Stroke of a Digital Brush

Chapters

Drawing an Outline
Adding some Foreground
Tracing Background Details
Starting Some Line Art
Painting the Colors
Shading the Shadows
Darken the Shades
Sketching the Characters

Drawing an Outline

“I hate mondays.” I grumbled as I sat in class, Bamboo Tablet in hand and pen at the ready. For the past couple of weeks now, I’d been working on a poster for competition. If I won this, I’d go for nationals and possibly score big bucks. That or a lot of high end software. Either worked for me, since they both would make drawing the ponies easier. But at the moment, my pony sketches all lay dormant in a notepad, and I was stuck making a poster describing Kansas.

Which if you live here too, you know that it’s not as empty as people claim. Just.... really spread out.

“I mean really, why does it have to be every monday that we have to get up for class?” I continued to complain to myself out loud.

“Oh quit your whining.” I heard someone call from the other side of the class. “I thought you were a top animator, not a lazy bum!”

I turned in my seat and looked over to find that the culprit was my redheaded classmate, Crystina. “Oh shut it, you! I have every right to be lazy!” She just rolled her eyes and got up to leave the room after saying something to her neighbor. Probably to go to the restroom or something. I was right about having the right to be lazy today though. I hadn’t been able to get a decent night of sleep for the past couple of days. This kind of thing always had a tendency to happen around major events in my life, and the dreams I’d get would usually be related somewhat vaguely. What was it called again? Cleromancy or something? Ah screw it, I’ll google it later.

That being said, I have no idea why I keep dreaming of a gold pegasus in my bedroom mirror, staring at me with a shit eating grin. Like he knows it’s messing with me and it’s giving him a massive troll surge. Seriously, the heck is that supposed to relate to? I know I am a brony, so maybe a big reveal to everyone else that I am one? I mean, I don’t go publicizing it, but I’ll admit. Sure there were those few dozen times I denied everything... mainly in public... and private... okay, so I’m a massive closet Brony that has trouble admitting it to people close to me. Don’t judge me!

I shook my head and focused back on the real world as I looked over at the clock and smiled. Break, the time of getting snacks and talking with others, was almost upon us, and I could go and get an extremely caffeinated drink to keep myself awake. All I had to do was wait a few more minutes and-

In that moment, I felt something wash over me and a flash of light cross my vision. I put a hand on my desk as I felt my head swim. My head ended up landing on my tablet, causing the screen to flicker a bit.

The last thing I heard before passing out was my teacher saying it was time for break.

Of the many ponies in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was the one who almost everyone in town knew. Well, aside from one pink mare in specific of course, but she’s a special case. She was also the friendliest pony that anypony could have the pleasure of meeting. She was the one of the greatest at her special talent, and could feel practically every wave of magic around her.

So imagine her surprise when she felt a wave of magic that she found could only be described as, off. Her head looked up from the book she was reading in surprise as she looked around her bedroom, trying to find the source of the disturbance. “Spike, did you feel that?”

A young dragon reading a comic book in the corner looked up at her, both curious and confused. “Feel what?”

She looked over at the window with a frown. “It was like somepony was...” She stopped herself and shook her head. “Never mind, Spike. It was probably just a mana flux. Nothing to worry about.”

The drake only shrugged before flipping a page in his comic.

The lavender mare on the other hand, could not stop thinking about the magic she had felt. She looked over at the small dresser next to her bed before levitating a parchment and quill. “Maybe I’ll ask the Princesses about it. I mean, there’s no way they couldn’t have felt something like that.” She paused for a moment and looked out the window, towards the castle that could be seen in the distance. “Right?”

Spike flipped through the comic some more. “I’m sure the princesses have everything handled Twilight.”

All I could do was look around in confusion and wonder. Everywhere I looked, there would be a mirror floating in the air. Where one would end, another would start and it was to the point that they all formed a dome around me. While the placement would show a reflection to whoever was in the middle, each one’s reflection would be completely different from the rest. In one, I saw a Diamond Dog wearing a green vest, and another that was across the way had a brownish-tan Griffon instead, There was even a Changeling and a yellow Merpony in two of the other mirrors.

Pretty much any fantasy creature you could pull from My Little Pony had a representative in the mess, and all of them looked to be male. Every time I moved, so would each one in a way that made sense for their species. It was kinda freaky. Like each one was supposed to be me, if I was suddenly thrown into their claws/hooves/fins/wings?/whatever.

The only ones I couldn’t find in the mess were the unicorns, pegasi, or earth ponies. There was even an Alicorn in the mix when I started to look hard enough and spotted the pristine bugger off to the right. It was just him and a lot of MLP species that I happened to know, and a few that I didn't recognize. I could tell that they were from Equestria though. Each one had the same cartoonish appearance as the next.

“Where... am I?”

I looked down and hummed as the Hippogriff below me mimicked my actions. “This is by far, the most vivid, lucid, and absolutely weird dream I’ve ever had. Of all time.” Or at least... I hope it’s a dream.... please?

I looked back up and started to walk forward. Or at least I think I did. It was hard to tell if I was moving at all, what with the reflections moving with me no matter what direction I picked. I’m not sure what, but something was telling me that if I kept going forward, I would find something really important. The feeling proved right, as a final mirror shimmered through a pair of donkey and breezie reflections and drew closer to me.

I groaned as I saw the same pegasus from the past week smirking at me again, not bothering to follow through with the mime runtime that he was supposed to be doing along with the others. “You again? Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Just copy my actions like the rest of the reflections darn it!” The pegasus did something unexpected though after I said that. He would have normally remained motionless, but this time, he raised a hoof and tapped the mirror, causing a small crack to form.

I found myself unable to move an inch as the crack spread and split across the surface of the mirror.

The mirror eventually had so many cracks that it simply shattered from the lack of stability, and instead of a reflection I was greeted with a moving picture. It was like I was looking through a window in reality that was hidden behind it the whole time. “What in the...?” I looked closer, and I could see a pony looking over more crystals and metal pieces than I could shake a stick at. Well, I probably could, but with that many I’d quit before too long cause I’m a lazy bum. As for the pony, I couldn’t really tell what kind of pony it was, but it was definitely from My Little Pony at least. It’s body was obscured by some kind of blackish stain on the image that kept following it. The stain making the pony more of a silhouette than a picture.

Didn’t really help that wherever it was was already dark as all heck aside from the glowing crystals.

I watched the pony move about the room for a moment, overlooking each and every crystal she could. From the largest to the smallest, not one gem was missed. The pony seemed desperate to find something in the mess. Something specific.

I reached out briefly towards the pony, only to feel my hand impact against an unseen canvas. It looked like the dream was stubborn and wouldn’t let me go to Equestria it seems.... Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a dream that let me go there, let alone see it outside of a frame of some kind.

Before I could look away, I saw something flash in the image, and I had to stagger back. “Gah! My eyes!” I briefly noted that the flash was similar to what I saw before I passed out and started to dream, but dream pain in my eyes distracted me from the thought rather quickly.

My attention was drawn back to the canvas screen when I could barely hear a whisper from the pony as she, if the pitch of the voice was being interpreted right, looked at a small gem, holding onto it with tender care as something sparked within it.

“I was right.”

The world around me started to shatter after that. From the farthest reflections, I could see a rainbow of zeros and ones break away from the mirrors, before fading upward into oblivion. I looked around in shock and awe before looking back at the image and seeing it had returned to the reflection of the gold pegasus, only this time he was copying the looks of awe and shock that I was showing as he hovered in place.

Once every mirror was gone, including the one in front of me that held the pegasus who met my gaze, I felt myself follow them upward into the abyss as my body fell apart into a miasmic code.

My head was pounding like no other when I finally woke with a start. I couldn’t suppress a groan as I sat up in my chair and rubbed my face. “Oh god what was that?” I looked around and found the classroom empty of everyone besides me. “Where is...” I looked at the clock on my computer monitor and sighed at the 9:16 it showed. “Great... slept through break. I pass out and nobody gives enough of a darn to make sure I’m fine.” Though I could hardly blame them. It’s not like this was the first time I’d passed out in the middle of class.

3:00 to 2:00 in the morning gaming sessions. Totally worth it.

That was one strange as heck dream though...

Rather than leave the room and spend what little time remained getting a Root Beer or anything, I just went back to work on the poster I was making for competition. My face-planting episode had triggered the tablet I was using into going spastic, and now I had lines, upon lines, upon lines of rainbow barf covering everything I had been working on for the past hour. “Welp, now I know what was causing the mirror nonsense in dreamland. Let’s see here, Undo... Undo... Undo again... Jesus just how long was I passed out?”

Sighing in agitation, I reached over to the side and grabbed my class provided headset. At least they let us listen to music in class, otherwise I’d have gone insane from how quiet it could get. I held the headset off to the side as I opened up Pandora and started flicking through channels. As I pondered through what to listen to, I could have sworn I felt something twitching on my head.

“Hmm... Country, no... Rock, no... Eh, I’ll just find some of The Living Tombstone’s work off of Spotify.” Taking a moment to switch music providers, I brought my headphones up to, well, my head. “And now, to-”

I swear, even as I heard the music start up. I did not feel the familiar sensation of having the cushy headphones touching my ear lobes. In fact, all I felt was the headphones pressing against the sides of my skull. “Wut...” Taking the headphones off I brought my hands up to the sides of my head and felt around for what should have been there.

I was sorely disappointed.

“Where the buck are my ears?” I said as I continued to fully search the sides of my head in the most frantic way possible. I mean, It just shouldn’t have been possible. Ears don’t just disappear any time in the year. They stay on the head, where they are supposed to be!

Wait... did I say “buck?”

Out of nervousness, I started trying to run my hands through my hair. I flinched though when it felt like one of my fingers dug into my brain. “Ow! What the-” I stopped and gently grabbed at the thin, somewhat furry extensions I had just found coming from my head. After getting feeling from them and being utterly disturbed, I began to blindly rummage for my phone. I quickly brought up the camera app and switched it to self photo mode.

As I looked at my picture, my jaw dropped. Barely noticable, were a pair of pointy ears sticking out of my head that looked like they belonged in a cartoon more than my hair. The only reason they were just barely noticeable, was the fact they were the same dirty blonde as the rest of my hair and blended in rather nicely.

It was almost to the point that they looked to be made of gold. Cartoony gold, sure, but gold none-the-less.

The pain I had felt was apparently me shoving a finger down a newly formed ear canal. “What....” I felt one of them swivel off to the side as I heard the door click open. “Oh sh-!” I quickly threw the headphones on and pulled up my hoodie. As the rest of my class came into the room, I pretended to be at work. Okay, I was working, but not as much as normal. Having a minor panic attack tends to distract you.

Damien, my ‘neighbor’ in the seating arrangement, looked over at me when he noticed I had my hood up. “Yo Grent, when did you sew fake ears on your hoody? Looks a little weird on you dude. Was it your sister again, or are you finally coming out about liking ponies?”

I paused and reached up to feel the top of my hood, finding small pockets that my new, uh, ears, had fit into perfectly. In that instant a groan of annoyance dragged itself from my throat. It seemed that my sister had made ‘modifications’ to my hoodie. Ones that made it harder to hide what was now on my head. “Dang it Emi...”

Damien leaned back and blinked in surprise. “Woah, your sister did a good job man. They actually moved.” All of his chatter was starting to draw the attention of the rest of the class.

I silently cursed at myself before rolling my eyes. It was best to keep up the charade at this point. “She probably mangled one of those swerving cat-ear headphones from some anime con or something for the parts. It’d be like her to prank me like this.”

Damien shrugged. “Hey, no need to get defensive. Still, even if that’s the case, those are pretty impressive hoodie ears. She’d probably make a fortune selling them online.”

I gave him a forced smile. “That’s good to know.” I paused for a moment what I did look at him though. Something seemed off about how he looked. Since when were his eyes blue?... I thought they were brown. I shook off the thought and turned back to my work. Just focus on your work Grent. Everything will be fine.... hopefully.

After that, everyone seemed to lose interest and went back to whatever that they were doing. Which was good for me, because that meant they weren’t looking at me anymore. The quiet lasted a little longer, probably about half an hour or so, when my newly relocated ears picked up some chatter from across the room. “Hey, where did Crystina go?”

“I think she said she was going to the bathroom. She couldn’t still be in there, could she?”

“No, I had to go earlier. She wasn’t in there.”

“Then where the heck is she?”

“I donno. She’ll show back up eventually though. I mean, it’s not like she can just up and leave the building. She’d have to walk across town to get back to her house... or something like that. I saw her getting dropped off by her mom.”

“Alright then. Let’s get back to work. Did you ever figure out how the Clone Stamp works?”

“Hold Alt before you click, then click normally after making a selection.”

I managed to get the ears to swerve forward, a weird sensation to be made clear, and thought about what I had heard. Odd... but it’s probably not my problem. I’ve got my own issues to deal with.

I got up and started heading for the door, stopping only to tell my teacher that I was headed for the restroom. When my classmates had mentioned it, the thought about examining my ears with a mirror sounded better than just that quick glance with the camera phone.

It wasn’t all that long before I made it to the men’s room. It was only about thirty feet down the hall to begin with. As soon as I got in, I looked around to see if anyone else was inside. There was someone in a stall, so I’d have to be quick, or wait for them to leave.

Ah screw it.

I pulled off my hood and took a good long look at the ears, taking note at how they were twitching every now and again as they picked up as much sound as possible. They looked somewhat familiar now that I was getting a better look at them. They were almost identical to how the pony ears were drawn in Equestria Girls, but were made of actual flesh rather than being drawings. More so, they weren’t any color I recognized from a cast of the show, or even a background pony. Now that I think about it, they look almost identical to-

My thoughts ground to a halt as I looked over the ears again. For a brief instant, I didn’t see me in the mirror anymore.

I saw that damned pegasus again.

I pressed a hand to my face and let out an exasperated and somewhat terror filled sigh. “Jees.... How am I going to explain this to everyone?”

Yeah Grent. How are ya going to explain that you suddenly have pegasus ears? It’s not like the whole world suddenly has them to and you can go back to hiding in the crowd. Oh, and the whole bit about how you know they belong to a pegasus and not just any equine. I’m sure they would love to hear that too!

Oh sod off brain! You’re not helping.

I heard the stall dweller I had noticed earlier eep in a rather high pitched voice and I had to pause. “What was... ?” I quickly looked over, nearly jumping out of my skin when I saw Crystina equally frozen in shock as she stared at me. “Crystina!? What the heck are you doing in here!?”

She blushed madly before jabbing a finger at me. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here!? This is the girl’s room!”

Ladies and Gentlemen, behold the king of the awkward as he summons his most terrifying beast. Silence.

“Um...” I awkwardly pointed over to a urinal that was on the wall. “No it ain’t.”

She looked over at the receptacle for a moment before blushing furiously. “O-o-oh.... I’ll just... get go-” She slipped and yelped as she fell forward and landed on her face. “Owwwww.....”

Now for what I saw next, I must state that while improper to look at the hindquarters of any female without express permission, there are some exceptions.

One of which, is that it was hard not to look at the neon blue tail that was coming off of her rear end. Even if it was only down to the middle of her thighs, it held the same kind of cartoonish qualities that my ears did. “Um.... am I seeing things, or do you have a tail?”

She clammered to her feet and turned away from me, putting her hands over her tail and attempting to stuff it down the back of her pants, wincing slightly as she did so. “N-no...”

I looked away with a blush as she continued to stuff her tail down the back of her pants. I ended up biting my lip a bit before sighing and calming down enough that my new ears perked back up. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but I had been in enough of a panic for them to fold back onto my head. “It’s... not like I’m in a much better position. You can at least hide that better. Even with it being... neon blue.”

Crystina glared at me and pointed at my hoodie. “You have a hood to hide those under!” She paused for a moment, before continuing her rant. “And why do you have pony ears anyways!?”

I glared back and pointed up. “Yeah. A hood that my sister messed up this morning.” I pulled up the new ears on it to prove my point.

“Oh...” She lowered her finger and we both fell into an awkward silence.

I rubbed my arm as the silence lingered before sighing. “Well... it seems to me, we might be in the same boat. What with the pony parts and all... yeah...”

Her lack of response was so assuring that I felt ecstatic.

Well... damn. I just screwed this up grandly. Good going me.

Oh screw you.

Gladly. Go get us some porn. Or would you like clop instead?

I said shut up brain! I’m trying to focus on the problem at hand! The fact that I got dang gum pony ears!

You’re right. We wouldn’t even need to get porn anyways. After all, it’s not like you’re currently alone in the men’s room with a girl you’ve had a crush on since classes started. That’s not anything important now, is it?

.....God I hate myself sometimes...

While I had been in my own mental self-demoralizing rant, Crystina hadn’t said a word and seemed content to just stand there. The silence eventually got to be too much for me and I coughed to clear my throat and get her attention. “I... think it’d be a good idea to, uh, take this conversation outside.” I started to walk to the bathroom’s exit. “I’ll just... make sure the coast it clear.”

I peaked out of the room and when I saw that everyone was still in the classrooms, I waved a hand. Once we were both out of the room, we just stood in the hall, not really sure what to do. I ended up just scuffing my foot on the ground a bit while Crystina started fiddling with her hair. “So uh...”

