Katrina sat looking out of her window over the gloomy landscape that morning. The weather had dropped cold, and snow had begun to drift across the landscape as fog rolled in. It was oddly quiet too, and Olathe was not the mildly busy place it usually was at this time of year. Family meant a lot to folks in the Midwest, but she couldn't have been further from her own than was possible.
Her parents and siblings were still living in Topeka, whilst she had moved out and got her own job to take the strain off of them. She felt, after all, now was the best time to move on. Nothing lasts forever, and this cut especially hard for her. Like a lot of people, she struggled with the hardest thing of all.
Letting go.
Then her life had taken a turn for the crazy. Not long ago, her old Christian youth friend, Tom Haddington, had invited her to spend a few days with him and Jimmy Hook, another friend of his, at Walt Disney World for a chance to get away from it all. But Tom had neglected to mention Jimmy's bizarre skill for spontaneous transformation, and it had infected both her and Tom. Not only that, it had happened for eight nights in a row to all three of them. She had hoped getting away from Jimmy would make it stop, but no such luck. Only a few weeks ago, it had happened again, just this time it was Mel Chase from Milo Murphy's Law! Having heard that Jimmy had started changing into Disney Princesses, and that Tom had briefly ended up as Ember the Dragon whilst on holiday in Germany was troubling to say the least.
Which brings us to the here and now. Katrina had called him and asked him to fly over, as it seemed their affliction was starting to evolve into something else. And it scared her. What else was going to happen? Tom seemed to be equally uncertain about the matter, but had agreed to come over to the States, as he had family in Pennsylvania he wanted to see anyways, and Olathe wasn't a massive detour off his route.
She was simply waiting for him to get here. Her phone suddenly buzzed, and she grabbed it. "Hello?" she asked, swiping the green button and listening to the voice on the other end.
"Hi Kat!" Tom's voice replied. "I've parked my car and should be inside pretty soon. I just need to find your adress. I must say I can see why the small town in so appealing to Americans."
"You don't say!" Katrina replied. "Big city folks like yourself don't always see that."
"I live on the outskirts of Nottingham," Tom answered, sounding midly annoyed as he did so. "Anyways, I'll pay for my ticket, and then head on over. Boy is it cold!" The line clicked shut.
Katrina set the phone down, and smiled. It would be good, nontheless, to see him again, as the last time they'd met had been a bit chaotic. Figuring Tom would probably like a hot drink (having mentioned he liked American strength coffee), she went into her kitchen to get some coffee prepared. As she walked in, she took out what she needed, and turned to get a spoon.
She tripped over a tree branch that was somehow lying on her kitchen floor that hadn't been there, and hit the floor with a bang. Her forehead crashed into a wall, and her glasses fell off her face, falling onto the floor and cracking. She reached for them, only to stop.
Her palm had turned a light pink, and as she looked at it in confusion, it began to spread out in a circle and radiate across the rest of her hand.
"No, no, NO, NO! NOT AGAIN!"
Not questioning in that moment how she could see perfectly clearly without her glasses, the pink colour had by now completely covered her skin, leaving her looking like she was mildly sunburned. Groaning, she pulled herself over to a mirror and looked on at what was happening as the infection did its terrible work of ruining her day for the 11th time in a row.
Her eyes turned from their usual hazel to a colour that vaguely resembled the grape flavour of Gatorade, and her eyebrows turned purple moments later as her fringe pulled back to the top of her forehead. One strand than rose up in front of it and flopped in front, curling again into the air as it did so. Moments after that, more hair fell onto her shoulders and ran down her back. The sensation of her hair growing so fast was bizarre. Not painful, just weird. This was thankful, as apparently Jimmy had had a few that were excruciatingly painful. She then decreased in height by about three inches or so (a guess, as she did not have a ruler on hand, so she made a guess from the pillar behind her), but other than that nothing changed. Her build remained precisely the same.
She suddenly seemed to jerk upwards a few inches, only to notice her feet now had black and dark grey boots on, with no clue as to the state of her socks. Her jeans tightened on her legs, and turned a grey colour before fading slightly, no other changes being readily observable. A black wristwatch with a white cover, featuring a symbol in the centre, appeared on her wrist whilst her shirt's neckline dropped, but not very far, turning into a fairly typical V neck, before the entire garment turned a light green, with purple trim on the ends of the sleeves and around the neckline.
And with that, it was over. Katrina tried her voice. "Well, this is weird." She stopped as Starlight Glimmer's voice came out of her mouth. Glancing down to check her clothing was to her liking, she picked up the piece of wood, grumbling to herself. "I'll give this to Jed to cut up. He'll know what to do with magic pieces of-"
She stopped, and peered closer. "Wait a second, this is the Staff of Sameness! How did this get here?"
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and she went to answer it, turning the key in the lock.
"It sure is cold out here, and I hope I ma-" Tom trailed off as he looked at his friend, now a fictional character. "Kat, is this going to happen whenever we meet?"
"That's kinda what we need to talk about," Starlight replied. "Ice cream?"
Author's Note
This story was requested by user Misty Rose, and is the first part of a two-part story. (Next chapter is next week.)
Whilst a certain Mr Hook has appeared in Starlight Glimmer TF stories, this is the first (to my knowledge) FtF Starlight Glimmer TF story.
Jed, in case anybody is wondering, is a reference to the real name given for Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D.
See you next week, y'all!
Tom's eyes continued to glance down in confusion at what had happened to his friend. Nontheless, he stepped through the door and closed it behind him, putting his coat on a coathanger and removing his gloves. "And I thought Nottingham was cold!" he said jokingly. "The Midwest sure can be freezing somedays!"
