"It's been a day." She set a cloven hoof on the one-way mirror she knew was one way. She was on the wrong side of it. "Please..."

I was there, on the other side of the mirror. Looking to a doctor, who had returned from kirin-hood without any lasting effects we could see. "Well." I could tell she heard it, her ears pricking. "You're the largest one, strangely enough. Also, as you've noticed, you haven't returned to your normal form, making it impossible to do the usual tests for Ponid infection. Director?"

Oh sure, the buck was passed right back to me. "I'm going in." Not like I could be infected. I slipped through the door, only remembering on the other side that I hadn't used my keycard. I was the worst security risk in there, I swear. Good thing I was on their side.

"Hey there." I waved at the big kirin. I mean, shoot, they were about double the normal size of the other ones. She had pretty eyes, which seemed a strangely common thing among ponid patients. She was, you know, a she. I read she was a she beforehand, good on her! We were both normal female ladies... as far as that went with ponid. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

"You're the director, right?" She trotted towards me, her eyes looking me up and down. "This isn't... normal, I mean, even for Ponid. Look." She raised a cloven hoof to her eye level. "Most of the ones I've seen are different left and right. Mine are exactly the same."

I had managed to miss that, but it seemed so obvious with it pointed out. My eyes were still mismatched. I could have made them match, but, eh, it was my look. "This was a spell. How much were you told, about how this happened?"

"Almost nothing," she sighed gently. "I'm stuck here, aren't I?"

I let my focus of vision shift. Infrared, radioactivity ticks, there we are, Ponid. The room was... cold. She was... ponid free? Huh... From what I read, she was right in the worst place possible. Unless Ponid couldn't affect someone who'd gone ahead and just... become a kirin. Kirin do not get ponid... Did it... die in her?

Of course, that raised further problems. Like Silver Spoon, technically, she could walk out of the lab and would present literally zero risk to anyone, other than 'oh god, what is that?!'. She was ponid clean.

And I couldn't tell her that, not right then. "Right along with me," I gently answered. I should have kept it a secret, but, man... I couldn't. "Look, it's like this. You're a special case, in a good way."

"I don't feel that good." She reached up, gently poking her horn. "I want my hands. I want clothes that fit. I didn't get a new name. I didn't get a new way of thinking." She raised a brow at me. "I don't have ponid. Maybe it's worse." Her hooves went to her face. "Do you have any idea how much effort... You were a woman beforehand, right?"

"Yeah." I offered a hand towards her. "Let's swap names. I'm Eri. You?"

"Susan." She placed her hoof in my hand and we shook. "Look, we both wanted hair off our faces, and now look at me." She returned her hoof to her cheeks. "No amount of shaving is going to make this look right."

I reached for her head and she recoiled. Right, she didn't have ponid. She never had the wiring that made her accept, even enjoy, a good earscratching or headpatting. "Sorry, not trying to move in on your space."

"No... no." She took a slow deep breath. "I know what you were doing. I've done it myself. Ponies look up at you with their big smiles. You just... reach out and give them a little pet, and they smile more. It's cute... But..."

Then she was on fire. Blue-red flames engulfed her as she let out a great roar, heat washing over the room. I reached up, wiping off the soot off my fire suit's visor. "I don't get it!" she hissed as she thrashed in place a moment, tail lashing about, spreading the fire around. "Help me, Eri! Make it all stop!"

"Director, are you alright?" asked a worried scientist over the intercom from outside.

"I'm alright." Thank goodness for noodle powers. "Now, Susan, deep breath. Let's relax... This is a normal kirin thing, which you are."

"It is?" She kicked her bed suddenly, even as it fell apart, still on fire. "I hate it! How can anyone live like this?!"

"We have one that's been living with this for a while, our first, actually." I kept my voice low and even, trying to be a gentle rock for her to cling to, emotionally. "I'd like to introduce you to her. She has a fireproof room too, which we'll get for you."

The fires guttered out just as suddenly. Susan was looking at me, tears starting to well from her eyes. "I'll have to be alone, forever... How can anyone be safe around me if I... could hurt them at any moment, burn them, burn everything..."

I reached, and she didn't shrink that time. I gently pet over one of her long ears and she colored. "I guess I really am a horse, uh, kirin? Whatever... What am I going to do?"

"I wasn't joking." Since she seemed to be more comfortable, I moved my attention to her mane, usually a safe place to deliver gently scratches, and she seemed to be relaxing, just a little. "You should meet her. Her name is Autumn Blaze, and I can already imagine she wants to meet you."

"Isn't she scared?" accused Susan with a sudden frown, a little fire dancing around her legs, but not entirely combusting.

"So far as we can tell, kirin just... don't burn." I lifted my shoulders. "Have you taken your temperature recently? You run hot all the time, and we haven't seen one get hurt by a fire... ever. Maybe if we really tried, like industrial works? But why would we go that far to hurt one of you?"