“Yep...”

And back to silence. Wonderful.

I got tired of it once again rather fast this time around and sighed. “Hey... do you have any ideas as to what’s going on?”

She shook her head. “N-not really no.”

I pursed my lips and looked away. “Well... I have one, but it’s a little crazy.” She looked over at me in both unamusement, and hope. “Er... right. We’ve gone past crazy. So um... did you see a flash of light and feel a push, by any chance? Followed by crazy dreams?”

Her eyes widened in surprise before she nodded. “Y-yeah, I did see a flash and almost got knocked over... no dreams though.” She looked behind herself for a moment and grimaced. “It was when I was about to leave the restroom. I had just started to walk away when it knocked me back and I landed on...”

She didn’t need to finish that. I had a pretty good idea of what she landed on.

I cleared my throat and got her attention away from her hidden tail. “Well, anyways. Uh, since we both seem to have experienced the same, “flashy push” I guess, and suddenly have pony parts sticking out of us...”

Her eyes widened with fear and I found myself mentally wincing from the sheer volume of emotion coming from her. If I didn’t know better, it was like she lost all of her shine and just got... duller. Like a gem turning into a rock. “Y-you’re not saying what I think you are... are you?”

I looked away from her gaze after that. It was probably the wrong thing to do, but I just couldn’t hold it anymore. I mean, how do you look someone in the eye and tell them that there was a good chance they were loosing their humanity and turning into a pony? A glance at my phone’s clock let me see the time before I ended up sighing again. “Let’s get back to class and... afterwards, maybe I’ll be able to find something out on my computer.”

She nodded a bit as her hair drooped over her face. “Yeah... sounds like a plan.”

I also gave her a nod and clicked my tongue out of habit. “Welp... alright then, lets head back to class and... I guess I’ll text you if I find out anything?”

Crystina nodded again in agreement. Wow, the situation was only getting more depressing by the moment.

“Er... can I have your number so I can text you?” I asked with an embarrassed smile, hoping to at least alleviate the mood that hung over the two of us. “It’d uh... be a little hard to send you a message without it.”

“I’ll give it to you after class.” She started to walk off to the classroom and I looked after her for a moment before sighing. It’d look weird if I came into the classroom not moments after she did, especially after having been out of class for as long as she had been and looking like she’d been told her parents died. She was already going to get enough crap from our teacher for being out longer than we’re supposed to, and she really didn’t need more on top of that.

I sighed and walked in the opposite direction, with the concessions as my destination. “Might as well get something to drink and think with.” As I headed down the halls, I couldn’t help but think about what was going on. I mean, pony ears on my head, Crystina has a pony’s tail, and I actually remember most of that mirror madness dream. Mostly the pegasus and the mystery mare. I pulled my hoodie strings and tightened down the hood around my face.

Something down right messed up is going on, that’s for sure. I briefly checked my phone yet again and saw that the time was 9:56. But first. I need caffeine. Badly. Today is going to be a very long day, and I’ve only been up for 3 hours...

As I walked down the halls, I browsed the internet through my phone. I searched for anything that might have related to what was going on, but all I found were ponification stories and what not. While I admit most of them were good reads that I’d already completed or was in the process of reading, they weren’t really helpful when it’s happening to you and not to some random story character.

It’s a good thing I got paid last wednesday. I’m going to need a LOT of caffeine.

After buying about three bottles of Mountain Dew, stuffing two into my hoodie’s pockets, and browsing through the interwebs on the way back to class, I’d managed to come up with nothing and give myself a massive sugar high. “Great.... I swear if it takes any longer to find any clues to what’s going on, I’m going to have a major freak out, or become diabetic.”

When I opened the classroom’s door, I was greeted with a rather unpleasant sound that made my whole body flinch. “Grent Isomeric, just where were you!?”

As I nervously turned to face my teacher as she glared through my head and into the wall behind me with how intense it was. All I could do was rub the back of my head and give her a sheepish grin. “Um... getting a drink?”

My teacher continued to give me a stern glare before sighing. “Grent, I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you, you need to get some sleep.” She turned back to her computer and looked over at me. “Why don’t you go home and get some rest? You look like you need it and class is almost over anyways.”

I slumped a bit and rubbed the back of my head, even as I heard some of the class snickering. “Yeah, I guess.” I paused before pointing over to my computer. “Mind if I get something really fast before I go?”

She gave me a nod and I walked over to my desk. I pulled out the keyboard’s shelf and grabbed some paper I had placed there for drawing by hand, before tearing off a piece and writing down my phone number and a message for Crystina to send me hers by text. I also grabbed my keys, considering that I had left the USB that I had attached to them plugged into my computer.

As I walked to the front of the room again, I gave the paper to Crystina, who was sitting at her desk again and getting back to her own project. She looked a bit uncomfortable sitting in the chair, but I guess that’s expected when you sit on a tail. What had me more concerned was just how depressed she looked.

And that is a weird thought in and of itself. But then again, I have to figure out how to explain pony ears to my mother, and four sisters, even if three of them moved out already.

...

I think I just realized how much it can suck being the only guy in a family. Unless there’s a worse situation than pony ears, of course. The only thing I can think of would be getting turned into a full blown pony before finding a way to change back to normal!

...

... And I just jinxed myself, didn't’ I?

The drive home took me about an hour and a half. It combined with my current pony ear problem really made me glad that I was 19 and out of High School. I don’t think I would have been able to hide these stupid ears for much longer. Sure, the hoodie was a good idea at first, but after driving for the good portion of an hour, the fabric was itching like crazy and I felt like something was eating me alive from the head down.

Maybe this is how those chocolate rabbits and gummy bears feel.

I got out of my truck and pulled my hood back up as I walked up to the house. If my family was being normal, this was going to be a headache. “Please be one of those off days.... please.” If that deranged little 16 year old is not working on her classes, I will flip my shist.

I got up to the front door and quietly got inside as fast as I could. I peeked down one hall, spotting nobody, before looking in the other direction. A quick glance around our fireplace showed that the only occupant of the livingroom was our welsh corgi, Cricket, who was sleeping on the couch. “Huh... I wonder where they w-”

“OH MY GOD I’M A UNICOOOOOOOORN!~” The shrill shriek of emotion that came from the bathroom made both me and Cricket jump in surprise. I looked over just as the bathroom door burst open and my sister Emi came rushing out giggling like mad. I wouldn’t have been as afraid of this on any normal occasion, because she would get overly excited about pretty much anything and it had eventually become routine to avoid her rampant charge.

But considering the three inch, tomato red unicorn horn that was sticking out of her curly brown hair, it made the thought of her barreling into me very worrisome.

Thankfully, she skid to a halt about a foot away from me, and not an inch further, sparing me from impalement. “Oh, hey Grent! Guess what?”

You’re cutting it close with your rampant charge of death? “I... uh...”

She stepped back and reached her arms up towards the ceiling with maniacal glee. “I HAVE THE POWER!” The two of us stood there for a moment before she straightened up and poked at her horn. “Now if only I could get it to work.... though I can cross off He-man tactics now!” She hummed and rubbed her chin, looking up at the horn crosseyed. “Maybe if I go with Jedi training instead.”

I just pointed at her head dumbly before shakily asking. “Emi... why do you have a horn?”

She paused for a moment before smiling. “Oh yeah! A couple of hours ago, I saw this big flash of light and was all like ‘Woah what was that’ before I felt something push me back into my chair and I rolled around my room for a bit with Cricket before getting back to my school work for a while than about five minutes ago I had to go to the bathroom so I did and I looked into the mirror when I was washing my hands and was all ‘LE GASP’ before shouting that I was a unicorn like my OC Maximato and I ran out here, found you and here we are!”

I stared at her unblinking for a moment, trying to comprehend what she had just said... and find where the spaces were in that sentence.

“Wait... so you’re telling me, that you didn’t notice a horn sticking out of your head for three whole hours!?”

She just smiled widely. “Nope! More importantly though, I only said a couple hours. How did you know it was three?”

I reached up to run my hands through my hair as I tried to come up with a logical excuse. She would be the only one who wasn’t panicking like crazy about this kind of thing and notice a slip like that. I mean, she’s more excitable than Pinkie and probably just as devious. Or at least I think she is just as excitable. Hard to compare. Oh man, this entire day has been nothing but a recipie for-

“Hey, when did you get the new ears?”

... Disaster.

“Um....” I pulled my hood back up after my hair ringing had knocked it down. Clever little sneak. You know I do that when nervous and used it against me. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Denial is best defence.

She scrunched her face before going wide eyed and gasping. “Grent, how could you!”

I blinked a bit in confusion as I reeled my head back to avoid getting poked in the eye. “Huh?”

She started to glare at me and wagged her finger like a disapproving mother. “You made an OC without telling me!? I thought you Pinkie Promised you would tell me when you did!”

... “Wait, what?”

Emi sighed as she rolled her eyes. “Well if I’m turning into my OC Maximato, as shown by my gloriously magical tomato horn, they by cross examination along with other forms of deduction and logic, that means you are turning into your OC as told by your golden ears of justice! An OC of justice which you didn’t tell me about even after I made you Pinkie Promise!”

I stared at her for a moment before my face scrunched in confusion. “Wh....What kind of logic is that!? I don’t even have an OC!”

She crossed her arms and cranked up the sass. “Then explain the ears, bub!”

I groaned and finally snapped after all of the crap. “I would like to find that out myself! One moment I’m in class doing just fine, the next I’m having acid dreams and growing pony ears!” I stormed past her shocked face and towards my room. “Now if you'll excuse me, I need to research what the hell is going on!”

The moment I got inside my room, I slammed the door shut and hopped onto my computer. Was it immature to do? Yes. Did I care at the moment? Not a damn bit. I opened up my internet browser and started my search again. Maybe this time I’d find something.

I clicked on every link I found, going through stories, troll posts, and rampant YouTube threads in video comments. I spent untold hours just browsing through all of it, and I was getting a headache from it all.

A knock on the door broke me from my single minded focus. “What.”

The door creaked open and I could see Emi on the other side. “Grent? Is it alright if I come in?”

I groaned a bit before waving a hand. “Fine, go ahead.” She stepped inside and shuffled nervously next to my seat. “What do you want.”

Emi winced a bit before looking over at me. “I... I’m sorry for getting on your nerves earlier...”

I was silent at first, but another trait that my sister and Pinkie seemed to share, was the inability to stay mad at them. “It’s alright sis. I’m sorry too, for snapping at you I mean.”

Emi smiled a bit at that before leaning over my shoulder. “So, did you find anything?”

I sighed and she must have noticed my disappointment. “Unfortunately, no. I’m still going through a lot of the results an-” I stopped mid sentence and looked at the link that came up on the forty third search page’s top result. “Hey, this one looks like it might be helpful.”

I clicked on the link, and was greeted by a webpage dedicated to explaining what was going on apparently. According to the article it featured, this entire fiasco was caused by two idiots that were now hosting a convention for all who were affected somewhere in Chicago, Illinois.

Halfway across the nation.

“Welp.... That’s just great. How the heck are we getting to Chicago?” Emi pouted and slumped over my shoulders, resting her chin on my head and splaying my ears.

“I have no idea. First we’d need to talk to Mom about this considering you’re still in sch-.” My train of thought stopped as I realized something right then. “Emi... Where’s mom?”

Emi blinked a few times before facepalming. “Oh I can’t believe I forgot! Mom told me to tell you that she went to Sam’s to stock up on food.”

Oh... that explains a lot. The closest Sam’s was over fifty miles away, and mom had a tendency to go on shopping sprees. “What time is it?”

Emi squinted at the monitor, leaning further over my head and making it to where I couldn’t see anything. “It’s...two, thirty five.”

I sighed a bit in relief. “Alright then, that gives us about another hour to figure out how to tell mom about the whole pony thing.”

The two of us were silent after Emi got back into her own seat and had grabbed some paper. “So..... any ideas?”

I thought about it for a moment before coming to a quick and decisive answer. “Nope.”

Adding some Foreground

The van was silent for the most part as we drove down the old East US 40, and I hoped that it would stay that way. It was going to be a long drive over to Chicago, and I don’t think I’d be able to hold in any agitation from Emi’s antics if they were as consistent as they normally are. The sky slowly turning dark as night washed over us didn’t really help with that either, considering how wound tight my nerves were right now. Thankfully, Emi was content with braiding her new tail while humming to herself, and I tried my best to focus on driving and staying awake. Unfortunately, my thoughts seemed intent on focusing on what was happening to Crystina and Damien.

I was not entirely sure what kind of pony Crystina was changing into. Sure I knew it was a pony thanks to seeing her tail, but that was the only feature she had the last time I saw her, and she undoubtedly had yet another part of her changed. With how freaked out she was, I was really worried about how she was taking everything. Damien was an even larger wild card. He was a pretty open guy about ponies, but that doesn’t mean that once he found out that he was changing, that he would be relatively sane still. I just know his eyes turned blue, and that could lead to just about anything when it comes to whatever he’s turning into from MLP.

Maybe he’s a minotaur? At least that way when you grow hooves someone can drive, and punch people!

As much as I want to punch you brain, that’s a valid point. But only IF I grow hooves! I’ll be damned if I don’t find a way to fix this before then.

That’s implying there is a way to fix this and we’ll be able to figure out what caused this in the first place.

I shook my head and glanced at the radio, mulling over whether or not to turn it on. “May as well.” I flicked it on and sighed a bit as the music started to ebb away at my thoughts enough to distract me from my own traitorous brain, but let me still focus on driving.

At least, until Emi started singing along. “-but somewhere in the rush I felt. We’re losing ourselves! And the days go by! I can feel them flyin’ like a hand out the window in the wind~”

Curse you Keith Urban and your strangely fitting lyrics.

A sigh escaped me as I kept driving, going over the bridge that crossed the Solomon River. I was going to be insane by the end of this trip if the world around me kept this up.

As her friends gathered in Twilight’s library, the lavender mare paced around the bust that adorned the center. “But Spike, The Princesses normally would have a response by now! Especially if whatever I felt has anything to do with Pinkie’s doozy.”

Spike sat on the couch watching her walk in the same circle she had been for at least an hour now. “We sent the letter less than five minutes ago Twilight.”

Pinkie started to bounce just behind Twilight as she paced. “Yeah Twilight! It takes a bit for somepony to write a letter.” She hopped off to the side and looked down at Twilight. “Nice trench! When’d ya get it?”

Twilight finally snapped out of her worried pacing and noticed the two foot deep groove in the floor before smiling sheepishly and climbing out. “Heh heh heh.... sorry. I guess this has me a little more stressed than I thought.” A wave of her horn and the floor shimmered and bubbled back up to where it was meant to be.

“TWITCHY TAIL!” Pinkie shouted before diving under the center table, followed shortly by Spike.

Twilight looked around frantically at everything that had the possibility of falling, before sighing in relief. “Nothing in here’s falling... I think we’re-” She was interrupted when a small wooden frame fell from above and hit her in the head. “OW!” She looked up at the bare ceiling and rubbed her head. “What in the world?”

Pinkie popped out from under the table and picked up the frame. “Oh~ Fancy painting. Though I have no idea what this is.”

Spike looked at the frame and his face scrunched in confusion. “I... have no idea what I’m looking at.”

Twilight pulled the painting from the other two and looked at it herself. What she saw confused her a lot. It was a painting of two creatures she’d never seen before. The taller one had a near gold mane on it’s head and was laying against a tree, while the smaller one had long brown hair that was splayed over the larger one’s lap as it rested it’s head there. Both had clothes on their bodies, and smiles on their faces as they slept against the tree. One of the features of the painting that stood out though, was the single golden feather that laid on the ground at the base of the painting.

“I... I don’t know what these are.” She squinted a bit and a spell later, there was a duplicate of the painting. “But I think we should send this to the Princesses. I’m not sure what it could be, but paintings don’t pop out of nowhere.”

Solomon, Kansas. It was technically where I lived thanks to my house being just in the city limits thanks to some obscure mapping from ages ago, and it was where the Tech Center I attended was located. For me, it was a town of many memories. Moving here about eleven years ago, meeting Damien for the first time, and all the crap we caused in town.

Ah, those were some good times. I don’t think that pizzaria ever let us in again after that jukebox incident.

As I passed the sign saying we were entering the main city, Emi looked out the window at the night sky and frowned. “Hey Grent?”

Curiously, I shot a glance over towards her. “Yeah Emi?”

“You have any idea what Damien is turning into?”

I shook my head as I turned into the residential district. “Not a clue. I’m hoping it’s a pony, but we’re about to find out if it isn’t.” After a few more minutes of driving, I parked the van in front of the condo that Damien lived in, if the address he sent me was correct anyways. It was a fairly nice looking place, and I could see why he was able to afford the lessons at the techcenter. He did tell us he got adopted ten years ago, but never mentioned anything like this. “Alright Emi, I’ll go and get Damien. You stay in the van, and don’t let anyone see you.”

“Alright. I was getting-” Emi paused and let out a long yawn before blearily rubbing her eyes, “-sleepy anyways.” Emi gave me a quick nod before diving into the back seats. Though as she did, I could have sworn that her clothes looked a little baggier than before.

Probably just my imagination.

