My Little Download: Spreading the Friendship Chapter 3 (Preview) (Patreon)

Gees… how long is this gonna last? Valerie carefully put her drink back down on the table beside her as she leaned farther back into her sofa's cushions. Her hands still shook and trembled even ten minutes later.

Need to calm… down. Valerie took a few more breaths, tensing her shoulders and releasing them. Need to calm down. Cool it… don't want to disappoint everyone.

She laid there, staring up at the ceiling. Her body remained shaky despite her efforts, frustrating her further. What was her problem that day?

Valerie pulled out her phone and checked it. It opened to the memo she took earlier, showing her the link. Oh, Princess wanted me to check this out. Something I-I might like…

She copied and pasted the link into her web app, opening up a rather odd domain. It was a white background with nothing else for a few seconds. Then, slowly, words faded in and out. Enter a world of magic. Discover a you full of friendship…

Click to start a new beginning! A small blue button appeared towards the bottom of the screen. Warning bells were automatically going off in her head seeing all of this, but Valerie trusted her friend. Hesitantly so about this, but still she did.

She tapped on the button, and the screen emptied again. A new phrase appeared slowly, one that gave her pause. Welcome to MLP-ified

MLP-ified? That sounds familiar. Valerie scratched her head. She had definitely heard that before somewhere. Was it on one of her many social media feeds? It was quite possible, but she hadn't been looking recently. She had been trying to avoid them as much as she could for her own mental health.

Maybe it was on the news on one of the very few times she watched or read it? Again, it was difficult to say. Everything there blurred together after a while. Though, maybe she needed to connect with reality a bit more than she did.

Wait, what? Her attention came back to her phone, finding it was on her home screen again. Did something crash or…

There, she saw something waiting for her. It had the silhouette of a horse for a logo, the phrase beneath it saying, MLP-ified. Wait, it's an app? She couldn't help but frown at that. She didn't want to download anything particularly sketchy. Sure, she trusted her mod and was positive it was safe, but still. She could've been a bit more specific about this.

MLP… oh, right! My Little Pony. Valerie definitely had mentioned at one point or another in some stream that she did like the show. Maybe Princess wanted to share with her something that would be up her alley?

Probably should ask them about this before I click on it.

One last shiver and twitch went down her arm and into her fingers. One of them jerked and slapped down onto the app. The screen suddenly went white.

O-o-oh! Valerie's heart raced. I-I… w-well, guess this is ha-happening now.

Symbols and images rapidly appeared, flashing by every half-second. So many different shapes and colors flowed by that they almost gave her a headache. Some of them seemed familiar, but again, it was difficult to exactly tell what they were.

Eventually, the flashing ended. One image remained. It looked like a black pool of spilt ink, a few more splotches around it. In the center of it was a bright, white crescent moon. Valerie recognized it instantly from Friendship is Magic. She had seen it plenty of times before!

Though, the pony who it belonged to escaped her grasp. Uggh, I-I’ve seen it before! It belongs to somebody important… how am I forgetting it? I feel I should know this-

It vanished. The cutiemark disappeared, and the screen itself went black. It was almost like her phone turned off right there.

She was about to press the power button when a cold shiver went down her spine. Something began leaking from the phone. Around the edges of the screen and out the holes, a dark blue aura seemed to ooze out like the smoke from dry ice. The phone itself felt cold, her hand shaking now for a new reason.

Then, the mysterious aura leaked onto her hand. She dropped her phone, but it didn't matter. The glow encircled her mitt before sinking into it like a towel absorbing water.

As the glow faded into her hand, dark blue remained. Her fingernails turned bluish-black, shortening a little. Dark blue hair began sprouting around them and on the back of her hand, spreading out and around it.

N-n-n-n-n-no w-wa-way! Valerie shivered all over, nervously flipping over to the palm and seeing blue there as well. She carefully brought a finger to it, poking the center of her hand. She wasn't going crazy. It was real fur.