw and a spoon, Pointless, and rather foolish in the end.

Didn't mean he wasn't going to try however. Kestrel didn't think very highly of himself, but he did have an image. The last thing he needed right now was for every possible employer he had to turn him down because of the antics of a single mare who somehow ended up in his body.

He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let the war he was waging in secret become public. Not before he knew his victory was assured.

He gave his old body a look, his now pony eyes doing their damnedest to imitate the cold orbs that resided in his old skull. Silently giving the one inside his body a single, non-lisped order. "Don't mess this up. Or else."

As he glared his order at the mare-turned-griff he saw now, for the first time, himself through the eyes of another. All the running and screaming and general fearful responses he usually received now made much more sense. He looked like something out of a nightmare, so many scars coating him, and a his mask hiding his face behind a shield of blackened material.

"Zethtari hath a point. Where exathcly are we thupposed to thart therching?"

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Bakewell lied to Violet, getting a firmer grasp on the beige mare moments before her body galloped over in a very, very Violet Star fashion. The mare had just managed to regain balance before suddenly her own hooves snatched the filly from her own back and shoved her towards the under-emotional unicorn.

“No problem.” Bakewell said kindly after giving Zestari a hug of her own. “What are friends for?”

That just left the problem of how their bodies had been swapped, and what they could do to fix the problem. As hyped up as ‘being young again’ could be, Bakewell wasn’t really seeing the appeal. She wanted her own body back, where the most she had to think about in combat was which face to punch first.

“I think we’ll have to look everywhere.” Bakewell answered. “Maybe we should do like Violet suggested and split up, searching all over Stableton. That’s assuming whatever caused this is in Stableton. If it’s not, I think we had better get used to our new lives, fast." She said. the horn atop the purple unicorn’s head giving her confidence as she entered the thinking portion of the conversation. Clearly unicorns were smart, right? Which meant that Violet’s body had to be smarter, right? That’s how smart worked. Had to be. So as long as she was in Violet’s body, she didn’t have to worry about her ideas being utter trash!

“I’m less concerned about where we start, and more concerned about the latter half of Mon- er, Zestari’s question. What are we looking for? This could be anything from unicorn magic, to ancient cursed pyramid relics, to a strange natural phenomenon we were unlucky enough to get caught in, to the Enclave upstairs being jerks and testing science things on us.”

The violet filly shook her head and gave a weak chuckle. “And to think, this morning my biggest concern was giving my radhog a bath."

Violet glanced at the others, before putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “Hmm....” After several moments of this, she suddenly raised her hoof, mouth open as if she was about to say something...Before she lowered it again, closing her mouth. “I got nothing.” she reported. “I guess all we can do at this point is search Stableton, even if we don’t find whatever or whoever did this we can at least see if anypony else got their bodies all mixed up. In case we’re not the only ones.” she suggested.

“And I have no idea what we’d be looking for really related to what did this too us. Anything strange, I suppose?”

Jasmine raised her birdy hoof into the air waiving it to get the beige mare's attention. Her idea was perfect, probably one of the best ones she had her entire life as a griffin. Sher held her breath as the excitement built up until it finally escaped her. "OK sorry, just have to say this. Maybe I can do a fly over around the town by myself and test out these babies!" Jasmine unfolded her wings and gave them a flap, feeling the greater wind resistance from her larger wing span. "It'll be perfect everypony and Zebra and me! I won't be as fast as normal, but I can get a pegasus' eye view of the town, and bring back a report. Idea number two would involve me flying to the far side of town, where I can ask everypony if they had problems too..."

Jas thought for a moment, playing with Kestrel's mask with her talons. "OHH Or what about the Sheriff's office?! OH MY GOODNESS I can ask them while I'm out! It'll be no problem at all!" Jasmine looked over the group watching their expressions. Thank goodness they were working with a genius... They're going to find out if this change is permanent in no time!

Kestrel let out another strange pony growl as Jasmine began playing with his mask. He could semi-put up with loosing his body...but that was pushing it.

"Leave my mathk alone. Ith not a plaything." He said sounding genuinely annoyed for once before continuing at a slightly subdued tone. "If anyoneth going to go to the therrif it will be the otherth. I've a reputation there, I don't feel like hathing it damaged becauth of all of thith." Kes said. This would probably be the first time that anyone had heard the griffon get even slightly annoyed with something or someone.