I looked back as she laid down on the seats. “In that case, I’ll come get you if it turns out to be Damien’s house. We’ll sleep over for the night.”

“Alright big bro...”

With that, I hopped out of the van and left Emi inside before locking the doors. As I walked over to the front door however, I heard someone from the side of the building. “Hey, Psst, Grent! Over here!”

I looked over and saw a guy wearing a tattered brown hoodie and boxing gloves for some reason. Squinting a bit, I could sorta make out his face and I was surprised when I recognized him. “..... Damien? What the heck are you doing out here wearing boxing gloves?”

To my confusion, he ran up to me and looked around in a panic. “Dude, I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to be getting out of here.”

I shook my head and stopped him from going past me. “No... seriously, what is going on? I know that we’re changing and all that. Its effecting Emi and me too. What’s making you so pani-”

Damien jumped as I heard something scuffling from down the alley he had come out of, followed by the sounds of talking as someone was walking closer. “Dude we seriously need to get the hell out of here. Like now.”

As I ran to the driver side door, I looked at Damien in a mix of concern, confusion, and shock. “Just what the buck did you do?!” He ignored me and jumped into the passenger side of the van and ducked down. I looked over at the alley again and saw three guys stalk out, two of which were holding lead pipes.

“Heeeeeere chicky chicky chicky~”

“Come on ya little freak, where are ya?”

The third one looked over my way and I recognized him instantly. He was the school bully, Conor O’Brian. He especially hated guys like me and Damien, and was one of the many reasons I kept pony loving secret. I saw a large gash down the side of his face as he shouted at me. “Hey you!” I jumped a bit and pointed at myself, suddenly very grateful that I hadn’t had holes cut into my hoodie, and just into my shirt. “Yeah you! You see some guy in a brown hoodie run by?”

“Er... uh...” I’m not sure why he didn’t recognize me, but I was thankful that he didn’t. Either way, he was chasing Damien and that was enough for me to lie about it. “I think I saw him run down that way.” I pointed towards an alleyway across the street, looking rather confused.

“Thanks kid.” He looked over at the other two and pointed across the street. “Hey, the punk went this way! Come on!”

I stood there for a moment and stared at them run off until they disappeared behind the alley walls. As soon as they were gone, I got into the van and glared at Damien. “Dude, just what the heck was that about!? You had Conor after you!”

Damien cut me off with his shushing and waving. “Dude, I said I’d explain!”

I reached over and locked the doors before looking over at him. “Well, you better get to it.”

He hesitated for a moment before sighing and pulling off the boxing gloves. It was around then that I noticed how torn up they looked on the inside of the palm. But that was a paltry detail compared to how Damien’s hands looked. Instead of his old hands, he had large, incredibly sharp looking avian talons. “I.... I don’t know what’s going on anymore. When I saw my eyes were different, I panicked and started trying to find out what happened. Then I found the site, texted you. I thought I was turning into a pony, like my OC. On the way here my hands... they just shifted right in front of me. Then Conor and his toadies saw it happening too, and started taunting me and....” He looked at the gloves and tossed them out of the van’s window. “I... I ended up clawing him in the face when he got a little close. I’m not even sure why I did! I-It all just felt natural! I just felt so... angry.” Damien was silent after that, seeming lost in his own head.

I stared at the talons and let a shuddering breath escape my lips. I turned back to the wheel and could feel my ears pressing down as I started the van. “Okay then... Not a pony and we have Conor after us now. Wonderful.” I started heading down some streets to get to the highway and a thought came to mind. It was a long shot, but hopefully all the bad luck I’ve been having would make karma go in my favor or something. “Hey, do you know where Crystina lives?”

My question was enough to snap Damien from whatever self destructive thoughts he was in and make him look at me. “Crystina? Like the Crystina from our class? Why do you need to find her?”

I was trying to focus on my driving while listening, but knowing that Damien was getting hunted down right now was making me nervous. Still though, I was able to answer his question. “Because the last time I saw her, she had a pony tail. And I don’t mean the kind that go in your hair. It’d be better if we found her first, rather than Conor finding us considering he’s still scouring the town for you.”

“You have... a valid point.” Damien thought for a moment before sighing and putting a... claw over his face lightly. He ended up wincing and pulling it away a moment later, and I noticed a small set of pricks on this temple that were letting a small drops of blood out of his head. “Well... that’s just great.” He carefully pulled out his phone and used a knuckle to flick through his apps. “I’ll try and find out what her address is from her and my sister. One of them’s got to know if she won’t answer.”

I nodded in agreement and we were silent for the most part. I drove, Damien texted Crystina in an attempt to....

...Damien’s texting Crystina...

He has her number numbnuts. Sorry dude, best bro beat ya too the hot chick.

CELESTIA DAMN IT ALL TO TARTARUS FOR ETERNITY IN CHRYSALIS’S HAIRY-!

Language young one. Watch it, you must.

Screw. You. Brain.

As my mental war continued, I was caught off guard as I heard Damien muttering to himself. “Come on sis... pick up...”

The equivalent to trains screeching to a halt before the world imploded, was what my mind looked like as I tried to process those words.

Wut?

Wut?

A small jingle came from his cell and he flicked through it a few times. “Yes! A reply!” Damien was carefully going through the message with his knuckle before he looked over at me. “She says that Crystina’s house is at 281 North Pine.” He blinked a few times and looked up. “Huh... so that’s why she always got to class on time. She’s practically next door.”

I reached up to the console and grabbed the GPS before pulling over, trying to ignore the fact that Damien had Crystina’s freaking phone number and the whole sister bit I just heard. “Alright, I’ll plug it in real fast and we’ll be over to her place. Once we’ve got her, we can start heading to Chicago.”

Thankfully, the drive over to Crystina’s was short. When I pulled over, Damien was about to get out when I reached over and grabbed his sleeve. “Oh no, you’re staying in the van.” He was about to protest when I pointed to the back seats where Emilia was sleeping. “I need someone in the van to keep Emi safe in case Conor shows up, and if I.... grow hooves, We’ll need someone out here who can drive.”

Damien sighed a bit, but nodded and climbed over into the back to huddle down out of sight while I got out of the van. I glanced around and tightened my hood a bit before taking a deep breath. “It’s alright, just... heading to the house of the girl ya like to pick her up. No biggie.”

Yeah, also keep completely ignoring the whole pony problem. THAT will make this all go swimmingly.

I decided not to dignify my brain with a response, and started to walk to the front door. It was a simple matter, walking up the sidewalk, and was just about as easy as you would expect. What I didn’t expect, was for the door to swing open about halfway up to the porch and Crystina to step out with her head down. She looked... a lot different. Along with the tail I knew she had, her hair had changed to a long dull blue mane. Her skin was also incredibly lackluster, to the point it was almost rock like in appearance, yet still holding the flexibility it should.

Wait... that’s three changes.

Before I could ponder over the fact, or even look over myself, Crystina looked up and jumped when she noticed me. “G-Grent!? Wh-what are you doing here?”

I will admit that I jumped and stumbled a bit at first, but then again, this was kinda awkward. “Well uh.... You never texted back and I uh, found out something about what’s going on.” I rubbed the back of my head and scuffed my foot on the ground. “You... need a ride to Chicago?”

She froze for a moment before looking back at her house and sighing. “Anywhere, really.” Before I could ask further, she walked past me and towards the van. I was rooted in place as I looked between her and her house, wondering just what had happened.

Ask her later, right now doesn’t seem like a good time.

Agreed.

Running to catch up with Crystina, I arrived at the van just as she opened the door. “Hey,” She looked over at me and I gave her a small smile. “Once we get to Chicago, we’ll find out how to fix this. Everything’s going to be fine, alright?” The look in her eyes was all I needed to know that she didn’t believe me. She climbed to the farthest back seat and I could only sigh before putting my attention on Emi. “Hey, Emi?”

She groggily woke up and looked over at me. “Bwuh? Are we heading inside?” It was around then that I noticed her hair had also turned to the same green as her tail, and that she was a bit smaller than she used to be.

I shook my head and smiled at her. “No, no we’re not. Sorry Emi. Go ahead and get back to sleep. I’ll make sure to wake you up when we get to Chicago.”

She let out a yawn and laid back down, her tail curling over herself. “Alright... Night big bro.”

“Night Emi. Sleep tight.” As I got inside, Crystina looked at Emi for a moment, before her eyes darted over to me. “Yes, she’s involved too. And so’s Damien.” Said man gave her a wave as he climbed into the passenger seat. I noticed that his arms were starting to grow downy feathers on them from the mid forearm up, and the rest had morphed to match his talons.

I took a glance at the mirror, noticing that I had some gold hairs going down the side of my head, and that my hair was turning a mix of silver and green. I looked at the van’s radio as I started the engine, seeing it marked at 12:00 dead. “Midnight...” I flicked on the GPS and sighed as I set it to the Chicago Convention Center.

Those morons better have a way to fix all of this.

Author's Note

A holy halavanya later and it's up. Behold the next chapter of the story, and now I'm gonna go lay down before heading to work. Merry late Christmas, happy new years, Quannza and ect.

Edit: Found that an entire paragraph was lost in the transition from GDocs. My bad.

Tracing Background Details

It’d only been two hours since we’d left the city limits, and we were all tired. I was still driving, and the only one still awake with me was Damien. I’m not sure why he couldn’t rest, but I was guessing that it was something to do with whatever was occupying his mind at the moment. He just kept staring out at the signs as we drove down the highway, resting his head on his new talons/knuckles.

Me on the other hand? Well, my mind kept wandering thanks to a mixture of sleep deprivation and worry. At first, I was thankful that we’d managed to get out of Solomon without drawing Conor’s attention, but then the other details started to creep in. Damien had a rage out of some degree and ended up attacking Conor, Emi started shrinking, and Chrystina is so depressed right now from whatever happened in her home, I can feel it up here at the wheel. Doesn’t help that Damien’s also stuck in a brooding mood, but I would be too if I didn’t have the role of the only one here who’s not depressed or in Emi’s case ecstatic at the prospect of being cute for eternity. No, I had the job of being the sensible one. The one who’s thinking of finding a way out of this mess, and back to our old lives. If I screwed up, we’d all be just a bunch of panicking nutbars, or going at each other’s throats.

And that is not something I want to put any of us through. We all have enough on our plates, and I’d gladly take it all for their sakes if I could.

As I glanced at the GPS and took note that we were starting to get close to the state line, Damien spoke up. “Hey Grent? I got a question.”

“Hmm?” I was trying to focus on the road, so that was the extent of my response.

“It’s just that I only now realized it, but if you’re changing too that means you watched MLP.” He looked over at me with a puzzled gaze. “I thought you said you didn’t like it?”

I actually winced a bit at that before sighing and keeping my focus on the road. “Well... I was a bit embarrassed to admit it, honestly. I mean, it was keep it secret from practically everyone, or get picked on by Conor and all of his toadies.” My posture slightly deflated as I started to pull over towards an exit leading to a gas station. “I’m... not the bravest of people, remember?”

Damien just gave me this look of...incredulous disbelief, and it actually kinda hurt. “So... how long?”

I chuckled a bit, but it was a saddened one that only made me feel more hollow. “Practically since the show started. I was... getting a bit lonely since you’d moved away for those few years. I didn’t exactly have many friends besides you. It... helped fill the void.”

Damien raised an eyebrow and sat up straight for the first time since we left. “So, then why did you keep watching, even after I got back? It was only two years in Tennessee for me, and the show started towards the end of the last one.”

I pulled into the gas station and looked at the price sign, despite my mind wandering off. Just why did I keep watching? I mean, when Damien got back, we hung out for over a week straight. But even after that, the show kept sticking to my head. It made me feel.... something. Something I just couldn’t place my finger on.

Getting out of the van, I looked away from the sign and kept my focus on filling up the gas tank. “I’ll be back in a moment.” I shut the door before Damien could respond, hoping he’d take the hint.

I had some thinking to do while the tank filled up, and this was going to take a pretty penny from my debit card.

Pulling my hood up, I walked inside the gas station and took a look around. As I got closer to the counter, I could hear the radio the large burly man was listening too. “...and more news of strange transformations are still pouring in Don. For those of you just tuning in, at around 9:00 Central Time, several thousand people started growing animal parts, all at about the same time across the whole world! It’s baffling scientists and making politicians go crazy.”

“That’s right John, and it’s even started riots! I hear that there was a particularly bad one in Beijing not even five hours after this all started. Now China’s Paramount Leader, Xi Jinping, is demanding an explanation for what’s happening to his citizens, and the lack of response from anyone might cause some trouble.”

“Right again Don, and only a scant few hours ago, did anyone claim responsibility for the changes. Strangely enough the one claiming to be behind all of this is a teenager! Can you believe this?”

“Well John it seems that some people do. There’s even a convention being held last minute by the one claiming to be the cause of all the drama, to be held in Chicago, Illinoi-”

The cashier huffed as he turned off the radio. “Pssh. People turning into animals. What’ll they think of next.” He turned and jumped a bit when he noticed me. “Oh uh, hello there! What can I get for ya?”

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. “Eh, I just need to fill up the tank.” I pointed to the window behind him, where he could see all the pump stations. “Just need seventy on the white van.” I glanced at the various drinks around the station. “And a few drinks.”

He waved me off. “Alright then, go get what ya want.”

I took a moment and started grabbing some sodas. Mainly a Root Beer, my fav, a Cream soda for Emi when she got up, some Mountain Dew for Damien, and since I don’t know what kind of drink Crystina would like, I just settled on a cola.

Walking over to the counter again, I paid for the drinks and gas before heading back out to the van. I shivered when a gust of wind started to pick up and made it’s way up my hoodie, but ignored it in favor of getting to the pump.

When I got there though, Damien was in the drivers seat and rolled down the window. “Hey, one we’re all finished up here, why don’t I drive for a bit?” I gave him a nod and started fueling up. “And uh...” I glanced over at him for a moment, noticing him rub the back of his head. “Sorry for... earlier.”

I was silent for a moment before sighing and pulling the nozzle from the gas tank. “It’s alright... Let’s just get going before it gets any worse.” I walked around and climbed into the passenger seat, setting the sodas on the floor and passing out almost instantly after buckling in.

“...and then it just showed up in the library.” Twilight finished explaining to the rest of her friends after they arrived, showing them the painting from before as it sat propped against the bust in the center of the library. “What it’s a painting of, or why it’s here is beyond me.”

Rarity looked over the painting and rubbed her chin in thought. “Well, as for what they are, I have no help for you darling.” She smiled a bit as she looked over the painting’s duo. “Though I must say, their attire is most interesting. A combination of stylish and useful.”

Applejack squinted a bit as she looked at the painting. “Ah just see a pair of odd lookin’ monkeys sleeping next to a tree after runnin’ through Granny’s clothes line.”

Rainbow Dash hovered over the two of them and looked at the painting in confusion. “What I wanna know is why there’s a pegasus feather in there.”

Twilight looked at the painting herself again, surprised that she’d missed something. “There is?”

Rainbow pointed at the gold feather at the bottom of the painting. “Yeah, right there.”

Pinkie leaned over and squinted at the painting. “Really?”

Moving over to the painting herself, Fluttershy looked at it for a moment before nodding. “Oh my, it is.”

Twilight pulled the painting from her huddling friends and looked at it again. “Strange...” As she set the painting down on a small desk off to the side, the librarian looked at her friends. “I think we should see if anypony else found anything like this. Let’s go ahead and ask around town.”

Applejack was the only one of her friends that didn’t join in on the plan. “Er, hate ta rain on your parade there sugarcube, but it’s a mite late for that.”

Glancing out the window with the rest of them, Twilight blushed a bit when she saw how late it was. Luna’s moon was peaking over the horizon, and the sun had already finished most of it’s decent. Giving another sheepish grin to her friends, she started rubbing the back of her head. “Heh heh... I guess we could start in the morning?”

“Sounds good to me!” Rainbow agreed as she headed for the library’s door. “See ya tomorrow Twilight!” The rest of Twilight's friends filed out after the pegasus, each giving the librarian their own goodbyes. Twilight spared the painting one last glance before heading upstairs and climbing in bed.

If she'd stayed a little longer, she'd have noticed the small change to the portrait's subjects.

White. Everywhere I looked, there was white. How long was I here, just walking forward? I could tell that this was a dream, seeing as my body was back to normal, but just why was everything white?

As I walked, I eventually saw a speck of green off in the distance. Seeing as that’s the only change I’d seen since the dream started, I booked it towards the color. While I ran closer, more color would slowly fill the area around me, blues above, greens below, and other various colors flickering in and out of existence.

I skid to a halt when I came across a tree. The only thing to note about the tree was that it was the only one as far as the eye could see. Looking up into the branches I couldn’t see anything so I shrugged and sat down next to the tree, leaning my back against it.

I felt an itch on my back and reached behind me, jumping slightly when I found my wings had returned. “Well hello again wings.” A sigh escaped me as I leaned against the tree again. A sudden pressure on my legs made me look down and I was surprised to find Emi suddenly laying down next to me. I had to remind myself that this was a dream for a moment. Smiling, I just brushed her hair out of her eyes and closed my own, letting the dream fade away as it started to come to an end.