"That would be illegal," noted the scientist outside. "And unethical." Well, good. Glad I wasn't the only one that thought it might be wrong to experiment much with that.

"Since you're here." I turned to the one way mirror. "I want to take her out of here, get her signed on properly as a patient. Any reason I shouldn't?"

"Oh... god..." Susan sank, burying her face under her hooves. "I'm a patient! I wore the PPE. I washed my hands! I did everything right!" She wasn't angry, I could tell, no fire, but she was sad, very sad, sobbing into her hooves. "This is so unfair!"

"It really is." I could imagine my old, simple, plump self. I did not want to become Eri, and yet, there I was. "But let's make the best of it. Want to meet a new friend?"

Susan peeked up around a hoof. "We never met. How can you even... know if they want to talk to me?" She sat up slowly, wiping away her tears with a loud sniff. "God, I'm... I have a tail, and these ears, and... I'm barely even slightly human... Deep breaths, Susan. Deep... breaths..." The smoldering fires died as she began to calm herself. "One two three..."

She had some experience meditating. Good! "Come with me."

"Keep her to fire safe areas," warned the scientist.

Which was fine. It was a response, and it wasn't a word of objection, so I led Susan back out the door. That time I remembered to use my card.

Autumn nuzzled into the furry bottom of Sunburst's chin, nosing at his goatee. "You're still handsome in my eyes."

He gently wrapped his arms around her, snuggling up against her. "Thanks. I mean, um, I admit, I miss the horn."

"You don't need the horn." Autumn sat up, pushing against the ground until she was standing over him. "The horn is the flute. The horn wasn't ever the problem. It was the lips. You felt how it's supposed to work now."

He inclined his head faintly. "But it's... all together?"

Autumn rolled her eyes before thrusting a hoof at him. "Stand up." She helped him rise, then crashed her head forward, clacking her horn against his. "Our horns just... carry the wind. It's up to our lips to make the different notes. I saw notes out of you. I saw it when you were a pony, and you did it again, as a kirin."

She backed up a few steps, a bright smile on her face. "So I want you to just pretend you're still my Sun'rin and play me a song!" She waggled her brows. "Technically, you weren't told to not do magic, 'cause you couldn't. I think you can! Prove me right!" She began to bounce in place. "Do it!"

That's when I knocked. "I'm going to pretend you're not trying to get around me in clever ways," I sang through the door.

Autumn squeaked, eyes going wide, and setting herself on fire without trying. "Get it, get it!" she hissed sharply at Sunburst.

So it was Sunburst that opened the door to see me and Susan. His eyes went to me first, then wandered to the great big kirin. His jaw dropped. "Oh... wow, you're... big."

"You don't have to stare," muttered Susan a little sullenly.

"I'm sorry, really." He raised a hoof to his chest. "I'm Sunburst. Nice to meet you." His eyes went back to me. "Director?"

"You can call me Eri." I gave a smile. "I'm not here to chastise you or give orders, promise. Susan here is a kirin, as you've noticed. I was hoping to introduce her to--"

"--coming!" came Autumn's voice as she burst into view from behind Sunburst, patting down a bit of fire. "Hey--woah!" Her eyes fixed on Susan, going all the way up to the big kirin's horn. "Wow! You're..."

"Hideous..."

"I was going to say amazing!" Autumn threw her hooves wide. "Wow, huh. I can't place it, but I feel like... I know you, somehow? Like we met before? Anyway hi! Wow, woah, cool!" She bounced right out the door to inspect Susan shamelessly.

I cleared my throat softly. "Susan, Autumn Blaze. Autumn, Susan." Speaking of... "Did you have a last name you want us to use?"

Susan quirked an odd smile on her snout. "That may as well be dead. This feels so strange... So, uh... hi?" She raised a cloven hoof at Autumn. "I'm Susan Smith, a perfectly normal woman that worked in a bio lab for years before a song put me on hooves and makes me... kinda explode on fire?"

Autumn's cheerful examination crashed to a halt. "Oh."

Susan turned to face Autumn, who had stopped behind her. "What's wrong?"

Autumn began rubbing along a leg. "Oh man, please... don't be angry with me..."

"Why would I... You did it." Susan was suddenly glaring at Autumn, towering over her. "You did this?!" She waved a hoof over herself as flames erupted up over her, going full nirik without a pause. "You ended my life!" she howled at the cowering Autumn. "You hurt a lot of my friends!"

"I'm sorry!" she wailed, curled miserably. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Do you know how much damage you did?" She smashed a hoof down, the tile cracking, fires hot enough to make me back away. "Do you care? You sure look happy! Good for you!" She roared the last word across Autumn, flames lapping at the smaller kirin. Though, as predicted, Autumn did not seem to be melting under the heat, though she looked quite distressed, likely more from being shouted at.