It was just made worse by the fact that he was having to lisp through it all. Still Jasmine was just being herself, and Kes was trying to tell himself that...but it wasn't working.

The mare-turned-griffon had no clue what she was doing, how much disrespect she was showing to Kestrel at the moment, even as she just sat there messing with this mask. She had no clue why he wore it, what it meant, to her it was probably just a piece of material, something Kes wore to hide his identity.

If so, she couldn't be more wrong. Had anyone else touched it in reality without express permission, Kestrel would have already killed them and left their body for the birds. But that option wasn't available right now, he had to let her live for now, he had to get his body back. It didn't mean he was going to enjoy this in the slightest though.

"I'll fly with you of you want to thurvay the town. My bodithes thentheth are perfect for thuch a tathk. We need to thtick together ith we are going to get thith done efficiently. Three teamth of two thould be able to cover the thity no?"

Violet nervously glanced between Kestrel and Jasmine, worried for the latter. Kestrel was clearly agitated with the displaced pegasus, and she knew that Jasmine really couldn’t help herself, but that wasn’t helping. For now though, she had a feeling she wouldn’t have to worry, Kestrel wouldn’t kill his own body after all. But after?

Well, she’d just have to hope Kestrel was reasonable. Because she wasn’t even sure the four of them, not counting Jasmine, could stop him. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that though, and that’s not something she needed to worry about now.

“Yeah, that’d probably be for the best.” she replied to Kestrel’s plan. “You and Jassy check things out from the air, Bakey and I can search the east side of town, with Bakey riding my back...Technically her back...Whatever! Anyway, and then Mona and Zesty can go through the west side of the town. We can meet back here in an hour with anything we find, does that sound good everypony?”

Zestari blinked slowly at Jasmine the griffon. “Flying is probably not a bad idea. Certainly the pair of you could cover more area that way. The fact you both have wings only encourages the point.” She paused and tried to look pensive for a moment. “I suppose Mona and I could stop at the sheriff’s office and ask about ‘anything strange’ for you, Kestrel, to protect that valuable reputation of yours.”

Giving a glance towards Mona to see if the new zebra was in agreement, she turned to walk out of the door. “So I guess we’ll see you in one hour then. We’ll take the east side of town as that includes the sheriff’s office.”

Kestrel the pony nodded his head curtly in agreement. Well thats, hopefully, one thing settled for now. Turning his/her body towards the exit Kestrel looked as if he were ready to move to leave, his head turned around and motioned for Jasmine to follow.

"Come on, Leth get thith over with."

“That sounds okay, I guess. I don’t have any preference between west and east side, so swapping like Zestari wants is okay in my book.” Bakewell replied before trying to scurry back up onto Violet’s back. The filly was glad that the large earth pony didn’t have much objection letting her ride. Not because the unicorn was opposed to running, but because she was afraid that she would be too slow compared to the larger earth pony due to smaller limbs. She was also slightly terrified of being trodden on, as irrational as the fear may have been. The size difference just felt too powerful for comfort, especially when Vi-vision existed to make everything seem that little bit more ghastly. At least the wonked up vision made the absence of her eyes forward sparkle completely unworrisome in relation.

“We’ll see you all in an hour, I guess! Hope there aren’t any other ponies messed up like this. That would be a headache…”

Jasmine's talon's snapped off the mask at his remark. "I-I'm sorry Kes, it just feels funny on my muzzle..." Jasmine didn't mean any offense to Kestrel, however she couldn't help but feel guilty for upsetting him. She'll have to be more sensitive to his feelings, he DID have big horse shoes to fill after all. It probably wasn't every day that he had to exchange bodies- and with an extremely hyperactive pegasus no less! Jas looked down as she thought to herself. "Great job Jathmine, you jutht made Kethtrel upthet... Now he probably hateth you!"

Jas was snapped out of her thoughts by Zestari's comment. She nodded along with the newly-turned unicorn. "Glad that you think so Zestari! Plus if there's anything out of the ordinary we'll be able to tell you all quickly. Maybe we could even explore beyond the town, since we can cover more ground quicker."