Strangely, I could feel the colors softly fading away from the dream. Each moment feeling like a small number getting dragged along my skin.

When I woke up, Damien was still driving and I could hear Emi giggling. With a groan, I sat up and looked over my shoulder, finding Emi happily sipping away at her Cream Soda and Crystina drinking the Root Beer. I was a bit glad that she wasn’t as depressed as when we picked her up, no doubt thanks to Emi. She also seemed a bit brighter than before, and was content just drinking my....

Wait....

HA! She stole your soda!

I sputtered for a moment and drew their attention. Emi proceeded to smile and wave in her overly cheery nature. “Hey Grent! Since you were asleep, I let Crystina have first pick on drinks.”

I waved a hand over at Crystina and continued to gawk at my little demon of a sister. “So you let her take mine?”

Crystina looked at the can in her hands and blushed a bit as she pouted. I also took note that her skin darkened again when she did. “What... I like root beer.”

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! She stole your drink HARD!

SHUT UP YOU!

I just sighed and slumped a bit into the seat, which was a little awkward considering I was leaning over the side. “Ah screw it. It’s too early for this.”

Damien chuckled and handed my the Cola I’d bought, clearly taking extra effort to not punch a hole in the can with his talons. “Here, this should help.”

Taking the can I gave him a small nod. “Thanks.” Sitting back up, I looked out the window and finally noticed something I should have earlier. “Hey, is that Chicago over there?”

Damien pointed over at the buildings we could see in the distance. “Yep.” Sure enough, a few moments later, we passed a sign saying that we were entering the city limits. “It’s a good thing for us that the drive was only ten hours from Solomon. I’d hate to be the guys who live in Hawaii right now.”

Emi leaned over and raised an eyebrow. “Why Hawaii? They have planes you dolt. Be sad for the Alaskans, they’re in the middle of nowhere half the time.” Her tail twitched for a moment and she pointed over to the side of the road. “Also, it might be a good idea to pull over soon.”

“Pull over?” I glanced at the GPS and frowned. “But we only got another forty five minutes before we reach the convention center.”

“Well, I think we might be changing soon.” Emi shrugged. “Just a hunch, but better safe then sorry.”

Crystina looked over at me and Damien and I could see the worry on her face. “I think we should listen to Emi. If... If Damien’s feet ended up changing while he was driving, we could crash.”

Damien and I looked at each other for a moment before I sighed. “Let’s pull over for a moment. If it’s not a change like Emi’s predicting, then I’ll just take over the wheel again.” To be completely honest, I didn’t think anything was going to happen, but then I remembered that my hair was silver and green, and decided that Emi might have a chance of being right.

When the van had reached a stop, I looked over at the others seriously. “Alright Emi, I’ll humor you. But if nothing happens in the next ten minutes, we’re headi-” I winced as a sharp pain shot through my face. “MOTHER-” Putting my hands over my face, I could feel something protrude from the once flat surface. I could feel soft hairs growing rapidly underneath my hands.

I could hear Emi let out an eep of surprise and Damien put a hand on my shoulder. “Dude! Grent, are you alright!?”

I panted for a bit before pulling my hands away and lifting my head, getting gasps from everyone. My mouth felt weird, but I was still able to talk for some reason. “Alright, how bad is it?”

“Dude, you have a snout.” Ah Damien, could you have been any more blunt?

Opening my eyes and looking at the mirror confirmed what Damien had said. The only part of my head that didn’t have pony written on it at the moment was my eyes, making me look a little more than creepy. “Oh, that’s just nice.”

Damien looked himself over before reaching behind him and grabbing a long tail with a tuft of fur on the end. “Welp. This exists.”

I looked over at Crystina and she was glancing at the both of us nervously, her skin back to it’s previous dull complexion. “Okay, what happened to me? Someone tell me what happened!” I could barely believe what I was seeing. I mean, her eyes were captivating before, but they were shimmering right now. Weather or not they were doing that naturally or from tears, however, I couldn’t tell.

Is that really what you should be focusing on?

Shut up, her eyes were always gorgeous.... not that I'd ever be able to admit that.

Yes, they were, but could you please stop gawking. It’s making her nervous.

Oh...

Thankfully for me and my lack of responses to the living world, Emi jumped up on the seat, and leaned into Crystina’s face. I noticed how much shorter she was. She was no taller than three feet now and was probably going to get shorter. “They be sapphires, captain.” She stood back up and posed triumphantly, forgoing her pirate act for that of a doctor. “I’ve deduced what young Crystina is becoming Doctor!”

Everyone blinked as we stared at her, waiting for her little declaration as cars passed us. “..... go on.....”

She dramaticly pointed over at Crystina. “She iz.... Da Crystal Pony!”

And just like that, Crystina fainted. Way to go Emi. Way to go.

Starting Some Line Art

For the next couple hours, I drove and we all tried our best to ignore what was disturbing us the most. For me and at least one other in the vehicle, that was my face. Seriously, human eyes on a pony are beyond the describing capabilities of the word, disturbing. They’re drawn big for a dang reason people!

Another thing that bothered me was what had happened to Emi specifically. We weren’t really paying attention at first, but she had gotten a pair of tomato red pony ears, and there was fur going down her neck and to the base of her tail. That was two changes on her, while the rest of us got only one. Sure she was loving being even more “adorable”, but it only ate away at my nerves and stability more. She was changing faster than we were, which was shortening my time table on finding a way to fix this.

I had to find a solution, and fast. I promised mom I would take care of Emi, and I planned on holding onto that promise.

Come on, you need to face facts here. You’re gambling right now.

Stuff it up Luna’s plot right now brain.

No seriously, you really are. If this guy who’s hosting this convention is as lost as we are, then the chances of finding any solution to this are gone. And it will be only a matter of time that you and everyone with us turn into fantasy creatures. Starting with our sis-

I SAID SHUT UP! I will find a way to fix this, and I will get everyone back to normal!

As we pulled up to the convention center that was listed on the website, I glanced around from the safety of my hood, doing my best to ignore my own mind and hide my face. “Don’t see anyone.” I parked the van and looked back at the others. “Think this is the right one?”

Crystina looked out of her own window and pursed her lips. “Maybe... they’re still getting everything ready?”

Damien nodded in agreement, his tail flicking every now and again. “That could be it, considering this all just started yesterday morning.” He started tapping the GPS while idly staring out the window. “So Grent, how much cash we got?”

I scratched the back of my head, a bucking weird feeling now that my head was almost 100% Pony, and pulled out my phone. “Let’s see...” A quick flick through the app that my bank had provided brought up my balance. “We’ve got about... just under eight thousand at the moment. Should be enough to get us some hotel rooms for a few nights and some food.” I picked up the GPS and searched for some hotels that were nearby.

Good thing we didn’t spend any of those paychecks, huh?

No kidding.

Emi leaned over the seat, grinning like a cheshire cat as she pumped her fist. “Sounds like a plan!” She started poking at my head as I continued to search for hotels. “Quick brother of mine! We need to show the world how adorable I am!”

I swatted her prodding fingers away as I searched for the first hotel I could find that was cheap, but still decent enough for human/hybrid/whatever we are, habitation. “Alright Alright, hold your horses.” Crystina snorted a bit and I rolled my eyes. “Oh hush you.” Looked back over to Emi and narrowed my eyes a bit. “And we’re not doing this to show off your adorableness, were just getting a hotel room to spend a few nights in.”

Damien nudged my shoulder as Emi jumped back to her seat with a giggle. “Lighten up man, she’s just trying to cheer everyone up.”

I sighed and pressed a hand against my face. “I know... I know, but right now it’s not doing it for me.” Starting the engine back up, I started to leave the parking lot. “Let’s just find someplace that’s got a free room or two.”

The clerk looked at her books and winced slightly before giving us an apologetic smile. “Sorry sir, but we’re completely booked.”

Damien slumped a bit and sighed before turning to Emi. “Welp, back to the van it is.”

Emi jumped a bit and posed as she pointed to the door. “TO THE NEXT ONE! AWAY!” She then started to run as fast as she could back outside, Damien barely keeping up.

“H-hey! Wait up!”

Crystina and I walked up to the counter and she smiled at the receptionist. “Excuse me, but are there any available rooms?”

The receptionist typed at his keyboard for a moment before he shook his head and turned away from his computer. “We’re sorry, but we don't have any available rooms at the moment.”

Crystina scratched her cheek a little before shrugging. “Maybe the next one will be better?” She glanced over at a guy walking further into the hotel and raised an eyebrow. “Does he have... aquamarine hair?”

I glanced over myself and spotted the man in question. “Yes... yes he does. Aquamarine 155-5 to be precise.” We both paused and I blinked a bit before shaking my head. “Let’s just get back to the van before I start sounding like Emi.”

The latino woman at the counter leaned back and was filing her nails idly as I approached. Without even glancing at us she just shook her head. “Nada.”

I blinked in confusion. “Uh... what?”

“We got nada rooms. Go across the street.” When I looked across the street, I slumped a bit and sighed. There wasn’t a hotel there at all, just a tanning salon. ”Thank you come again.”

Emi looked up at me with a grin so sugary I thought I might actually get diabetes from it. “Can we?”

“No. Van now. Tan later.” Note to self, Emi’s getting more hyper. Must keep her away from sugar at all costs for safety of country and possibly planet.

After looking around at almost every hotel in the city, which took us till 3:14 PM, the others and I were all sitting around in the van. Me in the drivers seat, Damien in the back with Emi, and Crystina taking passenger. To say we were all silent, would be like saying the moon was big. It was absolutely silent, yes including Emi, and we were no closer to getting a place to stay than when we started. “So...”

Damien nodded his head. “Yep.” The silence returned with vigor. I could barely stand it as we all sat there in the van, not moving, not talking, getting out run by snails!

Dude, what’s with you?

Silence! I just really need to do something involving moving right now. ANYTHING.

So the sudden desire to go as fast as humanly possible is normal? Yeah, I’ll believe that later. As the somehow still reasonable half of your mind, I’m just gonna say-

Silence I said!

Oh how the mind changes....

Crystina was fiddling with the GPS the whole time I fought with my brain. It seemed that over the course of this trip, the line between me and my usual thoughts was getting broader and excessively blurred with every one of my changes. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take before I truly did go insane.

Crystina tapped the GPS one last time before her eyes lit up at what she found. “Guys! There’s still one left!”

My arms were practically a blur as I snatched the GPS and slammed it onto the dash. Not wasting a moment, I gunned the engine, tires screeching as they tried to find purchase on the asphalt, and bolted down the road. “BUCKLE UP!”

The others were shouting in surprise as I swerved slightly on exiting the lot and getting on the road, nearly clipping a car that had only been missed due to the other driver moving to the left lane. I didn’t really notice him until he laid on his horn.

Now, I will not bother to describe my driving for the next thirty minutes any farther than “Need for Speed”, as doing so would probably get me arrested for breaking several laws I am not aware of and add on “Hot Persuit” to the description given. That doesn’t mean however, that I didn’t get us all to the hotel in one piece. In fact, the van was looking pristine, even if I may or may not have pulled a Vin Diesel as I drifted into the parking space of the hotel we were going to.

I was brilliant, and had absolutely no idea how I did any of it, but at that moment, all I could feel was an adrenaline rush.

The moment the side door of the van opened, Emi made her opinion of my driving quite clear by jumping out and kissing the ground. “LAND!”

Damien shakily put a claw over my shoulder and looked at me. “Okay... from now on. I drive.” Crystina would have probably said something, but she was looking near catatonic from fear and was gripping onto the seat for dear life. I winced a bit at the sight, even as Damien continued. “Seriously, was there any reason for that?”

I rubbed the back of my head and smiled awkwardly. “Um.... a sudden need for speed?” His deadpan glare was the only response I got and I could feel sweat rolling down my face. “Seriously! I’m not sure why but I just really needed to go fast right then. Sitting in here’s driving me nuts.”

You talk to yourself mentally on a regular basis, including the time before these changes even started. We’ve been nuts for quite a while now and you’re only just realizing it.

STFU BRAIN!

Point proven.

I snapped back to reality again when Damien just shook his head and started to shakily climb out of the van. “Whatever man... let’s just get inside.”

The next morning, Twilight woke up to a peaceful quiet that spread through the whole town. With a yawn, she descended the stairs into the library’s main room, briefly passing the portrait that had appeared the previous day. She walked into her kitchen, eyes drooping with their desire for sleep, and headed straight for the coffee pot.

A quick cup of coffee and a few slices of toast later, she walked back into the main room, holding her coffee in her magic. She glanced at the painting as she took a sip-

“PFFFFFFFF!”

-and proceeded to dramatically send it back out in a supremely spectacular spit take that was only stopped by her own hoof. Forcing the rest of the drink down her throat, she stared at the picture in shock. “What the?”

Where there had once been two, there were now four creatures in the painting. Along with the original two, there was another one with longer hair sitting on the opposite side of the tree, it’s face obscured partially by the long flowing locks. The fourth one was laying on one of the branches, a leg dangling down as it slept. It looked a lot like the one with the golden mane, but had a more reddish tint to it’s mane.

That’s not what surprised her the most though.

On the original two, the one with golden hair now had pony ears sticking out if it’s head, and the changes were actively bleeding down right before her eyes, it’s hair turning green and silver. The smaller one wasn’t much better, as it had a red unicorn horn coming from between it’s bangs and it’s mane was turning green as well.

Twilight stumbled a bit before rushing to her front door, wanting nothing more than to get to her friends as fast as possible to see if they found anything, and if not, informing them of what happened.

Minutes after she had left, in the quiet of the library, Spike came down the stairs with a yawn and glanced around. “Twilight?” He looked around for a bit, and when he glanced at the picture he jumped a bit at the sight of the first one’s head. “Whoa! Dude, that’s creepy.”

Stepping into the hotel was a spectacle compared to the others. While the other hotels were for people like me, your average everyday lounge-about artist that’s starving, this one was only describable by one word.

“Fancy.” Thank you Emi.

And ‘Fancy’ was right on the money. The lobby was freaking huge, there was a marble sculpture of a mermaid in the middle of it all, and everyone here looked like they were loaded to the brim and then some. It made the few people who were like us stick out like sore thumbs stuck in a door. Looking over at the others, I grimaced a bit. “Okay, I’ll see if I can get us a room. You guys mill about and try to stay out of trouble.” I glanced over at my sister for a brief moment, noticing her sneaking over to some guy with an obvious toupee on his head. “That means you Emi.”

She stopped mid reach for the hairpiece and frowned in disappointment. “Awww.”

Shaking my head I looked over at Crystina. “Could you please keep Emi out of trouble while Damien and I go and see if there are any rooms? I don’t trust her to behave on her own.”

Crystina gave us a small nod in response before heading after Emi towards the fountain. With how short she was now, she could be mistaken for a kid. Even if Emi was the childish one.

Damien and I walked up to the receptionist and I paused for a moment to clear my throat, drawing her attention away from the computer she was working at for a moment. When the portly woman saw me and Damien she reeled back slightly and covered it with a rather fake smile. “Y-yes, what can I do for you...” She looked at Damien’s claws in disgust before giving that fake smile again. “...lovely people.”

Damien frowned a bit, but spoke as smoothly as he could. “Yes, we would like to request lodging for four. We expect to be here no longer than a three days at most. Are there any rooms available at the present time?”

I’m sure my face was the same as the receptionist’s as I glanced over at Damien in surprise and blinked dumbly. The only thoughts going through my head right then, even my mental self’s, was “Where the heck did he pull all that suave from and where can I get some?” Maybe it’d help with asking Crystina out- NO! Bad me. Fix pony problem, then ask the girl out through super suave and tactical means.

“Er... well I’m sorry, but there’s only one room available, and it’s rather small.”

I looked over at her and frowned as my mind tried to estimate how much a room in a hotel like this would cost. “How much would it be?”

Judging from the look on her face, she was hoping that was going to deter us. Instead she looked over her computer again and then back at us, taking her precious time to do so on purpose. “It will be 214 dollars a night.”

I thought it over for a moment before nodding with a smile. “We’ll take it.”

Emi suddenly jumped up from behind me with her bag and grinned before staring at me, speaking in an emotionless tone. “Do we have appropriate accommodations Brotagonist?”

I sighed as I tried not to facepalm. I wasn’t sure how she lasted this long without making one of those puns, but it was a common thing for her. Tartarus, once she even called me “Brotographer” when I had to take a family photo. “Yes Emi, we have a room, but we’ll have to share the space.” I smiled at the receptionist, just to show some polite behavior.

Her clearly disgusted smile was all the return she gave non-verbally. “You will be charged at the end of your stay, have a good day sir.”

“We will, thank you.”

Nothing really exciting happened immediately after that. I walked over to where Crystina was and let her know that I had gotten the rooms, Emi and Damien picked up our key cards, and we all went and grabbed our stuff before heading for the elevators. I could have sworn I saw Emi’s bag move, without her touching it mind you, but it was probably just my imagination. The room itself was also completely unremarkable. It may have been fancy looking, but it was still two beds and a sofa, plus some fancy furniture. So either someone had to share a bed with someone else, or somebody was sleeping on the floor.

