Wilson P. Higgsbury was always one to remember details.
Take last night, for example.
He knew how many seeds they planted in their farm.
How many things he tried to prototype.
How many depressing remarks Wendy made.
How long Willow stared into the fire.
How many times Wolfgang remarked that the scientist had extreme OCD.
And how many trees and Rocks surrounded their camp.
So when no materials, farms, or machines were in their camp the next day, Wilson knew something had happened.
The sky was light blue compared to the normal murky purple. The trees were various oaks instead of the pine trees that would span forests for miles. Flowers of multiple colors could be seen by the oaks, slowly blowing in the wind. Wilson however, upon waking up, was too tired to care.
It was probably another trick of Maxwell's.
He slowly stood up, wobbling. He was thirsty. When his vision became clear, he swerved his head around until he saw a small stream a few feet away from him. He slowly walked over to it and stared at the water. He closed his eyes and dipped his hands in. Maxwell once again teleported them away from their original campsite. They would have to find some flint, sticks, gold, make tools, build some crock pots, and see if any more Eyebones were around. Never hurt to have Chester with them.
He cupped some water in his hands and slowly drank the liquid. He sighed in contempt before looking down at his hands.
Only to see finger less stubs.
Maxwell fell over yelling, shocked.
Maxwell had gotten rid of his campsite and food.
And now he was altering his body.
Upon inspection, they were more like hooves then random stumps.
He stared at the hooves, shaking. He stared at the stream before gulping, standing up, and staring at his reflection in the water.
He was greeted by an average sized, thin stallion with a scraggly mane and a red vest. His coat was a light vanilla, complete with bright green eyes.
Maxwell had turned him into a technicolor Equine.
Before Wilson could yell in shock, his teammates behind him beat him to it. He turned around to see Willow.
She had a dust colored coat, her sweater still on and concealing her middle. Her eyes were paler around the irises, which had shrunk looking at her hooves. A small, spiral horn had grown out of her forehead.
"...Wilson...!?" She stammered, turning to see the scientist. "Am I insane again!?"
"Unless we are both seeing the entire team as equines, then yes." Wilson responded. Wolfgang had retained his burliness and shirt with a pale blue hue, WX-78 was still a rusty metal, his antennae sticking out in the middle of his forehead. Wendy had a pure yellow color, her dress shirt ripped at the sides due to two feathery wings.
"My god..." Wolfgang muttered, watching as Wendy whimpered and slowly flapped her new appendages.
"Wilson..." She squeaked. "What has happened?"
"Maxwell..." The gentleman scientist growled. Wolfgang jumped to his new hooves.
"That bastard! I'll rip out his eyes!" Wolfgang continued muttering. Willow began trying to comfort Wendy, WX-78 scanning the area.
"MASTER WILSON." The robot droned, his metallic joints squeaking. "THERE IS ONE-THREE-POINT-ZERO-TWO STATUS OF SENTIENT LIFE FORMS."
Wilson stared at his creation. Before he could respond, he was cut off by a growling sound from Willow.
"And our food is gone." She sighed, annoyed.
"I SUSPECT THE FLORA BY THE TREES IS EDIBLE." WX-78 droned, pointing to a blue lily-like flower. Willow shrugged before trotting over and opening her mouth.
"Stop, pony folk! That flower there is not a joke!"
Willow paused, joining the group to stare at a striped horse with neck rings.
"Is that a zebra...?" Wendy asked.
"Indeed, my name is Zecora. I advise you to stay away from that flora." She pointed to the flower Willow had tried to eat. "If you are hungry, follow me. Never eat the plants of the Everfree." The zebra known now as Zecora turned around and walked forward.
"The island is called 'Everfree?'" Wendy asked.
"An island? Not quite. If you call it a forest, then you are right." Zecora continued trotting. The confused group followed.
"So where is your camp?" Wilson asked.
"A camp? I am taking you to town. You shouldn't be in the forest deep down."
"Town?" Willow asked, pausing. "There are towns on the island? How the hell didn't we see any!?"
"Considering Maxwell's damn teleportation, I'm with Firestarter." Wolfgang added.
"It's probably abandoned." Willow said, her depressed monotone returning.
Zecora shook her head. She continued leading the 5 down the path until they got to a clearing. A small town could be seen in the distance
"Please return to Ponyville, and be glad it was noon still." Zecora walked off without another word.