The mare did a small pre-flight stretch, trying to become accustomed to her new set of wings when Kestrel's voice brought her attention to the door. "Comming Kes!" Jasmine began to trot to the door, then stopped abruptly and turned to the others. "Good luck everypony, see you all in an hour!" She then galloped to the door and up to Kestrel's side, trying not to keep him waiting. "Any idea where to start first? Maybe we could circle around the town's edge and work our way to the middle?"

"Thpiral pattern. Thart on the inthide, and wind our way out. Then back in." Kestrel said walking out the door and giving his new wings a flap. The lack of resistance was...surprising. Jasmine's wings being far smaller than what he was used too. Still he managed to get up eaisly enough though and, after waiting for his companion to follow, he began the spiral pattern.

To be safe, Kes kept himself and Jasmine on a path that was far up enough to keep them out of the way of most normal ponies sight, and still allowed for a good view of the ground below.

His new pony body lacked the acute senses of his previous form, and as such after getting the pattern started Kes turned and gave Jasmine the first order of this little mission.

"Focuth m-your thentheth. Thee if you can thee anything, or hear anything from below." he lisped, mind still trying to get used to that.

Jas watched as Kes took off into the air. Feeling the wind Jasmine became excited to test out her new body in the one place where she felt most comforable. She dashed straight forward to build up her momentum. After two bounds she dived into the air while her wings pushed her up into the sky. She was surprised how much resistance they put up. She noticed that they were very powerful, but she wasn't used to not being a bit less fast.

She flew along side the yellow pegasus, scanning the Stabletonians below. It was almost overwhelming how powerful Kestrel's eyes were. She could see in clear detail, despite being incredibly high in the air. Despite the town being composed of garbage, it was really quite beautiful.

Jasmine continued searching for anything suspicious as she followed the pegasus. She flew in a slight zig-zag pattern as well as up and down, enjoying the short falling sensation. A scream brought her attention to a shop front as she looked at the creatures below her. Most individuals appeared to almost jump at the sight of her and run for cover. Initially Jasmine assumed that they were running from something else, she ended up checking behind her in case she was being snuck up on. Eventually she discovered that it was her they hid from whcih concerned her greatly, as Jas wasn't accustomed to fearful responses in the slightest.

"K-es, I think that I'm scaring everypony...They're all...Running away..."

"Sheriff's office, sounds like a plan. We'll meet up withyou all later."

With that, Mona would quickly follow after Zestari. She was starting to adjust to the flexible hooves of the Zebra, though she doubted she'd be mastering it anytime soon. However, with luck, that wouldn't be an issue.

"So...how are we going to go about this? We can't really just ask about annything strange, can we? This is Stableton, every single time I've stopped by here theres been something going down, so I don't know if a question like that is going to get a solid answer...And if we say the truth about this body-swapping business, we're probably just going to be thought of as crazy..."

Kestrel had been silent most of the flight, watching the griffon he once was flying about. She seemed to be behaving now. Good. It was only when she made the observation about the people running in fear that Kes spoke.

The griffon had gotten used to the fearful reactions of the locals and even other wastelanders when they saw him coming. His reputation was not one of peace, or of mercy. He was almost legendary by now for his brutal efficiency in some select circles. The screams had never bothered him though. He tuned them out, cast them aside, ignored them utterly.

His tone was not agitated, as it had been before, it was calm, collected. It was Kes.

"Your me now. What did you expetht?"

Falling into step besides Mona as the pair walked, Zestari looked off into the distance. “I have no idea what to look for. We have no leads. No real idea of what could cause it, and no clear enemies. For now, asking random ponies in the street seems to be as good an option as anything else.” Turning back to Mona, she slowed her pace slightly as she considered her next few words, “Between the casual racism – sorry about that by the way, you’ll see what I mean - ponies struck down by radiation, ponies high on chems and the constant threat of raiders and slavers. I doubt that asking about swapping bodies is really going to register as high on their list.”

She looked away again and continued on in silence for a moment before a sense of silliness or perhaps foolishness combined with nervousness attempted to rise up before fizzing away. There were some advantages to this wall, then, she thought before voicing the question that gave her the sense of unease. “Mona, how would I go about using magic?” She looked up towards the bony protrusion extending from her forehead. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t something that always utterly fascinated me. Now, it might be something linked to the mind rather than the body, but, if you’re willing I’d like to try. I just don’t have any clue on where to start.”

She focused on the dusty road ahead of her. “Of course if you don’t want to, that’s fine too. I mean, perhaps I could teach you some alchemy or martial arts in exchange.”