“So...” I looked at everyone else with the best poker face I could. “Who’s sleeping wh-”

“I CALL THE BED!” Emi shot past me and nearly knocked me over before jumping over to the bed.

“Dang it Emi!” I shouted after her wild charge nearly knocked me over, “calm down! You’re gonna give me a heart-” It was around then, that I froze in shock. Emi’s bag just floated to the ground shortly afterwards and rested next to the footboard. “-attack.” I and everyone else stared in surprise at the reality breaking that had just occurred. Damien’s jaw was hanging off of his head, Crystina looked like she was about to faint, and I... well....

Okay, give me a second to reboot your brain.

Grent.exe has stopped working. Critical error in the reality drive caused by “Emilia” trojan virus. Force Reboot? Y/N

Emi however, sat up and frowned. She started looking at one of us for a moment before moving to the next person, and eventually sighed and pointed to her horn, which was glowing a light yellow. “Unicorn, remember?”

Mental functions have been restored. Logic drive active.

DONE! I’m done! Never going into programing ever! Adios!

Damien and I both facepalmed. I slowly dragged my hand down my face as Crystina and Damien walked over to the couch and started setting down their stuff. “Emi, just.... not right now please? We have enough on our-”

*Bark!*

I’ll be right back...... the R: drive failed again.

Everyone in the room froze and slowly turned to look at Emi’s bag, which had just barked and shook slightly. Emi had a grin on her face which bordered between nervous and terrified. “Um.... Bark bark?”

The bag barked a second time before the zipper started to give and pull open from something inside pushing against it. The first analogy that popped into my head from what I was seeing was the chest bursters from the Alien franchise. I wasn’t the only one apparently that made that connection, cause I’m not entirely sure when, but I think Crystina had rushed behind me to use me as a meat shield.

That, or she was behind me all along. Hard to tell.

Much to our relief and stress however, it wasn’t an alien that popped out. No, while less deadly than a xenomorph, it was just as problematic considering we were in a hotel and had not told anyone that a pet was involved. I was very unamused. “Emi.”

Her smile was now bordering hysterical panic. “Um.... Yes, Broski?”

“Is there a reason Cricket is in your backpack?” The corgi barked in response. “Hush, I wasn’t asking you.”

Emi snatched up the corgi and started to pout while cuddling him and whaling all the while. “I just couldn’t bring myself leave him! He’s too adorable! He used his mind powers and made me take him!” Cricket just squirmed for a moment and started to lick her chin as she restarted her pouting ten fold. Damien apparently thought it was funny, and was cackling, while Crystina was looking confused as all tartarus.

This was going to be a long trip.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my muzzle before raising a hand. “Alright, fine. It’s not like we can just up and leave to take him back anyways.” Emi smiled and started hugging Cricket a little tighter, and he responded by licking her face. “Just please calm down and promise me you’ll keep him out of trouble?”

“Aye Aye, Captain Brotacular!”

I could feel my head throb from the impending headache Emi was causing. I also felt a slight itch on the back of my neck though, and it was making me worry slightly. My attention was drawn elsewhere when Crystina tapped my shoulder. “Um.... is this normal?”

“Define ‘Normal’.” Damien chuckled as he sat down on the couch. “The Isomeric family is the biggest bunch of weirdos I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

I jabbed a finger over at Damien. “You, quiet.” He just chuckled and leaned back on the couch before I turned my attention back to Crystina. “And as for her? Yes, this is normal. She has been like this pretty much her entire life and it drives me crazy.”

“You love me and you know it.” She hopped off of the bed and started to head past me for the door. “So, who wants to hit the buffe-AH!” Emi fell over suddenly and landed on her face. “Owwwww.....”

“Emi, are y-” I spun slightly to see if she was alright when I felt something creep up my spine and send goosebumps across my body. “-yaaaaaah that felt weird.” Crystina soon fell over as well when she tried to turn around and help herself, landing on the bed with a flop. I looked over to Damien, seeing his face looking down and scrunched in confusion while he lightly scratched at his chest.

.I shook my head and rushed over to where Emi was picking herself up off the ground. “Emi!?” I stared in shock while my still disoriented sister groaned. This was bad... very bad.

Emi shook her head a bit before looking up at me. “What just happened?” She jumped when she looked up at me. “Grent! You’re a furry!” I glanced at my hand and nearly jumped when I saw it coated in gold fur, but shook my head and looked back at my sister.

“Never mind that Emi, look at your legs!” She looked down at her formerly human legs and squeaked when she saw that they were now a pair of tomato red equine legs. Strangely though, my own mind picked up the detail that there was a hint of pink in the tone of her fur more than the shock that she even had fur. I got up and looked over at Crystina, who was hyperventilating at the sight of her own legs, both of which had changed just like Emi’s but now looked like they were covered in fine crystal rather than fur. Picking up Emi off the floor, I moved over to Crystina and set my sister down on the bed next to her. “Crystina, try to calm down. Deep breaths.”

Emi scooted closer and hugged Crystina, which was quickly returned by the terrified mare. “Don’t worry bro. I got this.” I gave her a thankful nod before looking back to Damien.

Damien had pulled open the front of his shirt before blinking a few times as he stared down. A glance up at me was all he spared before looking back down into his shirt. “I have pomf.”

“What?”

“I have pomf.” He said simply before pulling a short, grey feather out from his shirt.

I gulped a bit before taking a few deep breaths. A glance down at my hands and up my arms made me tremble slightly, but I tried to keep it together. “Alright.... I think it would be best to call it a day for now.” I looked over at Emi and Crystina, both of which were still hugging each other. “Emi, you mind sharing the bed with Crystina?”

She smiled brightly and shook her head. “Nope!” Her hug tightened as she grinned devilishly. “Cuddle bug mode, activate!”

I normally would have been irritated, but it was good to see that at least one of us wasn’t freaking out. I jumped slightly when I heard something flop over behind me before Damien spoke up. “I’ll take the couch.”

I nodded and gave him a tired smile. “Thanks. Sleep tight everyone.” I almost started for the bed, before a thought came unbidden and I stopped to ponder. I had been naming off art details and more importantly noticing subtle differences way to much recently. I normally didn’t have that level of attentiveness, even when drawing.

I looked at my arm again before heading to the restroom that was included with the room. Stopping in front of the mirror, I pulled off my pants and turned my hips to see if this feeling was true.

In short, it was, because I had a cutie mark emblazoned on each thigh. A forest green paint brush with a spayed tip and a small brown circle on the side, leaving a cloud of rainbow pixels in the three primary colors. As I looked at it, I kinda noticed how the spayed tip reminded me of an arrow head, like the hands of a clock had on most traditional models. It was weird, but at the same time, an art related cutie mark explained the sudden increase in my artistic mind.

Frowning, I shook my head and sighed, before putting my clothes back on and heading back to the bed. I glanced at Crystina and Emi for a moment, smiling when I saw both of them passed out, but still cuddling. My frown returned though when I saw Emi’s legs again.

It reminded me of what mom had said before we had left.

...she needs someone to look out for her...

I just hope I can be that someone.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. Got in a bit of a funk.

Painting the Colors

I was at that tree again. Looking down to my left still had Emi sleeping on my thigh, but she wasn’t human anymore. The cute tomato red filly with a green mane and tail was in her place. The filly’s steady breathing was both calming and fear inducing at the same time.

Necessity declared that I turn my gaze away, lest I let my mind destroy itself further. I looked over to where I remember seeing Crystina the last time, and she was just as I remember seeing her before I went to sleep. The pale blue crystals coating her legs shimmered for a moment before dulling considerably.

Above me, I saw Damien in the tree. Also different from how I remember, large and slightly intimidating wings spread from his back as he laid on the branch. I couldn’t make out his face, but seeing the wings was enough to make my stomach churn in worry.

A deep sigh escaped me before I looked out at the fields that surrounded the tree. They were just as I remembered; open and devoid of anything but grass. I continued to do nothing but look out at the grassy expanse when something caught my eye. Looking upwards to the sky, I gasped in shock.

Each cloud in the sky was not white. Instead, they showed pictures floating through the air. One showed me the morning I first started changing; ears sticking out of my head as I slept at my computer. Another showed me getting an Optimus Prime action figure for my 7th birthday. A glance to my right, and I saw another cloud floating showing Damien, Emi, Crystina and I all at the convention center.

But just past it, I saw one that filled me with dread. In the skybound painting, I could see a grief stricken visage of me staring in horror at a darkened spot on the ground. Only one thing ran through my mind as I began to wake again, running a hand through Emi’s mane.

Where was everyone else in that image?

I woke up with a start and sat up in the bed, breathing heavily and drenched in fur matting amounts of sweat. A quick look around showed that it was still night, and according to the clock it was about five in the morning. A long depressed sigh escaped my lips as I flopped back down onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling. Ever since these changes started, I’d been having dream after dream of that stupid field and tree.

I hated it when I dreamed of anything. I only had dreams around major events, and now they wouldn’t stop. Just how major of an event is this going to be that my own subconscious decided that three copies of the same dream straight were necessary? The constant shifting in the details also were making me worry. One thing dreams and art shared was symbolism, and that could mean practically anything.

Like the clouds in my dream showing pictures. I remember that in that Homestuck webcomic, that when they were dreaming, they could see random moments in time though the clouds. There also is the rapid changes to Emi in the dream, along with everyone else. Emi wasn’t even slightly human anymore, but the rest of us were only partially changed.

So what did all of that mean?

“Hey.” I jumped slightly and whirled my head around to see Crystina looking over at me from the other bed. Emi was still curled up and lightly snoring into her chest, so Crystina had to whisper to not wake her. “Can’t sleep?”

I slumped a bit and sighed. “Yeah... got a lot on my mind.”

She let out a bitter laugh before looking down at her legs. “You’re not the only one.”

Looking at Emi again, I felt a small bit of relief well up in my chest at the fact that from what I could see, she was still at the same point in her changes. “Yeah.” The silence dragged on for a bit after that. Neither of us wanted to break the tranquility of the moment it seemed, nor did we wish to wake the others. I had decided that laying back down and looking up at the ceiling was the best course of action right then, even if it caused my wings to flair out.

Eventually though, Crystina was the one to speak first. “Hey Grent, can I ask you something?”

I glanced over curiously and nodded. “Sure, shoot.”

She looked at Emi for a moment before scratching the back of her head. “Well.... When I was talking with Emilia down in the hotel’s lounge she mentioned your older sisters, And well....” she twiddled her fingers a bit before smiling awkwardly. “Could you tell me about the rest of your family?”

I blinked a few times dumbly before scratching the back of my head. “Well uh, sure I guess. Though I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting that.” She giggled a bit to herself as I looked up in thought. “Well... there’s my eldest sister Sabrina, my second oldest sister Alice, and then there’s Heather.”

Crystina just rolled her eyes before shaking her head. The smile she had was small, but I still noticed it. Hard not to when for the moment it was there the fur she now had shimmered just slightly. “I know their names, Emi told me earlier. I was wondering if you’d tell me a little more. After what Damien said... well you get the picture.”

I rubbed the back of my head and grinned. “Yeah, what Damien said earlier is pretty much right on the money, but barely skims the surface.” I sat up on the bed again and started tapping my chin. “So.... where to begin?”

“How about you begin with heading to the lobby to continue this chat.” Both Crystina and I jumped when Damien spoke up. The recently awakened beast that was a tired Damien was glaring at us from the sofa, slight bags under his eyes emphasizing just how tired he truly was. “Emi may be able to sleep through a twister, but I'm tired, and so are the rooms next to us.”

The two of us blushed as we got up and headed for the door. Without Crystina on the bed, Emi pouted in her sleep until Cricket hopped on the bed and laid down next to her. Once we were both out the door, I shut it behind us with a click and turned to face her. “Well.... Shall we?”

“Um... yes please.”

Twilight hovered over the painting, squinting at each detail she saw and writing down notes on every drip of paint. After she had gone and gathered her friends, she’d explained to them what had happened earlier in the morning. As she had done so, the lavender mare had taken the painting down into her basement and secured it to a large examination table. She currently had a large magnifying glass hanging in front of her, along with a few others to further magnify the image, to accurately take notes over the painting.

Her friends were off to the side, each looking over at the lavender mare worriedly, but in their own way.

Applejack was the first to speak up, if only because the others had pushed her closer to the dangerously focused librarian. “Er... Twilight? Are ya sure this is all necessary?”

“Yes Applejack.” The librarian leaned back and pulled the painting up off the table in her magic. “There is something wrong with this painting and I plan on finding out what.”

Rarity walked a bit closer and stood next to Twilight. “Applejack is right dear. This is a bit excessive for an enchanted painting.”

A frustrated growl escaped Twilight’s lips as she glared at the painting. “That’s just it! It isn’t just enchanted! I’ve scanned this painting five times and I keep getting a mixed up scrying spell!” The painting was slammed down onto the examination table as the librarian started waving her hooves in the air. “Scrying spells don’t change paintings!”

Pinkie bounced up from behind the others waving a hoof in the air. “Ooh, Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!”

Twilight and Rarity shared a glance before the librarian looked over at the bouncing pink pony. “Yes, Pinkie?”

The party pony bounced over to the painting and looked down at it. “What if it’s like one of those enchanted mirrors in the Harry Trotter books!”

The lavender pony sighed and put a hoof to her head. “Pinkie, the Harry Trotter books don’t have any workable spells in them. All of them are entirely made up a-” Twilight froze as a thought crossed her mind. Taking a moment to ponder it and tap her chin, she trotted back over to the painting. “Actually, that gives me an idea.”

Rainbow flew over and landed next to her. “Like what?”

“It'd be impossible for the enchantment to be the same as the one in the Harry Trotter books,” Twilight unstrapped the painting and picked it up in her magic; heading for the stairs. “but that doesn’t mean it’s not enchanted to be a sort of viewing pool, which would explain the strange scrying spell.”

The group all headed back up to the main room where Twilight set the painting down on the stand it had been on the night before. “I’ll have to examine it more to be certain though, so for now let’s go and see if anypony found anything like it. If I had something to compare with the painting, it would be very helpful.”

Rainbow jumped back into the air and gave the librarian a determined smirk. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Twilight and the others nodded in agreement and all six mares charged out of the library and into town.

Before we left the room, the both of us had taken a look at our hoodies and then back at ourselves before shrugging and getting rid of them. My wings flared out in relief the moment they were free, and I immediately started to feel a bit better. A glance over at Crystina made me blush for a moment as I saw her white tanktop and a bit of shining crystal cleavage.

“I just caught a glance.” Don’t worry, I believe you Thunderlane.

Shut up, they’re sparkly and you would have looked too.

Sure, that’s your excuse. Perv.

Thankfully, I don’t think I was noticed, cause when she turned around all Crystina did was smile politely. “Alright, let’s head out.”

“Yep.” I nodded in agreement before having to rush over when she stumbled on her first step. She blushed as I started glancing down at her hooves. “Um... do you uh.... need some help?” I faintly noticed that they were getting a bit of a greenish tint to them as well.

“Um.... yes.” Grabbing her shoulder gently, I helped her stay upright as we started walking. “Thank you.”

Opening the door, I smiled back. “No problem.”

As we walked down the halls of the upper floor to the elevator, I continued talking with Crystina and supporting her whenever she stumbled due to her new legs. I was having so many mixed feelings about this, considering I was a.) In excessively close proximity of the girl I like and she was actively aware of me while wearing a rather revealing white tanktop, and b.) I was having to help her walk just to get to an elevator. The talking helped keep it to a less awkward level though, and my mind much less focused on certain areas of the female body. “So who would you like to know more about first? I mean, there’s essentially five people I can talk about that count as my direct family.”

That and the topic was my sisters. I don’t feel that way about them so it tends to keep the mind focused.

Liar.

Sod off you’re staring too.

Only cause you are.

Crystina looked up at the ceiling in thought for a moment before turning her head to me. “How about your oldest sister. Sabrina, right?”

Giving her a smile as we got to the elevator, I looked over at her as I pressed the call button. “Correctomundo.” As Crystina giggled, I stepped back and stood next to her as we watched the numbers go up. “Sabrina’s pretty much a big tomboy, but in her own way.”

Crystina chuckled a bit and arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

I shrugged a bit and rolled my eyes. “While she doesn’t really like ‘stupid girly things,’ as she lovingly puts it, she’s actually really into knitting.”

Crystina looked over at me in amusement, and I faintly caught a glimmer from the fur on her legs. “Really? Wouldn’t that contradict being a tomboy?”

A smirk grew on my face as the elevator arrived and we both got on. “Like I said, she’s one in her own way. Though I would not recommend mentioning the knitting very much if you do end up talking to her. Very short temper to match her height.”

The doors closed and Crystina pressed the button for the lobby. “So what about your other sister, Alice?”

I sighed a bit and looked up. “Alice was the opposite of Sabrina in almost every way, at least when it came to how they looked. Alice was really into picking apart people’s actions and reasons for doing things, so she went into college going for a psychology degree. I hear she’s doing good.”

“Mmhm.” Crystina looked at the buttons for a moment before glancing over at me again. “And Heather?”

A smile came to my face as I thought back. “Heather... was pretty unique. She was the farm girl that loved to take care of animals and work in the garden. Every year she made us help her work the dirt. Then she went off to get a botany degree and we haven’t heard from her since.” The smile on my face fell slightly. “She sure did add a lot of flavor to the house, and Emi loved working in the garden too.”