"Ponyville...?" Wilson mumbled.
"All those houses are made of wood..." Willow muttered.
"Willow, no." Wendy put her hoof on the pyromaniac's shoulder.
"WILSON, I RECOMMEND HEADING TO LOCATION: PONYVILLE AND SPEAK WITH THE RESIDENTS." WX-78 added. Wilson was confused. They had seen villages of Pigmen, but a town?
"This is possibly an illusion of Maxwell's. But if the illusions have food I don't even care." Wilson trotted toward the town, his acquaintances following.
"Is that house made out of candy?" Wendy asked. They were in the middle of the town, staring at an apparent shop.
"Can we eat it?" Willow asked. Wilson had walked over to the front, staring at the gingerbread walls.
"Interesting..." He mumbled.
"Hey buddy, why are you feeling the walls?"
Wilson turned around to see a blue horse with a rainbow mane and wings at a table. Next to her were more horses with purple, yellow, orange, and white coats. The gentleman scientist was dumbfounded. They could make certain dies with flowers (and a bit of rabbit blood), but to have an entire color palette was almost impossible.
"We would appreciate it if you stopped staring." The purple one said. A cupcake on the table levitated into her mouth.
"How did you do that?" Wilson asked, walking forward quickly. The purple one looked at him, confused.
"Magic." She said it if he already knew this. Wilson stared before scoffing.
"Magic doesn't exist." His group walked forward behind him.
"That's a good one! It's not like you haven't seen a Unicorn before. Your friend there is one herself!" She pointed to Willow. She looked confused until she reached up and felt her horn.
"So...I can do magic?" Willow asked.
"Of course you can, darling." The white one said. Willow smiled before staring at a cupcake on the table.
"I wonder..." She closed her eyes before her horn began glowing a bright red. The cupcake burst into flames. The pyromaniac opened her eyes and smiled. "Yes! Burn!" She said happily. The blue one yelped before flying off. A few seconds later, she returned with what looked like a rain cloud and put out the fire.
"Why did you do that!?" She asked.
"Fire is beautiful and relaxing." Willow said proudly. Wilson ran his hoof across the cloud, interested. The purple one looked at Willow's flank.
"Oh. Rainbow Dash, it's her Cutie Mark."
"Come on, Twilight, how can burning stuff be a talent?"
"Cutie marks?" Wolfgang asked. "The hell are those?"
"Are you kidding?" The one now known as Rainbow dash laughed. "That's like, preschool stuff! Your mark that shows your special talent?" She pointed to her flank, showing a raincloud with red, blue and yellow in the thunderbolt. The group turned to look at their Cutie Marks; Wilson's was a beaker full of acid, Willow's was a flame, Wendy's was a gravestone, Wolfgang's was a weight, and WX-78's was a gear. Twilight was feeling around on the robotic equine.
"Is this...Pony made of metal?" She asked Wilson, her eyes wide in astonishment.
"Indeed. Maxwell once attacked our camp with his clockwork monsters. I salvaged the scraps and managed to create WX-78."
"Who's Maxwell?" Wilson stared at the unicorn before laughing.
"Who's Maxwell? He's the guy who created you illusions. He plays god due to these powers he has. How do you think we've been turned into equines?" He stiffened, expecting to see now-revealed illusions attack him. Instead, Twilight just stared at him.
"I believe you are talking about Princess Celestia."
"Celestia? Jeez, I'll give Maxwell some props for creativity." The scientist ran his hoof through his mane. "Still, now he's making fake towns on the island?"
"What island? This is Equestria." Twilight said, walking toward him. Wilson was about to answer when Wendy walked forward.
"Wilson, what if this is another level of Maxwell's hell? Or another world?"
"Don't be silly, Wendy. That's not scientifically possible. We would need to assemble the teleportato for that to happen."
"Well, explain how we got turned into ponies. I Don't remember the teleportato doing that." Willow added. Wilson opened his mouth to answer, but couldn't think of one. He was shocked. There were no equines on the island, so it's DNA couldn't have malfunctioned a teleportato or mess with Maxwell's powers.
There wasn't any scientific answers for this problem.
"Possibly-no...Maybe Maxwell-,no wait..." He held his head in his hooves. He couldn't explain this. Maybe he was in another world.
He collapsed.