Mona couldn't help a slight grimace come over her face, though it wass due to two things, rather then one. She sort of expected casual racism while in Zes body, a trait of the populace majority that never ceased to irk Mona, especially when she had met more then a few Zebras on her travels with the caravan, and knew that at heart, they weren't any different from any other sentient being...besides, the war was pretty strongly ended, if her tenpony education had taught her anything. What was the point in holding a grudge?

No, the main reason Mona winced was the realization that Zes may not be entirely free from unwanted attention in Mona's body...in fact, it might be a little worse due to recent circumstances. Mona was more then a little privy to Zes's rather nasty breakup with her coltfriend over some small buck getting shot...and Mona had a bad habit of attracting Male attention, something which she doubted Zes would want to deal with after such a thing...

Okay...no big deal...If anyone touches Zes or says anything particulary crude, I can take them down. Sure, I may not have a horn for knife-levitating, but you don't need fancy telekinetics for an old-fashioned buck to the teeth.

This slight worry was quickly replaced by a new worry though, when Zes decided to ask Mona about Unicorn magic, and if there was anything she could teach her.

...Hoo boy...

"Uh...I'm not too sure what I could show you Zes. With Unicorns, thats sort of like teaching someone to breathe. Sure there's more complex magics to learn, but actually using your horn to channel it is always the start, and it's something that just kind of comes naturally.

I...guess we can try some telekinetics once we get a moment, but It's gonna be tricky. The only real advice I can give for the moment if you want to be able to use it is...well...try and 'flex' it a bit. Think of it as a fifth limb, sure you can't move it like an arm, but try and focus on it, and find a way you can sort of flex it...like with a tiny spark or something..."

Zestari looked over at Mona. “Ahh.” She had figured it wouldn't be easy to tap into the unicorn magic the body she was in possessed, but with Mona giving her no real direction other than to treat the horn as a fifth limb, she still felt rather lost trying to feel her way. “Flex it… Okay, I’ll work on that perhaps.”

As they continued towards the more busy part of Stableton, near the sheriff’s office, in search of ponies to question, she was thankful for the distraction of trying to discern the current magic conundrum. It was preferable to the alternative focus of her mind, the emotional block. Because if she spent any more time dwelling on it, she’d start to lose her sanity to it, too.

With her thoughts drifting around magic, it took a strangely friendly wave and wink from a stallion to bring her back to reality, and without really thinking, she waved back. It did present a rather important question, though.

“Any idea on which ponies we should try and focus our efforts on? I mean there are a lot of ponies, and we only have an hour. About the only certain ones to ask are the sheriff and his staff.”

The group split up, Kestrel and Jasmine heading for the air, Violet with Bakewell on ‘her’ back walking out to check one side of the town, while Mona and Zestari themselves took the other side of town, with the Sheriff’s Office being a particular objective in their minds.

In their own searches, neither Kestrel and Jasmine, or Bakewell and Violet, would find much of anything that would point towards what happened to them. Not even any others suffering from their...Condition.

Mona and Zestari, on the other hoof, was a different story.

On their way to the Sheriff, the two saw an...Odd, sight. Walking down the same street they were, although the other way, was a hooded figure, a zebra judging by the stripes on its muzzle. From it’s voice the two could discern that she was a mare, and an old one at that. Her cloak was tattered, patched in several places, and hanging from it were several old tribal esque trinkets, bottles of foul-looking liquids that jangled and clattered together, and a gnarly-looking wooden staff with a shard of a bone hanging off the end of it.

The zebra didn’t take any notice of the two, or any of the other ponies that were giving her odd looks as she passed, she seemed to be embroiled in a conversation with...Herself, it seemed. As she passed the two, they could some of what she was saying.

“Hmm...Dey in dis city somewhere, dat dey are. I can feels them...Misplaced spirits...What was dat Granny Bone?” She stopped and looked at the bone on her staff. “No I haven’t found dem yet. Dis would be plenty easier if yous was more clear in your directions.” she answered as she continued walking. “You better be right ‘bout dis Granny Bone, donts wants another repeat of what happened at the city on the water.”

Getting closer to the sheriff's office, any of the ponies that she and Mona had asked, seemed clueless as to the mind-swapped plight. Despite not being terribly surprised by the fact, it was still irritating to feel like they were wasting their short hour of time. Until a hooded figure emerged making its way slowly towards them.

