So, about two years ago me, my family and some friends were sitting around our dinner table, and my mom said, “Let’s write some stories.” (Or something like that.) So we all set to work, and I was eleven at the time and I had some bizarrely interesting slash weird but also… strange ideas.

We’ve all had some of those, right? Yeah. So I wrote a story about how a regular horse became a unicorn… in the weirdest way imaginable.

I’m chewing nervously on a mouthful of hay. Hey! I’m a white thoroughbred horse, used for dressage. My handler is a young woman, Irene. We’d just finished possibly the most challenging show in our career yet, and Irene let me loose into the corral to play and relax. She’d left to get me some peppermint, when a huge white truck pulled up.

I’m naïve, alright? I admit it, you can put it on my record. FINE. I don’t CARE. Some men opened the back so it was a ramp. Then, a young woman with some white marshmallows led me into the truck. Slam! Click! Hmm?

What? Something wrong, Icicle? Oh, you were horse-napped?!?! Hm. Didn’t notice. Strange. So, that’s why I’m nervous. Those people are illegal scientists, and they’re experimenting on all SORTS of animals- skunks, dogs, raccoons, cats, and rats—to genetically create… I believe the word was ‘hybrids’.

I back into the corner when I hear approaching footsteps. A scientist opens the door, looking at something in her hand. “Specimen G and H,” mumbles the woman, flicking the syringe lightly. Ping! She looks up and smiles at me.

I shudder.

“Do you know what a horse and a llama will look like?” she wonders, talking awkwardly to me. She walks over, syringe in hand. She slips on rubber gloves. “Last bits of your DNA that we need! Then, Dr. Bullhorn wants to test some ‘medicines’ on you. You won’t last very long,” she smiles wickedly, and I huff, stomping my hooves. I did not like this lady one bit. I froze when I felt chains biting my ankle. Right. I forgot—I was being restrained.

Just as the woman was about to prick my neck with the needle, a loud crash sounds from a far area in the lab. This made her startle and drop the empty vial, and I took the opportunity to smash it with my hoof.

She growls in frustration, sounding very much like a dog I’d met once. “It’s that intern, Nedry,” she hissed, taking off her gloves. “When I get my hands on him…” she does’t finish that sentence as she walks out of my stable, leaving the door open in her angry storm.

Yes! My chance! I’m happy for about five second before I remember the chains. My head droops.

I hear light footsteps and look up dejectedly. A teenage boy licking an ice-cream cone runs into my stall. I snort, he grins. “I’ve a great idea!” he laughed. Without another word or a moment’s consideration, he slaps his half-eaten ice-cream cone onto my forehead. Cold numbness spiked through my veins, freezing me in place.

“Ha! You’re a unicone!” The boy—who I assume is Nedry—cackles manically.

What was happening to me, however, is no laughing matter.

My mane freezes into long, sharp icicles, and the cone gets longer and turns silver. My fur freezes over and looks like snow, and my hooves get so cold that the chains freeze over and crack.

Nedry lets out a high-pitched scream and bolts for the door. Startled, I slam into the wall. Surprisingly, it cracks and I run out the hole. I don’t know where I was going, but I knew it wasn’t going to be anyplace nearby.

I’m running away.

…🙈 This was just… so bizarre.