"Whoooaaaah... That was a little too much pony last night."
Hello, I'm Mary. I'm a mother of two, married to the most wonderful man I could hope for and live what I consider to be, the life I've always wanted. So…why oh why, in the wide, wide world of whys, did this happen to me?
This is my story, for better or for worse, about how things in my life became beyond unbearable.
This is my story, for better or for worse, about how things in my life became beyond unbearable.
My Little Marriage: Mary is a Mare
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by MerlosTheMad. It is one of the stories in the author's "Madverse" setting, which also contains A Twilight Landingnote , Abhorsen: Friendship is Free-Magicnote , So Many wondersnote , and The Mane Two: Contrailnote . The last one is co-written by Alex Nuage.
Mary Morris is a regular housewife, with a loving husband and two children. Her life is generally happy, and her greatest problem is her unruly, rebellious teenager son. Apparently, however, fate decided that she'd been having it way too easy. One day, Mary is shocked to wake up in her bed as a colorful, cartoonish pony.
Now the unexpectedly transformed woman must somehow cope with her predicament, keep it a secret from the outside world, and maybe find a way to go back to her old self... the mysterious, blue horse princess visiting her in her dreams may be a help in that. In the meanwhile, bizarre occurrences just keep piling up, affecting both Mary and her family.
The fanfic shows examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: Mary pulls off a surprise rescue to save her son when he's being harassed at a party.
- Cuteness Proximity: Mary's daughter, Anna, keeps getting affected by this after the transformation.
- Foreshadowing: Aside from the hair color change, there have been a couple other foreshadows, like her fainting, her body being indecisive about her body temperature, and the inability to enjoy meat.
- Denial of Animality: Initially Mary, as far as she is concerned, doesn't have a "mane"—it's her hair, dammit.
- Forced Transformation: Mary gets turned into a(n earth) pony and has to cope with her smaller stature, her quadrupedal walking (since she's not a pegasus and thus cannot fly), and lack of hands (and no telekinesis because she isn't a unicorn).
- Genki Girl: Mary's friend Marge is an adult woman, but she's energetic and cheerful to a downright annoying degree—especially if you mention the My Little Pony show around her.
- Green Hoof: Mary, as a pony, slowly discovers that she can influence plants more or less unconsciously. She's initially very reluctant to use these powers, as they're just another layer of bizarre on top of what already happened.
- How We Got Here: The first chapter is a short snippet from the moment of Mary's transformation. Since the first few chapters just introduce the characters, its function is probably to keep the audience interested.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Mary really wants to be turned back. She's also not really comfortable with all these weird powers.
- Instant Expert: A mild case, but over the course of the story, Bobby is envied by his friends when he suddenly becomes very good at music, Anna has become very proficient in ballet (her first rehearsal made it on YouTube), and Stan's physcial fitness has improved significantly (200 push-ups straight). At chapter 14, Mary later sees what we identify as a cutie mark on her husband's hips. And at the next, it turns out that Anna and Bobby also have them.
- Just Woke Up That Way: Happens twice, in fact—the day before her full transformation, Mary wakes up with her hair changed to a blue-white pattern.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Marge cheerfully suggests that maybe one of the numerous My Little Pony fanfics stars Mary herself.
- Next Sunday A.D.: The story takes place in 2023, but there's little to indicate that, apart from little details such as mentions of "Playstation Six" and Microsoft buying Apple.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Averted—Mary's in-laws are extremely supportive of her, even after discovering her secret.
- Secret-Keeper: At first, it's just Stan. Then Agnes finds out, also telling Herbert. Then they decide to reveal it to Anna and Bobby as well. And then Dan, one of Stan's co-workers is let in on the loop after having seen Mary prior. But just as they were about to explain to him, Mary's friend Marge comes in and she has to be told as well. And then when Jo and Twilight come over after a call, they become Secret Keepers too.
- Shout-Out
- There have been a few references to the show itself like some iconic phrases.
Bobby's friend: This thing at Cory's house would totally be twenty percent less cool if he wasn't here leading guitar.Mary: Oooh, what am I going to do!? We can't run...we...of all the things that could have happened, this is the, worst, possible, thing!- Agnes mentions Sonic the Hedgehog when talking with Herbert about their daughter-in-law's being a pony.
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Word of God says that the Animal Control guys are Bill & Ted. - In Chapter 26, two chapters after this story 'crosses over' with A Twilight Landing, Herbert sees a DeLorean and immediately assumes Twilight and her companion Jo came via Time Travel.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Mary casually speaks to a blue jay, though in a dream. She is shocked when she can understand its response and doesn't try it again.
- True Love's Kiss: Herbert (half-jokingly) suggests Stan do this to Mary after she and Twilight fell unconscious as a result of them making physical contact with one another. Stan decides to give it a try. It does nothing.
- Video Phone: Mary's mother-in-law accidentally buys her that sort of a phone, which leads to antics when Mary is trying to hide away from the screen during a conversation.