Once Zestari noticed the wizened zebra shaman, her eyes were glued to her. She gave a sharp nudge to Mona. “A zebra shaman.” Her mind was going practically crazy at the moment, as a torrent of emotions were thrown around, trapped within her own skull. Surprise. Awe. Joy. Curiosity. Fawning respect.

Zestari stopped so suddenly that she skidded slightly. “Mona, we need to talk to that mare. Even if she does not know of our plight, or possibly assist, I must show my respects.”

Turning towards the zebra shaman she hurried towards her. Between each step she lowered her head in respect before raising it to speak. “You there! Wise zebra mare!” She slipped into Zebrican, possibly the most Mona’s unicorn mouth had ever tasted the words. “In a manner that is most humble and respecting,” her head dipped again, “I’d talk to you in a manner most affecting.”

Coming closer her eyes quickly took in more of the possessions that the zebra had - fetishes, potions, the smell of rare and elusive herbs. Her head was a pounding headache now of suppressed emotion, and ironically, she almost felt like whimpering miserably from it all.

She began talking in Equestrian again, “We have a problem we need to confess, our minds and bodies swapped to our continual distress. Can you help and assist. So this condition may desist?”

The mare stopped as Zestari approached, her ragged ears perking as she turned towards the zebra-turned unicorn. A curious look was in her hooded-eyes as she looked over the unicorn.

“This is very interesting, the one who taught you must be truly great.” replied the mare in Zebrican, glancing over Zestari’s shoulder towards Mona. “I have not seen a Zebrican-Speaking unicorn with your ability to dictate.”

The mare listened as Zestari elaborated more, before her eyes went wide as the entirety of the zebra and unicorn’s situation became known. She shot an accusing glare at the bone shard hanging from her staff. “Granny Bone! Why you no say dey were here? Wes coulda missed dem!” she berated the...Staff...speaking once again in Equestrian.

“I am sorry,” she said as she turned back to the two. “Granny Bone is neva really clear at da best of times. She’s da who told me ‘bout you two, beings with deir souls, deir spirits mov’d, plac’d where dey should not be.”

The zebra removed the staff from her side, holding it in the crook of her foreleg. She waved it over the two, the bone shard making a very quiet humming noise as she did. She nodded to herself before sliding the staff back into place.

“Yous are da ones, Granny Bone can tell. But...dere are more...four, Granny Bone says. We and I and Granny Bone can help yous if we finds de oders. Tell me, do you two know of any oders afflicted like dis?”

Zestari made a slight squeak of joy as the shaman talked to her stave. Some emotion had found a way through the wall. “Oh my! Are you talking to one of your ancestors?” She stepped a little closer a look of awe on her face.. “This is amazing. My mother once mentioned things like this. But I never thought it was possible.” She waved away the shaman’s apology. “Not very clear? What you’re doing I didn’t even think was possible!”

Just as abruptly as the emotion had flowed, it was suddenly gone, trapped once again in her head, and she sighed slightly.

“Yes there are others. We can lead you to them, in fact. All we need to do is head back to the community centre.” She started to turn in the direction for which Mona and herself had come. “Would you like me to carry anything for you?”

Jasmine found that her eyes seemed to automatically shift toward the tiniest movement from the ground. Shaking aside the small bursts of adrenaline that accompanied this feeling, she began to flinch at everpony who got startled by her. She shakily reached out her talons as if to try to calm them down and withdrew them with every flinch.

This was a very strange and new feeling for her, she just couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty for having this effect on her neighbors. These were the individuals that she used to randomly celebrate things with after all.

"W-WAIT! NO! DON'T BE AFRAID DOWN THERE! I WON'T HURT YOU!" Jasmine tried waving to the citizens, her gaze shifting between the ground and the orange pegasus next to her. "KESTREL, I DIDN'T THINK EVERYONE WOULD REACT THIS WAY TO ME! What am I doing wrong!?"

Jasmine tried waving to the citizens, she used her deformed bird hooves to signal an imaginary heart to the ponies down below. "NO SEE!? NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF! STOP RUNNING!" Jasmine raised her voice at those below, almost managing to let out a roar. Her eyes shifted back to Kes as she began to slow down and reduce her altitude.