A twitch came across her face as she looked away. “Oh. Um.... sorry if it’s a sensitive subject.”

I waved a hand dismissively. “Nah, it’s fine. All three of them moved out awhile ago. It’s just been me and Emi left in the house when it comes to kids. Emi likes to keep up the garden, but I’m pretty sure she just likes using the food in the kitchen.”

Crystina perked up a bit and looked over. “Emi can cook?”

The laugh that escaped me was practically unstoppable as I thought back to better days. “She’s phenomenal at cooking, especially for a middle schooler, but every time we say so she just blushes and doesn’t believe a word of it.” The elevator door opened and the two of us walked out into the lobby, heading towards some benches that were next to the fountain. “I’m pretty sure she thinks we eat the food because we’re just sparing her feelings. The honest truth though is that the filly can make one mean bowl of pasta.”

When we got to the benches, Crystina shook her head. “Well now I just want to have some spaghetti.” As I eased Crystina down onto the bench, she looked away for a moment before perking up a bit. “And uh... Grent?”

Sitting down next to her, I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“I think I might have figured out why you went a little crazy when driving over here.” She poked my wing and it flared out a bit on it’s own. “You’re turning into a pegasus, right? What if that was your flying instincts kicking in?”

Blinking was practically my only response for a moment before I looked up at the high ceiling. “Huh.... Hadn’t thought of that. And now that I do, it would explain why I hated how cramped the van was starting to feel.” I looked back over to Crystina with a smile. “Thanks Crystina. It’s good to know I’m not going completely insane.” A small blur of color flashed across my vision for a moment before I looked up towards Crystina’s hair and frowned a bit. “Um... You may not like this news.”

Crystina’s face fell as her hands reached up and lightly grabbed the new emerald green ears that were parting the neon tide of a mane. The whimper that escaped her lips made me put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey hey hey, I promised I’d find a way to fix this. We just need to wait for the convention to start.”

The next thing I knew, she had pulled me into a hug and I could hear her cry a bit into my shoulder. “Thank you.”

I will admit that I was frozen for about a second or two before I returned the hug. My wings, for some reason, had unfurled and wrapped around her as well, making the hug kinda warm compared to normal. “Anything for a friend.” I’m not entirely sure how long we sat down there, just me holding her as she sniffled and silently cried into my shoulder. An awkward cough was all I did after holding onto the hug for a little longer then I was getting comfortable with. When Crystina finally let go, I started to get up. “So, think you can manage getting to the elevator on your own?”

She took my hand to help her get up, and though she wobbled a bit at first, Crystina stood and nodded. “I think so, but it’d probably be best if you stayed close.”

It was about then that I realized what I was doing over the course of the past hour or so. In that time, I had had the first real conversation with Crystina that didn’t involve any form of awkwardness or her complaining about my general laziness in class in the entire time I’ve known her. It was making this weird feeling build in my chest, so I gave her a warm smile and started to walk off to the elevators. “Alright, then let’s get go-”

Despite my mental revelations and what not, my legs had decided to give out from under me right at that moment and I landed muzzle first on the hotel’s oh-so-hard linoleum floor. I’m pretty sure that the thud of a guy covered in gold fur and two large wings drew a fair amount of attention. Especially when he doesn’t move for a moment afterwards. “Ow.”

I could hear the clop of Crystina’s hooves as she slowly walked over. “Um.... Grent?”

My arm shot up off the ground and I stopped her. “Don’t tell me. Legs?”

“Legs.”

[Groaning intensifies] “Celestia darn it.”

Meanwhile back in the room, Emi was starting to wake up after feeling a tingling run across her body. Sitting up with a yawn, she idly scratched at the fur on her arms before hopping off the bed and heading for the restroom. As she passed Damien on the couch, she stopped and looked at his face before giggling. Drool was pouring out of the yellowish beak that had replaced his mouth and nose as he snored. “Well, at least now he doesn’t have to brush his teeth.” A glance down showed her that Cricket was sniffing at his beak. Emi grinned evilly and chuckled. “Yes Cricket, lick his face. Do it my loyal minion.”

Cricket looked over at her and barked once before softly licking at the underside of Damien’s beak.

Pleased with the corgi’s response, the little red filly hummed as she headed for the bathroom. When she got inside, she immediately noticed that something was off. “When was the counter this high?” Sighing to herself, she put her hands on the eye level counter and pulled herself up enough to look at her reflection. At first, the mirror showed her a slightly grumpy, red anthro unicorn looking back at her with neon yellow eyes. After a few seconds of looking however, it showed an incredibly happy little pony girl that was squishing her cheeks together excitedly while holding herself up with her elbows. Her squealing could be heard for a few rooms over as soon as her excitement boiled over and she hopped down from the counter. “ADORABLENESS HAS BEEN ACHIEVED!” She paused and poked her still human nose with a finger, giving a silly grin and sticking her tongue out. “Well, mostly.”

A loud thump followed by a surprised squawk made her look back to the door. “I’M UP!” Emi giggled to herself as she ran back out into the hotel room and saw Damien sitting on the floor with his arms in the air, and Cricket jumping around and barking. There were a bunch of grey feathers surrounding him and they were blending with the ones on his arms and the feathers sticking out of his shirt.

Cricket did not care for the source however. He just wanted to chase the floaty thingies that kept landing on his nose.

“Damien, look at me!” Emi practically bounced up to the fallen griffon and started pose in ways to show off her new fur. “I look so freaking adorable!”

He just stared at her for a moment, even as Cricket started to lick at his chin. “Are you insane?”

She stopped bouncing for a minute and shrugged while standing calmly. “Well, although I’ve never been tested, popular opinion would leave one to believe that I am.”

He facepalmed and groaned. “Why...”

Emi grimaced a bit as she looked off to the side. “I’m afraid they’d be right.”

Damien stared at her tiredly as he removed his hand from his face. “No, I mean why are you so excited about turning into a pony? This is supposed to be a bad thing.”

“Oh.” Emi overdramatically leaned back as Cricket ran back over to her and started circling her legs. “You wouldn’t understand, but constantly finding ways to be cute and adorable is really, really hard for a twelve year old.”

Damien sighed and slumped forward a bit. “Would you please stop? It’s too early in the morning.”

Emi snorted a little in amusement as she looked at the clock. “It’s like.... nine einstein. Crystina and Brotacular let us sleep in.”

Damien pinched the bridge of what used to be his nose with a sigh. “Whatever let’s just head down-” His eyes widened as he slowly felt over his beak. “I have a beak now. Great.”

The antro filly giggled and pointed at his cheeks. “And you also have drool on you.” As Damien started to wipe his face off, Emi headed for the door to the hotel room. “Hey Damien, I’m going to see if I can find the Brofender of Justice, and show off how adorable I am while I’m at it!”

Seeing her start to leave the room, Damien tried to get up off the floor and follow. “H-hey! Wait for-” He tripped and landed with a thud. As the boy turning griffon looked back to see what had tripped him, he saw Cricket chasing his stubby little tail near his feet.

“Stupid dog.”

Shading the Shadows

Let it be known for centuries onward, that walking on two hooves rather than four, or as an average person’s definition of normality might dictate, two feet, is akin to chinese water torture of the most extreme degree when deprived of a stable support. It’s worse when you’re pants are now longer than your legs and the only saving grace that is keeping them from falling of my now equine rear, sans tail, was the belt that was conveniently already being worn. It was thanks to this that Crystina, whose pants were somehow staying up without a belt, as well as I were both stumbling like mad as we started to attempt a mad dash for the elevator to get back to our floor in order to check on the others. The other reason was, in my mind at least, that our changes could lead to possibly one other thing as well. If we had changed again, then the same could halve happened to Damien and Emi. Factoring in Emi’s accelerated changing rate, and my mind was already tacking on “to possibly worse degrees” at the end of that first conclusion. Just thinking of how I was failing to find a solution to this pony nonsense was making me frustrated beyond all belief.

What didn’t help my mood in any way, was the fact I was still constantly tripping over my own limbs. “Gah! Stupid... HOOVES!”

Crystina helped me stand upright again, even as she herself wobbled a bit. “Grent, please calm down. It’s hard enough walking without you freaking out.” A glance behind her made Crystina wince a bit and her ears to fold to her head. “That, and we’re causing a scene.”

A frustrated sigh escaped me as we started to finally get close enough to the elevator to at least hit the call button. “I’m sorry Crystina, but I am not going to be calm until we’ve checked on-” Before I could press the button, the elevator door opened up and we both jumped as a tomato red antro filly skipped out cheerily with her eyes closed. “Emi!?”

Emi stopped skipping mid-air, making my eye twitch as she slowly hovered back to the ground in blatant defiance of physics, and looked over her shoulder curiously before giving us both a wide smile. “Good morning Grent!” Emi beamed as she spun in place with a wave. “Ooooh, Nice new legs.” She reached behind herself and pulled out a small notepad, marking something off before putting it away. “Now I don’t have to buy you solid gold pants!”

I looked at her in confusion for a moment before shaking my head. “Emi this isn’t the time for jokes. With how fast you’re changing and... somehow defying physics, we don’t have long to find a way to fix this.”

Emi giggled and pulled something out from her coat. “Then I think you might want this!~”

A glance at the device made me blink in confusion before I reached down and snatched it out of her hands. “How the heck did you get my phone!?”

“Magic.” She replied with a smug smirk. “That, and you left it on the dresser in the hotel room. You really should keep better track of your stuff bro.”

Rolling my eyes and looking at the device I saw that she’d opened the internet browser and went to the convention’s website. A quick skimming of the article made my eyes squint in confusion. “Help wanted?”

Those two words made me read the whole article more. From what I could tell, thanks to the short notice and the convention center’s head honcho’s son being involved in the globally massive transformation madness, there was a volunteer drive going to help set up the entire thing. The one word I could think of when I looked at the amount of volunteers so far was “massive”. If this didn’t get the convention rolling soon, I don’t know what will. For me though, it was like seeing a glimmer of light in a cave. The faster we got this problem fixed, the faster I could keep a possibly permanent transformation from happening to my sister.

I looked up from my phone and at Emi. “Is Damien up?” She cheerily nodded and gave me a salute. “Good. Let’s go get him and head for the van.”

As Emi giggled and bounced back into the elevator, Crystina looked at me curiously. “Where are we going?”

Standing a bit straighter, I smiled as confidently as I could. “We’ve got a convention to help set up.”

In Ponyville, the search that Twilight had started with her friends had come up nearly fruitless. Pony after pony told them that they hadn’t found anything odd, or misplaced, nor had they seen anything simply pop out of nowhere. Just as they were about to give up however, they had all found a mirror had shown up next to the painting from before, and was showing a mare and another partially changed creature talking. Before they could say more though, the conversation ended and the mirror shifted to a more normal state.

It took not but a scant moment before Twilight grabbed both in her magic and pulled them behind her as she descended down into her lab, where she now hovered over each item; horn ablaze as she looked over both for anything strange in the magical sense. As she did this, her friends off to the side again waiting patiently.... well, mostly anyways. Rainbow was beginning to look absolutely bored as Twilight studied the items. “How much longer is this going to take?”

The farm mare rolled her eyes and looked over at her flying companion. “Now be patient Rainbow. It takes time to-”

“I just don’t get it.”

Stopping short, Applejack turned to look at Twilight in surprise. She scratched the back of her head as she glanced at the others before she looked back at the lavender mare again. “Uh.... get what?”

Twilight backed away from the mirror and painting before walking over to her friends. Her confusion was plain as the muzzle on her face as she spared a glance back at the two items. “Both the mirror and painting have the same type of enchantment on them, but they’re doing two completely different things. In one case, the effect doesn’t even belong to that spell category!”

Rarity, and most of everyone else, cocked her head to the side. “Um.... could you care to explain a bit darling? How could they have the same spell and not be doing the same thing? I may not be a professional like you, but that’s just not how magic works.”

The frazzled librarian took a deep breath before she continued to explain. “Both items here have a specific form of scrying enchantment known as the Wandering Search Enchantment. It’s one that has been know to be customizable for various effects that can range on whatever the caster is attempting to accomplish to a limited degree. It is also known as one of the most complicated scrying spells ever written, and takes an immense amount of magic to even start, let alone completely finish.”

Rainbow perked up a bit and looked over. “Woah.”

Not seeming to hear the comment, Twilight continued her lecture/explanation. “The spell itself acts like a fishing line and attaches onto what the caster targets; be it pony, object, or spell.” Twilight levitated the mirror over to her right and pointed at it. “The mirror’s enchantment seems to be linked to a separate two way communications spell, and is acting like a bug; eavesdropping on the two users for us and letting us listen in on the conversation between the other two without us being noticed.” The librarian’s face fell a bit as she floated the painting over to her left and looked at it. “The painting though? It’s almost entirely one ended. It’s as if the caster placed several copies of the spell on it, and the spell is still trying to connect to the caster’s targets. The spells are active, but it’s like there’s nothing for the spell to connect to. I suspect that the mirror is also doing something similar from the traces of excess magic I found in it’s enchantment, but I can’t know for sure without the spell completing itself. And who knows what will happen then.”

Applejack whistled as she looked between the two floating objects. “That sounds mighty complicated there Twilight.”

“You have no idea Applejack.” Twilight shook her head as she looked back at the objects. “The sheer amount of magic needed to cast this spell even once, let alone repeatedly....It would be like trying to have the planet itself cast the spell.” The lavender mare looked over at her friends. “I’m going to see if I can find more about the spell. I think it’d be best if we didn’t all stay over here at once for too long. Ponyville tends to panic when we do.”

The others all nodded in agreement and waved Twilight goodbye, leaving the lavender mare to continue to examine the two mysterious objects.

After Emi went back to our floor, Crystina and I both waited back by the entrance of the hotel. It was just the two of us again for a few moments before Damien and Emi got downstairs. The sight of, well, the beak that he now sported made me start having a small, but thankfully manageable, panic attack. We all headed for the van as I explained on the way what we were planning on doing.

Damien was all for getting everything rolling. I didn’t really expect anything else from him. He always was the guy who would start working on something, be it drawing or physical labor, when he needed to occupy his mind. Emi was glad just to be on the move again, wanting to spread her “adorableness” everywhere. Crystina was a little apprehensive about the whole idea. I’ll admit, I was too, but it wasn’t like we had any better ideas to go off of. All in all, I was just praying that helping this get set up would make an answer, a solution, something arrive faster. If nothing did... then how was I going to...

“We’re here guys.” I was snapped from my musings by Damien pulling up to the convention center.

Giving him a nod as I slowly got out, I turned to the girls as they themselves carefully climbed out of the passenger door. Crystina’s legs wobbled slightly due to the larger steps, and Emi was just that short now and was having trouble touching the ground when sitting on the van’s floor. It didn’t help that she brought her bag with her, but it wasn’t like we could just leave Cricket at the hotel. He’d pee on everything and brutally maul the pillows and anything else with fluff in them if we left him to his own devices.

I clapped my hands and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Alright, let’s head in and see what we can do. Hopefully there’ll be something that’ll help speed up this convention.”

When we got inside the building, we were greeted by the sight of several dozens of people, both changing and normal, rushing about with various items in their grasp. I looked over at Crystina and frowned a bit. “See anyone who looks in charge?”

She shook her head and sighed. “I can’t really tell. There’s just so many people here.”

Emi started tapping rapidly until she looked down at her hoof and frowned. “That’s weird. It wasn’t that tingly last time.” She just shrugged and kept looking around, Cricket joining her by sticking his head out of the bag and sniffing, before she perked up at something off to the side. “Hey! She looks important!”

Turning to find what Emi was pointing to, I saw a taller woman with a blonde ponytail in her hair looking at a clipboard while heading down one of the hallways. My ears perked up as I looked down at Emi with a smile. “Good work Emi! Come on guys!”

We started to rush through the crowds of people, trying our best not to run into anyone as we chased down the woman. We darted down three different hallways and up a flight of stairs before we finally caught up to her, and my legs were starting to feel like jelly.

That’s because you’re an out of shape string bean who's done nothing but play video games and eat ramen like the otaku he is, and despite the copious amounts of food and sodas you consume; have yet to gain any weight.

SILENCE I SAY! I know I’m scrawny dang it, there’s no need to rub it in.

Just get the lady’s attention so that we can end this nonsense. I don’t think I need to state my opinion of our situation again.

I shook my head clear of the thoughts and started to call out to the woman as she started heading through a glass skywalk that looked over the main room. “Excuse us!”

The woman stopped and looked up from her clipboard before turning to us. “Oh?”

I stumbled a bit, and was only caught by Crystina and Damien, when I got a good look of our possible head-of-affairs. She was.... well “blessed” might be putting it lightly. Seriously, this lady lucked out on the looks department of the genetics institute and didn’t seem to think anything of it or how it was making Damien stare.

Natural D20, all the way.

She could probably rock that shirt and make it completely true.

yep....

....

Okay, we’ve oggled enough. Get back to the task at hand.

Right. Let’s- wait a sec, did we just agree?