"Yep!" Starlight answered, the sunny optimism of her character clearly filtering through and starting to dilute Katrina's own personality. "Good thing I've got the heating turned on!"
"So, seeing as what we wanted to discuss is happening again," Tom continued, "shall we get on with it?" He took a seat at the table, suddenly noticing a large piece of wood on the table. "Any clue as to how the Staff of Sameness got in here?"
"Nope!" Starlight answered, popping a mug down in front of Tom and sitting down herself. "Or how it even did this. It doesn't even have any residual magic in it in the episode in which it appeared!"
"It was just an ordinary piece of wood, if I remember correctly," Tom replied. "Anyways, Jimmy unfortunately couldn't make it; something about heavy snow according to what I could make out on the phone. It's a shame, as his expertise would be helpful."
"You tell me," Starlight sighed. "So, how was Germany as a dragon?"
"Weird. Everything was so small, and the people were so confused. 'Vas' was all they asked. (That means 'what' in German.) Still, Jimmy got in there as well; he was Smoulder!"
Starlight briefly ignored the fact that Tom had used British spelling for the character's name, and interjected. "Any clues as to where the 'curse', as Jimmy calls it, comes from?"
"According to a friend of mine who works for AMTRAK," Tom answered, "it was the consequence of magic infusion irreversibly altering his DNA, causing it to be set off constantly. But coming into contact with him has produced similarly weird results for others. Troy and I were affected in Brentwood last summer, and again at Walt Disney World, which is probably when you were exposed."
"Tell me about it," Starlight answered. "That was not a fun moment in my life, not least how Jimmy, or Rosette, or whatever she was called, was being so blase about it. At least you were worried!"
"And for good reason," Tom answered in turn. "Both Jimmy and I have noticed that if we change gender, who we are attracted to reverses. When Vapour, I was attracted to guys! Then it reversed again the next day when I ended up as Rumble!"
"Good thing I've never changed gender," Starlight sighed. "So, I can only assume that we'll have to be very careful from now on and not do anything stupid."
"That," Tom replied, "and pray. That often helps. Remember that time at Youth Camp we brought the house down with 'Will the Circle be Unbroken'?"
"That was a fun way to round that one off," Starlight smiled. "Of course, Charlie is still convinced that we're a couple."
"Then he's silly," Tom sighed. He picked his cup up, and was going to put it back on the side when he slipped, and his face slammed into the ruins of the glasses from earlier that chaotic day. Groaning, he pushed himself up, only to glance in a mirror to see something was off.
His polo shirt had suddenly lost its collar, and had turned from the usual blue to a white, with a turquoise trim running along the top of the shirt. "Oh dear," he said, and headed off as quickly as he could. "Which door's the bathroom?"
"Third door on your left!" Starlight shouted in the distance. "Seems like you're having issues too."
Tom entered the room and closed the door behind him, glancing back to the mirror to notice he had inexplicably gained a green jacket, as well as his slacks changing into blue jeans before his very eyes. Not long after that, he gained a pair of white and red trainers on his feet, a change from his usual brown ones.
"Am I condemned to this fate for all time?" he asked, as his vocal chords began to shift. His normally Midland tones were replaced by one of the most nebulous accents on the planet, and his skin tone soon changed to a light peach shade compared to the usual tan he was familiar with. His brown eyes were replaced with blue ones, and his brown hair with red. His body shrank in stature as he was reduced to the height of approximately a fifteen year old. It felt odd to be so small and weedy again, and as he approached the door he crashed into it. "OW!"
Starlight heard the commotion, and ran to the bathroom door. "Are you OK?"
"No!" answered the voice of Sunburst. "I can't see where I'm going!" There was another loud thump as he crashed into something.
Starlight opened the door, to see an absolutely note perfect replica of Sunburst in front of her, who fell out of the door with a crash. "Glasses, please!"
Thinking quickly, Starlight went back, got her old glasses, and handed them to Sunburst. Before their very eyes, they changed into a pair of black circle rims, complete with repaired bridge and temples. Sunburst popped them on, and stood up. "This magic never ceases to amaze me," he said quietly.
"You and me both," Starlight sighed, before a loud whoosing noise in the front room alerted them. Running through the door, they saw two foals in the room. One was Starlight and the other Sunburst, thereby making it innapropriate to refer to them as fillies as one was a colt.
"How did we get here?" Filly Starlight asked.
"You're the one who ate too many sweets and caused us to fall through a portal!" Colt Sunburst replied.
"Am not!"
"Am too!"
"AM NOT!"
"AM TOO!"
Human Starlight huffed. "QUIET!"
The entire house fell silent almost immediately. "I've got two fillies in my house, and a lot of explaining to do to my family, who are coming over. Life is fun."
"I'm a colt!" colt Sunburst protested.
"Hold on," human Sunburst said, as his phone went. "Yes? Jimmy? There's a snowstorm and you need some help?" He put the phone down. "Starlight?"
"Which one?" Filly and human chorused together.
"Filly. Can you teleport me and human Starlight to Manteo, North Carolina?"
"Sure thing!" Filly Starlight lit up her horn, and they were in the instant teleported to Manteo, next to a very surprised Jimmy.
"That was fast!" he said.
Just then, a huge energy blast rocked the mess of ice and snow.
Author's Note
I can't be the only one here who had no clue what Sunburst's accent was, right?
The appearance of both pony Sunburst and Starlight is a callback to this story;
TGlim Glam Bam Again!
She's more than Barbie, you know!
JimmyHook19 ·
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And we shall return to these two at a later date. See you then!
