You arrive at the return address on the otherwise unmarked package of Heartland young adult fiction novels you received unrequested in the mail. Perhaps here you will find some answers. You knock on the door of the ramshackle barn but instead of being answered the door simply gives under the light tap of your fist and opens with a slow, painful complaint of a creak. Entering into the barn proper you find three backlit figures sitting at a plain wooden table. The two women say their names are Jenna and Alex. The male figure claims to be Tim.
"What do you want with me?" you ask the silhouettes. "Why did you send me those books?"
"We do as we are told," Jenna and Alex say in unison.
From the stable block on the shadowy east wall of the barn comes a rhythmic clop. The clop grows louder, closer, as a white miniature appaloosa comes into the weak orange light of the single ceiling-mounted incandescent bulb.
"Sugarfoot welcomes you," the women say flatly. You do not feel welcome.
You lock eyes with the snow-white pony, and in its cold, black eyes you find the meaning of fear.
"What is this?" you ask with a quavering whisper. You look back at the table and notice Tim, now in the light. You notice his skyward-pointing, pointy ears. You take in his luxurious mane. Your pursed lips devolve into a wide-open grimace of horror as you behold him swatting flies with his tail.
"I am....becoming," Tim says. "You will become, too."
You open your mouth to say no but it has already elongated into a chestnut-furred snout and all you can manage is a terrified whinny. Sugarfoot stomps his foot and snorts in joyous approval.
You are a horse girl now, and you always will be.