Shut up and get to work Thunderlane. You can stare at Crystina’s pair later if you somehow manage to gain the ability to woo her.

Buck you.

When we all started to get closer, a small frown crossed the woman’s face. One that momentarily shifted to surprise as she looked between the four of us, particularly at Emi before she directed her gaze at me. “Is there something I can assist you with? We’re quite busy at the moment, and I don’t have much time.”

I had to take a moment to catch my breath before I could respond. “Please give me a moment...” Clearing my throat, I straightened my posture and faced the woman. “Are you in charge?”

She shook her head and smiled politely. “Not exactly. Mr. Daven is the owner of this establishment and asked if I could overlook some of the procedures while he was away.” She offered a hand and I gave her a brief handshake. “Mrs. Fitzpatrick.”

“I’m Grent. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I looked at the others for a brief moment before continuing. “We were wanting to know if the help wanted advertisement we saw was still in effect. If there’s any way we can help, we’d gladly do so.”

The woman sighed before looking at her clipboard. “That makes you and just about every other person here.” She walked off to the side of the skywalk and motioned for us to look out the window. When I did, I could see just how many ponies were already here. The skywalk we were in was not where I thought it was. Instead, it was over a different, larger room that was packed almost to the brim with others who were changing, were simply there for support, or were already staff members. The one’s who were changed.... varied. Some had only a few alterations to themselves, while others were completely shifted from human to whatever fate had chosen. The sight of it all made my chest tighten, and I could feel Emi grabbing onto my pant leg. Cricket must have sensed her discomfort, and was whining as he rubbed her head from behind. despite this, Mrs. Fitzpatrick continued. “Ever since this fiasco was announced, people have been arriving at a constant rate. With how many showed up, we’ve been overstaffed and have even more volunteers showing up daily. But there’s just not enough room for everyone. You’d be lucky to get a hotel right now. Otherwise you’ll be sleeping here, in a vehicle, or on the streets.”

Emi looked up at me, her eyes wide and nervous as they bored into my own. “W-Well, it’s a good thing we already got a hotel room, huh?” The sight of Emi looking up to me right then... It was making my nerves wind even tighter than they already were. An unsteady chuckle escaped her as she looked back at the large group.

I cleared my throat; trying and failing to calm myself down. “Yeah.... lucky us.” Shaking my head, I looked back to Mrs. Fitzpatrick. “A-anyways. Would it be possible to get any information on the convention? We’re a little lost in the dark when it comes to anything right now, and we would greatly appreciate any information.”

Mrs. Fitzpatrick hummed as she looked over her clipboard. “Well... I could go and have a word with a colleague of mine, but I’m not sure where she is.”

Before I could even think of a way to respond, I felt Damien carefully put his talons on my shoulder. I glanced over and saw him looking at me in concern. “Hey, I can see how worked up you’re getting. Why don’t you and Emi start heading back to the van? Crystina and I will find out what we can here.”

Staring back for a moment, all I could think about was just how great of a friend Damien could be. A sigh left me and I slumped slightly before I glanced to Emi again. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Text me when you’re heading back.”

“Actually, um,” Crystina raised a hand and blushed some. “I was thinking of going with Grent back to the van.” She winced a bit and rubbed her leg. “All this walking is starting to get to me.”

We all glanced at her legs before looking to Emi, who looked back at us confused. “What? I feel just fine. Sure my pants are all baggy, but I’m getting around no problem.” A frown crossed her face as she shifted her shoulders. “Bag’s kinda heavy though.”

I just shook my head and started to walk away. “Let’s just get going.” Looking over my shoulder, I stopped for a moment. “See ya at the van.”

Damien nodded with a smirk on his beak. “Right.”

Crystina and Emi both started following me back to the van; my sister on my right, and Crystina on my left. As we headed back down the stairs, Crystina held onto my shoulder for support, while I grabbed the hand rail. Emi got down the stairs no problem and started waving at us. “Come on guys! We won’t get to the van at all if you keep going that slow. Cricket needs a potty break!” From inside the bag, the dog barked in confirmation.

“Emilia, please slow down.” Crystina slipped and caught herself by grabbing onto my arm, forcing me to grab the railing a bit harder to keep from getting dragged down. “It’s hard enough to walk on level ground at the moment, let alone stairs.”

She slumped forward with an exaggerated sigh and pouted at the foot of the stairs. “Fiiiiiine...”

We sighed in unison as Crystina and I got to the final few steps of the stairs. Those things were a nightmare going up, but even worse going down with these new legs. I shot Emi a small glare as we started picking up the pace and headed for the front of the building. “Emi, would you please calm down and be serious for once? This is a really big problem.”

Emi stopped in the middle of the hallway, almost running into someone in the process, and rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? I’ve reached Petting Zoo People levels of adorable furriness. Me and Cricket here could give somepony a heart attack with just our eyes! Our eyes bro!” She started looking past us as she grinned and rubbed her hands. “World domination, here I come.”

Crystina gave me a sideways glance as Emi kept pretending to be evil. I pinched the bridge of my muzzle and groaned. “Ignore her, she’s just acting goofy again.” Turning back to my sister as we both got off the last step, I frowned when one of my wings twitched. “Happy now?”

“Yep!” Emi started to giggle again as she ran ahead of us. “Let’s get back to the-” To me and Crystina’s surprise, Emi suddenly ran into the air itself, making a small oomph from the impact and falling backwards onto her flank. “Ow!” She started to rub her muzzle and glare ahead of her. “Hey what gives!?”

I shook my head in disbelief as I watched her try and push past whatever was in the way, only to scrape her hooves on the ground and remain in place. Just..... what the hay did I just see? Running into the air like that shouldn’t even be physically possible. I started to walk over to where Emi was, if only to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. “What in the-” Before I could finish the thought, I stumbled forward as my vision blurred, tripping and landing on my face. The sound of Crystina falling back made my head twist around as I pushed myself up again. My jaw dropped at the sight of her shrinking slightly and her arms coating themselves in emerald fur.

From behind me, I heard what sounded like a small bell. “Uh.... G-Grent?” My head whipped back to Emi, and I froze.

Where my sister once stood, was a small, tomato red filly partially buried in loose clothes and a backpack. A tomato red filly that was currently surrounded by a nearly opaque, sickly yellow bubble that was humming ominously, and was staring at me with fearful eyes that were bordering on panic. “Bro, what’s going on? Get me out of this thing it’s freaking me out!” Cricket had jumped out of her bag and was starting to bark at the barrier, his ears folded back and growling as he circled around Emi protectively.

“EMI!” I scrambled over to the bubble and pressed my hands against it, trying to force my way in. On the other side, Emi was rearing up and putting her forehooves where my hands were. Others who were nearby were starting to notice and were getting closer. “Come on....” I gave the yellowish wall a solid punch, only to pull my arm back from a sudden jolt. “Gah! What in Tartarus is this thing!?”

Other people were starting to crowd around and watch. I wasn’t focusing on them though. I just kept hitting whatever this was, trying to break through to get to my sister. Crystina was trying to get someone to help, and a few started to also take swings at the bubble. One guy even hit it with a board and only managed to make it splinter into oblivion. Not even this guy who was turning into a dragon could break it.

Emi’s breathing was starting to get heavier as she looked around herself. “I don’t care what it is, get me out of it!” The humming started to get louder and Cricket stopped barking altogether, choosing to whimper instead as he pressed himself next to Emi. Crystina had come over and started to try and pull me back. Was it just me, or did this thing get brighter?

The others were backing away as well, and Crystina managed to pull me back a bit, only for me to shrug off her grip and continue to press against the bubble, punching it harder with now bloody knuckles. It all ended in a flash though, and I was sent tumbling back as I heard my sister scream for a small moment. I was launched back into someone, I think it might have been Crystina, and winced in pain when we landed on the ground. Blearily opening my eyes, I got up to continue my assault against that damned bubble.

Only for there to be nothing.

Instead of the barrier that was there before, a scorch mark was all that remained on the ground. I slowly walked over and stared in horror at the sight. Not a bag, a sock, or even a dog hair remained of what was seconds ago inside the sickly yellow bubble. All that was left, was soot, ash, and smoke. “E-Emi?...”

I fainted on the spot as the convention center broke into chaos around me.

Author's Note

Oh shist. It's getting serious in this biz. Wonder what our hero's going to do now that his sister's up and vanished in front of him.

Stay tuned. And sorry for the long wait.

Darken the Shades

In the Golden Oaks, Twilight blearily trudged her way out of the dungeon she called a basement. Even after an entire day of examinations, looking through books, and researching the spell, she’d come up with nothing new on the Wandering Search, or any other changes in the two object’s magics. A groan escaped her as she climbed up to her bedroom and flopped into the soft mattress and overstuffed blanket. “Ugh.”

Spike looked up at her in concern from his basket and frowned. “Is that painting really giving you such a hard time?”

“I’ve looked through the entire library Spike.” Twilight sighed into her bedding and rolled over to look at her assistant. “There’s just not enough here to help understand what the spell’s purpose truly is, and I’m starting to get worried that something bad might happen soon because of it.” Rolling back over and looking up at the ceiling, she continued. “And to top it off, there was that mare from the hospital...”

The young drake looked between his basket and Twilight for a moment before he hopped out and climbed up onto the bed next to her. “Hey, you’re like, the smartest pony I know Twilight. If anypony can figure all of this crazy out, it’s gonna be you.”

