Jessie (or is it Priscilla now? She's having a difficult time over that one, what her identity is...) walks outside to a beautiful sunset. The sky is a light orange/purple mixture, the clouds whisp away in the distance, the sun steadily crawls down the horizon. She walks up to the picket fence surrounding this particular part of the property and leans up against it, watching her surroundings. They truly are beautiful.
"That there's on nasty bump ya got on yer head," she jumps in surprise as the farmer speaks. She hadn't seen him, but now there he was all of a sudden.
"You knew, didn't you?" She asks, looking back over the horizon.
"Knew? It was my dadburn idea!"
"Why?" She shakes her head, slowly. "I mean, yes it was stupid of me to agree without reading, but... why would you want to do this to someone? I don't want to be an animal."
"An' ya won't be. Least not fully. Yer still you, yer just... also a pony." He leans back, being on the opposite side of the fence from Jessie. "As fer 'why'... well... ya may not believe me, but... well... there's a mystical balance t' things, y'see... and you, dear, the way you are now... are a big part a' maintainin' that balance."
"Balance? What?" Jessie rears back, confused.
"Well, ya cain't create mystical beings outta thin air, now. Ya gotta cultivate 'em outta what's already there. Namely people. In order f'r the balance a' the entire universe t' stay even, there has t' be a certain number a' people who give up their humanity to a magical spell. I dunno why. But that's the truth." He bends down and plucks a blade of grass, and holds it up before her eyes. As she watches, the grass shimmers, and then becomes a cigarette, which he lights with his right index finger. "Yer kinda like this here cigarette. Now see, I coul'nt a' made this smoke outta thin air, I hadda take somethin' and transform it. 'Course, with the human body, ya gotta be alot more careful. Ya gotta go it nice an' slow, or you'll get sent inta severe shock."
"Oh, you mean like so shocked that I panic, trip over a bench and hit my head?" She raises an eyebrow and folds her arms at her chest.
"Please. I'm talkin' 'bout shock much worse than that. Shock so severe that yer molecular cohesion shuts down an' ya become a pile of organic goo. Dead organic goo."
"Oh," she says, placing her arms back on the fence and leaning her chin on them. "So... I'm part pony now... because it's important to the balance of the whole universe?"
"Yep. 'Course, even with you, we're still short on our quota, so we gotta git others ta do th' same. Now yer not gonna be warnin' 'em 'r nothin', we can't have 'em turned off t' the process at all, so unfortunately, when newbies are around, yer gonna have to be somewheres else. Can ya do that fer us?"
"I... yeah... yeah... this is still really weird... but... it feels better knowing that I'm... that I'm this way because of something important. You know?"
"S'why I told ya." He gives her a small, crooked smile as he glances back to her and tips his hat.
"So... am I the only one here so far?"