A small smile crawled across the librarian’s face as she pulled Spike into a hug. “Thanks Spike. I needed to hear that.” A yawn echoed through the room, making the lavender mare blush a bit at Spike’s giggling. “Buuuut, I don’t think I’ll be much use if I’m asleep till noon.” Levitating Spike off of the bed, Twilight gave him a brief nuzzle before sending him back to his basket. “Goodnight Spike.”

~~~

I was dreaming again, yet it felt so different now. Resting against that tree in the middle of the field, the memory-time clouds floating above, the ever changing shape of my body; everything seemed in place but something was still off. Was it something in the air? I couldn’t quite place it. It was like something was missing and everything was feeling different. Something obvious enough that when it was gone it should have slapped me in the face.

A glance down towards my lap reminded me quickly what was wrong though.

The little filly from before was gone.

Emi, was gone.

...

“You know this was inevitable from the get go right?”

“Wha?” I blinked in confusion for a moment before looking up. In front of me, was.... me, but not quite me. Instead of a body, it was a gold colored blob that was shaping itself to look just like me from before these changes started. It was almost the same shade of gold as my fur, but.... duller. It was as if it was made to radiate everything bad about myself, but still barely holding on to what made me, me. At least, if dream logic is anything to go by. For a while, we just stared at each other. Me, looking up in confusion, and him looking down as if disappointed, yet pleased at the same time.

“You just kept ignoring what I said, over and over again, and look at you now.” The other “Me” stepped forward and stopped just short of stepping on me, before leaning down into my face. “I warned you that the convention wouldn’t be a magical cure all, but you just wouldn’t listen. And now your baby sister’s a fantasy land unicorn.” I almost had the chance to reply, but I was suddenly being lifted up by my throat. The gold ooze melted back from the copy’s face and I stared back into those yellow eyes in fear. “Something we both know, is that Fantasies don’t get to be in Reality. The world just doesn’t allow it. I mean really, if it was allowed, Imaginary friends would be popping into existence everywhere, and you would be living the life with the girl of your dreams.” A twisted grin crawled across my former face before he tossed me back into the tree where I had originally laid. The moment I landed, branches laced with thorns sprung out of the trunk and wrapped around me, pinning my body painfully to the tree and piercing my skin. I gasped in agony as I tried to breathe properly, only for the branches to tighten and dig into my flesh deeper. “At least the problem fixed itself though. Makes me wonder why none of the others chose to do this. It just makes so much sense.”

Another branch wrapped around my head like a crown of thorns and slammed me back, forcing me to look back into those cold yellow eyes, even as blood started to drip into my own. “W-who are you? What are y-” A branch wrapped tightly around my neck, cutting off my air instantly.

As I laid there slowly suffocating, he only chuckled and started to walk away from me. When he was far enough, the other me glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “You’ll find out soon enough.” With that last reply, the dream faded as what little energy was in me vanished into nothing.

A single young man sat alone on a bench in a stark white hallway, resting his feathered head in his talons. The walls that surrounded him only breaking from the bland color where various arrows and directions were painted on in a navy blue that matched the benches and chairs perfectly. Earlier, he had hastily fought past a large mob of panicking ponies and people to try and find his friends. Shortly after, he had found two of his friends on the ground, both having been trampled by the panicked mob, and the third was missing. An ambulance was called for shortly afterwards, and they were all taken to the hospital that he now sat in; waiting to be allowed to see if his friends were alright.

On the far wall, a television broadcast the very location they had just left from as a slender reporter stood at the convention center’s main entrance. His red tie blowing slightly in the breeze while people walked past. “Earlier today, the two individuals that had claimed responsibility for the incidents regarding the hundreds of people that were turning into ponies and other such creatures had gathered here, and began to explain the hows and whys of what had happened.” An image of a familiar face showed up on the screen, making the young man look up in surprise. “However, it seems that a strange creature referred to as “Discord” appeared seemingly out of nowhere and claimed that an otherworldly entity that has no name, was ultimately responsible for these supernatural occurrences. Upon talking with those that were here, Discord is one of the antagonists featured in the children’s show, My Little Pony.” The picture of Discord faded and was replaced by another picture of a young man, and a mare that was standing on the convention center’s stage. “On top of that, he seems to have taken Len Teles, one of the two students that had initially claimed responsibility for the incidents, with him as he disappeared.” A question mark took the images’ place. “Reports also say that another victim of the strange changes had vanished before the convention had even had a change to begin. The victim was described to be a small, red filly with a green mane. While the true identity of the second is still unknown, officials are currently looking into the situation and implore for anyone who sees these two, to report any information on their whereabouts as soon as possible.” The screen jumped to a split between the first and another newscaster before the young man turned away.

A tall man in a white coat came out from one of the doorways to his right, drawing his attention. “Mr. Yellman?” The young man nodded. “Both of your friends suffered quite a bit of bruising and a few fractures, but otherwise appear to be fine physically to the extent of our knowledge. I’m not sure how wings are supposed to be held in order for proper healing, but we did our best for Mr. Isomeric. Also, from what we can tell, he went into shock before his injuries, so do be mindful when he wakes. Ms. Delmas however, is awake and said she wanted to speak with you over something in private.” Damien caught him sneaking a glance over at the television. “She refused to say what when I asked, but I have a feeling I already know what it concerns.” As Damien stood the doctor put a hand up and stopped him. “I should let you know. The police are waiting as well to speak with the three of you. It didn’t take them long to connect the dots between that stampede and people disappearing.”

Damien nodded and gave the doctor a small smile. “Thank you, but I would like to just see my friends for right now and make sure they’re alright. No offense.” The doctor only nodded and frowned as he held the door open for Damien as the griffon walked in, before letting it shut behind him. Inside the room, both beds were occupied. In the bed on the far side of the room, Grent could be seen with his eyes closed, still lost in the world of unconsciousness.

In the other, Crystina was sitting up and looking over at Grent until she noticed Damien enter. When she saw him, she smiled softly. “Hey Damien.”

“Hey.” Damien looked over his friends and frowned. “So....fur?”

“Yeah.” Crystina raised one of her hands and looked it over. “I see your head’s been changed completely, and Grent's eyes changed too.”

“I heard about what happened.” Crystina stiffened for a moment until Damien raised his claw. “It was on the news. It wasn’t hard to gather that the second person to vanish was...” He glanced over at Grent before sighing. “Her.”

Crystina also started to look over the unconscious form of their friend; her mind ablaze with worry and fear. “Is... Do you think he’ll be alright?”

Damien walked over to the far side of the room and picked up a chair. “I hope so.” Moving over to the side of Crystina’s bed that was between her and Grent, Damien set the chair down and sighed as he got in. With is back to the young woman, Damien looked over his friend with concern. “This is the second time something like this has happened to the guy.”

The crystal girl blinked in surprise before cocking her head in confusion. “Second? But, people don’t just disappear like this Damien.”

“Tell me,” He looked over his shoulder at Crystina, “when you talked to him about his family, how many people did he say he could talk about?”

Crystina was confused by the change in topic, but answered anyways. “Um... five, but what does that have to do wi-” Her eyes shot wide as she thought over her conversation with him. Grent had named off five people, yes, but he hadn’t mentioned one that anyone would think of. “He... didn’t mention one of his parents?”

“That’s right. His dad, to be precise.” The griffon leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “Back when we were younger, me and Grent were playing out in his front lawn. His mom was about four months pregnant with Emi, making us about seven or eight years old, give or take. I can’t really remember the exact day. It was getting cloudy and starting to drizzle, so we were planning on going inside when his dad pulled up in his truck.” Damien chuckled a bit. “That man was a freaking goliath compared to my dad. A full seven foot eleven inches tall, and a scraggly beard that felt like it was made from steel wool rather than hair.”

“Wow.” Crystina looked over at Grent and shook her head. “You wouldn’t have thought he’d be related from just looking.”

Damien shook his head with an amused smirk. “Not until you saw how paint splattered the both of them were, no, but that didn’t stop them from being as close as they were. Grent’s dad was the one who introduced him to art when he first showed any interest whatsoever. Heck, he even gave me my first painting pallet.” Damien’s smirk fell as he thought back once more. “But that just made everything worse after what happened.” The griffon looked at Grent once more as he continued. “The day I told you about? How it was starting to rain and he’d just got home? That was the last moment we ever saw him alive.” Crystina put a hand to her mouth in shock. “Grent was just about to go and give his dad a hug, when out of nowhere a bolt of lightning struck down right on his old man. Seeing a man that big and strong, just fall like that....” Damien closed his eyes and sighed. “It did a number on me, and an even worse one on Grent.” Damien stood up as he heard someone knocking on the door. “Anything else after that’s not my place to say, but please, don’t be too blunt. I’m pretty sure that the scars from that are more than just opened right now.”

As Damien opened the door, the doctor from before was about to enter. “Oh, my apologies Mr. Yellman. I was about to let you know that are a few officers here that would like to speak with the three of you, or at least whoever is awake.”

The gryphon nodded before he waved to Crystina and left the room. “I’ve actually been meaning to talk to the authorities about this.” Wordlessly, Damien and the doctor headed down the stairs one of the hospital’s private rooms.

Twilight slept peacefully in her bed that night. The only sounds permeating the air around her and throughout the library were of the still night air, and crickets chirping outside. No, it couldn’t have been a more perfect night.

That is until you got to the basement.

Rattling on the table that it lay, the painting that had appeared three days ago for the lavender mare began to move closer to the edge. A soft yellow glow filled the room around it as a low hum filled the room. A bubble of magic began to spread from the surface of the artwork slowly growing in size until it was large enough to encompass the lavender mare had she been down in the basement that instant. With a pop not unlike a soap bubble, the magic dispelled and left two new occupants in the room. Both sleeping soundly on the hard floor.

With a small groan, one of the two blearily raised her head and looked around in a daze. “Huh, wah?” The second figure perked it’s ears up and looked over at her, letting out a small bark. “Shhhh Cricket. We must be stealthy. The fate of the candy.... kingdom....” And like that, the first fell back to sleep. The second proceeded to get up and look around the room before claiming some of the various equipment as his own. Having spent a reasonable time doing so, the second figure ran back to his master and curled up next to the slumbering filly.

Author's Note

A shorter chapter then I intended, but I've got work in 15. Had no time to expand as much as I wanted. Also, Backstory for Grent? Who'd a thought!

Enjoy!

Sketching the Characters

Since we were going to have to explain the situation soon and needed to come up with some form of excuse, that was what we did. For how long I don’t know, but Emi and I spent the time trying to figure out a way for us to explain the fact we were turning into pastel colored ponies to our mother. Which to be honest, was a complete waste of time considering that we had practically no idea just why we were changing to begin with. Yeah, the web page said that all bronies were getting affected, but it didn’t go into much depth besides the symptoms of the “accident”, being turned into an OC created by the subject, that it described and what the accident was overall.

Seriously, there were no major details to get a good picture from! Though when I think about it, that may have been because they themselves were going into a panic for the same reason I wanted to go into a panic and still do. What it did say, was that two guys respectively built a particle accelerator, and a particle decelerator for a science project. This wasn’t a problem until one of their retarded brothers had plugged a laptop into both to charge the battery while he downloaded an MLP episode.

They weren’t sure how, but it was what they believe caused the big flash push of five hours ago.

So there we had it. Me along with my little sister and quite possibly several hundred thousand, if the hit count on the site was anything to go by, other people’s lives were just ruined by some retard that is currently in Chicago setting up a convention to practically tell the world it was his fault.

...

...

Buck this gay earth.

For once, we agree.

I slumped back into my chair with a sigh, running a hand through my hair. “This is so stupid...”

Emi looked up from the sheet of paper she was writing on. “Hey, we’ve almost got a plan set up. If we follow this work of my absolute genius, there is only a 35% chance mom will freak out.” She turned the paper over to me and I saw pie charts, scribbles, and a picture of a squid in a dress. “Now, you go get the Squid, and I’ll get some british flags to make a macarena dress out of.”

I sighed and handed the paper back to her. “Emi... the only reason that plan wouldn’t make mom freak out is because it’s the most ridiculous plan I have ever seen. Where the heck am I going to get a giant squid in the next five minutes?” My blood ran cold as I looked at my clock again.

It read 3:10.

I jumped up from my seat and started to head for the front door. “Crap! Emi, mom’s going to be home any-” I heard the sound of our mom’s van coming into the driveway and my blood ran cold again. “-minute.”

Emi looked at her plan one last time before sighing and crumpling it up. “Looks like we’ll have to wing it.” She glared off to the side as she tossed the crumpled wad of paper into the waste bin. “Would have been cooler with the squid though...”

I skid slightly as I turned to look out the window next to the door. A quick glance outside showed our Mom getting out of the van and picking up a few bags from what would surely be a regularly sized load. And by regular, I mean Monstrous. One that she would be asking for help bringing in due to the sheer amount of groceries she bought.

There are just some days I hate the fact that my mom goes out of her way for every coupon she can get a deal off of.

I got away from the window and started looking around in a panic. “Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap!”

As I panicked next to the front door and pulled up my hood, Emi ran off to her room with a grin on her face. When she came back, she was wearing a comically over-sized pirate hat on her head. “My disguise is flawless.” I just gave her a deadpan stare before facepalming.

The door started to open, so I threw my hoodie back on and acted as casually as possible and keeping the dog from running outside. Our mom came in backwards, holding about five bags of food at once. “Oh, Grent you’re home already? Did your class end early again?”

Oh yeah, that was my default excuse for leaving early when sent home... I forgot about that. I nodded and shrugged while trying to put on a calm smile. “Yeah, a lot of people suddenly didn’t feel all that well.”

Our mom frowned a bit. “Well that’s unfortunate.” She paused and looked up as she tapped her chin. “Now that I think about it...”

Emi tilted her head. “What?”

Mom looked confused as she continued to think. “On the way to the store, a lot of people were driving rather strangely. I saw one poor soul drive off the road and get their car totaled. After that, a lot of drivers were speeding quite frequently.”

“Oh, I-I wonder why...” My smile started to falter into a nervous twitch, and I was certain that she could tell.

Thankfully, she was either being merciful for the moment, or oblivious. “Well either way, there’s not much we can do for them other than hope that they’re fine. Now get your shoes on Emilia and help your brother get the groceries.”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Emi saluted energetically before running off to her room, Cricket hot on her heels and barking the whole way.

I shook my head and started for the door. “I’ll get right on it mom.”

Before I got far, I was stopped when she put her hand on my chest. “Grent.”

“Uh... y-yeah?”

“Why is your hood up?” I was trembling in place as she continued. “You don’t normally wear it inside to begin with.”

You are so boned dude. So totally boned. Moms are psychic, and we both know this. Doesn’t help that you’re practically an open book.

SHUT UP BRAIN!

Point still stands~!

I smiled at her as best I could and moved around the arm to get to the door. “It’s nothing mom, I uh, I figured since you would be home soon I’d just go ahead and put it on so I could help with the groceries faster.”

She gave me a look that only a mother could. The “I’ve caught you trying to feed me a load of bull crap and am far from happy” look. “Grent Isomeric, you stop lying to my face this instant and tell me why you’re wearing that hoody inside. The truth this time.”

I winced and looked down at my feet shamefully. I never was a good liar... and I hated doing it. But just how in Celestia’s mane was I going to explain this?

More importantly, why didn’t you say “In God’s Name?”

Please don’t remind me of that at the moment brain.

I jumped slightly when I felt my mom put a hand on my shoulder. “Grent... look at me.” I hesitantly looked up and saw my mother looking at me in worry. “What’s going on Grent? This isn’t like you to act like this.”

With a shaky breath, I glanced away for a moment before looking my mother in the eyes. “Promise... promise me you won’t freak out too much.” She gave me a warm smile and a nod, but it did little to reassure me. “We... probably should go sit in the living room. For what I’m about to show you... that is.”

“Alright Grent.” My mother and I walked into the living room, me taking the couch and my mom taking the loveseat. I saw Emi run in soon after and she noticed us both in the living room.

“Hey, what about the groceries?” I patted the seat next to me and she came over and sat down. I didn’t need to explain what was going on it seemed. Emi was pretty clever when she wanted to be.

My mom looked at the both of us and she raised an eyebrow. “Both of you? Don’t tell me you dyed your hair or something and are afraid of telling me.”

I rubbed the back of my head for a moment. “Well... I actually wish it was the hair dye thing. This is a little... more extreme.” I took a deep breath and pulled off my hood, showing off the two perky pony ears sticking out of my hair. A glance over to my side told me that Emi had taken off her pirate hat, and was showing off her horn. “Um.... tada?”

Our mom blinked a few times before sighing. “Emi, what have I told you about gluing stuff to yourself and your brother?”

Emi smiled and giggled. “To not to. But I didn’t do this. At least not this time.”

My mom looked at me with a disbelieving look, that slowly grew to shock as I sighed and put my head in my hands. “I... I wish so much that she was lying right now.”

Our mom’s gaze started to shift between both Emi and I before it focused on me again. “Grent, stop going along with Emi’s pr-”

“Mom. This happened in the middle of my classes!” I snapped, tears starting to run down my face. “It is impossible for this to be Emi’s fault. I can feel from the stupid things, and I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore!”

Mom looked at me in disbelief and shock for a moment, before a look of horror started to cross over her features and tears streamed down her face. “Oh sweet lord...”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep and shaky breath before I could continue. “According to what I found online... It’s happening globally. The whole world has people growing....animal parts. Ears, Eyes, Tails! I... I just...”

I jumped when I felt arms wrap around me and found myself staring at my mom’s shirt as she hugged me tight. I hugged her back and choked back a sob. “I just don’t know what to do.... It... It terrifies me.”

My mom’s own breathing was unsteady as she started to run a hand through my hair, practically petting me. While I didn’t like the analogy, It still felt relaxing. “Don’t worry Grent. It’ll be alright...”

I know she was saying it more to herself, but it was nice... just hearing those words. At least just once.

Emi joined in on the hug from behind me. “Mom’s right! Besides, I’m turning into a unicorn. I’m going to be adorable!” I scoffed a bit, but couldn’t stop the small laugh from escaping my throat. Emi released me from the hug shortly after, but then asked something odd. “What’s with your back? It’s all bulgy and soft.”

“What?” I got out of the hug and all of us started looking at my back, or in my case trying. I don’t exactly have eyes in the back of my head. I reached behind me and felt what I could, finding that whatever was under my shirt was a part of me, but it felt.... downy soft. My eyes widened a bit and I looked over at my mom. “Uh.... please don’t faint?”

“Grent, you just showed me you have... pony ears. Why would I-” I pulled off my shirt, and two golden wings spread out from my back. They weren’t very large, but then again a MLP pegasus’s wings would have been proportionally too small for flight to begin with. That didn’t mean that they weren’t at least an impressive size for a person. My mom stared at me as a few loose feathers fluttered down to the floor. “-faint....”

Congratulations, AnthroGrent leveled up! AnthroGrent learned Fly!

SCREW YOU BRAIN I DID NOT!

Emi jumped off of the couch a moment later and started to poke at them, sending a shiver up my spine akin to... well something inappropriate. “Ooooooh, cool!” As I swatted her hand away, I noticed that she now had a leaf green tail with a few lighter green highlights. “What was that for!?” I pointed at her tail and she took a glance back and gasped. “Oooo~!”

While I was trying to get my new wings to fold down, my mom picked up one of the gold feathers from the ground and looked it over as it glimmered in the light. “This.... this is really happening.”

I looked over my shoulder at the wings and sighed. “Y-yeah.... yeah it is.”

My mom shook her head and looked back at me. “Sweetie, did you find anything else about this?”

Emi answered for me. “There are a couple of guys who are claiming that it’s all their brother’s fault up in Chicago.”

I zoned out a bit as Mom and Emi started to talk about the convention. I looked back at my wings, wondering why I hadn't noticed them until Emi pointed them out. I mean, these things were two and a half feet long each! They should have sent some form of feeling up into my brain with how my shirt was pressing them into my back. This was the second change to happen to me and Emi, so it only went with what we knew so far that second changes were happening to anyone else involved....

...anyone else...

Oh sweet jiminy cricket, Crystina!

My eyes widened and I pulled out my phone from my pocket and started unlocking it. “Please...” When I saw no messages I silently cursed to myself.

“Grent, what is it?” My mom put a hand on my shoulder.

I jumped some from the contact, but that was the extent of my surprise. I looked over at her and showed her my phone. “It’s just that I asked one of my classmates to text me their number after I gave them mine. They’re also in the same boat me and Emi are. The last I saw them they had a neon blue tail.”

My mom put a hand to her mouth in worry. “Oh dear... do you know where they live?”

I shook my head. “Unfortunately no. I just wish I had a way to make sure she was doing alright.” Emi leaned her head in closer to mine after she ran off and got a stool, the devious grin on her face slightly unnerving. “What is it Emi?”

“So who exactly is this, ‘She’, that you are worried about?” I blushed a bit and Emi took it as a cue to go on. “It is your girlfriend?”

My blush grew and I felt my wings extend slightly. “S-She’s not my girlfriend! Crystina is just a fellow classmate!”

“Emi, quit harassing your brother. This is a serious problem.” Mom stopped the bickering before it could go on for too long. She looked over at me still looking somewhat troubled. “Now Grent. Emi explained about the convention in Chicago. It’s rather far... but I want you to take your sister with you and go up there.”

“What?!” I jumped a bit in surprise and my wings flared. “B-but what about you? Aren’t you coming with us?”

I got smacked upside the head a moment later. “Grent Isomeric, I am fifty five years old. I can take care of myself. Your sister? With what is happening to the both of you, she needs someone to look out for her, and you’re a legal adult.” She smiled softly and gave me another brief hug. “Now be safe, and take care of your sister.” Letting me out of the hug, she reached into her purse and pulled out her keys. “I’ll let you use my van and the GPS, incase you find a friend or two that need help as well and so you don’t get lost. I’ll just settle on driving that rustbucket you call a truck.”

I took the keys and frowned. “Alright.” She didn’t need to call my truck a rust bucket. Sure she’s got dents in her everywhere from the previous owner, but she’s not rusty.

“Good,” Mom smiled at me before pointing at the door, “now go get the groceries.”

Down the streets and throughout the buildings of Ponyville, it was an average day for it’s citizens. Even after the feeling of the odd magic, Twilight was having a good day. There was still one pony though, that having an “average” or “normal” day would seem impossible.

Pinkie bounced gleefully down the street, looking over the crowd every time she bounced to look for her friends. When she spotted Twilight, she hopped over and landed next to the lavender mare as she was purchasing some more parchment sheets. “Hi Twilight! Guess what!”

Twilight looked over and smiled at her friend with a small laugh. “Hello Pinkie! What is it?”

Pinkie stopped bouncing and gave Twilight a large grin. “I had a doozy earlier today! And it’s the biggest, enormous, most stupendous doozy I’ve had yet!”

The entire street stopped and looked over, before ever pony could be seen bolting to the safety of their homes and locking their doors.

Pinkie just looked around for a moment before she focused on Twilight. “Was it something I said?”

And it was in that moment, that the glorious union of hoof and head caused a massive clap to echo over the town and into the distance. Some say that even the princesses in Canterlot could hear the sound from their castle.

Before we started with the groceries, Mom had taken my shirt and cut holes in the back large enough for my wings. It still felt extremely weird, but I guess I had no choice but to get used to it for the time being.

As I lifted the final bag of groceries, Emi bounced around the front yard with Cricket. The little corgi kept trying to bite at her tail, and she kept spinning it away. I shook my head and kept bringing in the bags I had in hand. “Alright mom... this is the last of it.”

Mom was standing in the front doorway, and smiled at me sadly. “Not quite.” She took the bags I had and placed them on the floor before handing me two backpacks that were filled to the brim. “I packed you some clothes and food, the essentials as well.”

I looked at the bag for a moment before chuckling. “I think I might have trouble wearing this.”

Mom reached over and pulled an extending handle from the other backpack. “That’s why I packed your stuff in this one.”

My smile saddened some as I took the bag. “Thanks mom. I’ll do my best.” My phone started to go off as I started to give my mom one last hug. “Huh?” I pulled out my phone and looked at the screen, showing that I just got a text.

As I opened the message, my Mom looked over my shoulder. “What is it dear?”

I squinted and started to read. “Its... from Damien?” Turning my phone sideways, the message enlarged some. “Hey, come over really fast. I’ve got something I need some help with. I’ll explain more when you get here, but I really need a ride to Chicago.....” I paused for a moment, remembering that I thought I saw something off with Damien’s eyes. “Chicago.” I turned to Emi and pointed at the van. “Emi, go ahead and get in. I’ve got our first stop.”

Mom put a hand on my shoulder, giving me a sad smile. “Go help your friend. I know you’ll be alright.”

I returned the smile and gave her one last hug. “I’ll try.” With nothing else left to be said, Emi and I both threw our stuff into the back, and I punched Damien’s address into the GPS before heading off.

I don’t know why, but it felt like that was the last time I’d ever see my Mom again.