I was about to intercede when a different pony jumped into things, Sunburst rushing ahead of Susan. "Please, calm down, um, Susan? That's a nice name."

Susan seemed confused, the flames faltering a moment. "Who are you?" She demanded, still burning, but not raging at him. Likely good for him, seeing as he wasn't nearly as fireproof.

Sunburst reached up to adjust his glasses nervously. "Oh, uh, Sunburst. Nice to meet you, ma'am." He inclined his head a bit. "You're angry, for good reason! Autumn didn't mean to do that, and we're working really hard to make sure it never happens again. Um... So... if you could not scare her before she does that?"

"I'm really sorry," assured Autumn with the biggest pout a kirin ever made. Which wasn't that hard, there not being many kirin pouts I had seen. "How can I make it up to you?"

"That is literally impossible!" She thrust up a quivering hoof before she... flopped. Right down onto her belly, the fires guttering out, her eyes brimming with tears. "My life is officially over."

I set a hand between them, floating into a better position for mediation. "Emotions are running high, I get that. Nopony here was trying to ruin the other's day, promise."

"Day?" Susan sat up tall. "I am a mother. My child came home and I wasn't there. I got a call from a concerned neighbor who had, thank god, took him in and reached out to here to find me. I got to listen to him sob. I couldn't promise him I'd be home then. I still can't. I may never be home... I'll never..." She wilted, sagging. "My husband, bless his soul, called. He says he understands, but he really really doesn't. How can he? How long until we're divorced, and who can even blame him?!"

Sunburst muttered something unintelligable. Autumn rolled her eyes. "Ugh, Sun, not every guy can appreciate how hot kirin are. Still, wow, that's... awful." She spread her hooves left and right. "I'm so sorry! Come on inside." She started trotting for the door. "We got Sunburst's room fireproofed too. Seemed like a good idea."

"Who is he?" Susan asked, following her. "I mean, besides a random pony friend?"

"That's Sunburst." She pointed back at Sunburst, who was going in with them. They were all inside, the door was glowing, about to close. Should I go after them? Nah. I let them get to know each other. I wondered briefly if Susan would feel better knowing that at least one pony thought Kirin were pretty things.

I had more work to do, and they seemed to be getting things settled.

Ane email was waiting for me.

From: Theodore Svelte, VP
To: You

Good day,
I have been informed there was quite the accident at your facility. It is both worrying, and interesting. If this 'magic' that was used to the change can be controlled, it could be the answer to returning our patients to human shape. If they are also not shedding infectious ponid material, it means we can release them safely and efficiently. This is such a large opportunity, I've been given permission to have you proceed immediately. That is now your #1 priority, besides the well-being of your subjects.

This may, or may not, be the start of a new tomorrow. We don't believe in assuming results. Take care of your subjects with the assumption that they will remain as they are. HR has been informed that magically-able subjects who assist in this project will be given a $200 stipend per week. I leave it in your capable hands to make sure only those who are helpful are enlisted in that, and to help them spend the funds.

Relatedly, we've been informed you're in contact with Pacifica. Reach out and see if they have able subjects that could help. If they have any promising subjects, we'll ship them to you. We'll cover those expenses.

New Medicine for a Better Tomorrow,
Theodore Svelte, VP
Pi Labs

Well... damn it. Damn all of it. That was a heck of a curveball. I scowled at the screen, reading and re-reading it. I was being given a huge new project that could, maybe, change the whole trajectory of how Ponid was being approached. There were a thousand 'if's in the way, but it could work, and, as scientists working in a science building, it was our job to explore that.

Lucky me.

It meant... I reached over and slapped a cartoonishly large red button. "Twilight?"

Twilight turned towards the camera in her lab. "Director? Hello!" I could hear her hoofsteps coming closer. "I think I'm getting close to an answer for you." Oh, right, the reason I didn't want the ponies doing any magic, ugh... "Did you want an update?"

"Yes and no." I frowned, not that she could see it. "Go ahead and tell me what you've come up with." Good news on that front would be lovely.

"Well..." I could hear her hooves clopping as she adjusted her stance. "Near as I can tell, no one pony casting a spell will ever trigger a cascade in a not-unicorn. It has to be another pony that not only can do magic, but understands the magic being used." Something clattered, marker noises? "So, as you can see--"

"--Let me turn the camera on." I flicked over to Twilight, who was reared up in front of a whiteboard, new marks appearing on it as she worked her marker busily.

"Despite his inability to cast spells," she explained, having drawn a crude face of Sunburst. "He understood what notes were being used, and he was studying the spell as it was being performed very intently." She drew little concentration lines around his head. "Which put him in the right mental state, very focused, but not all there in himself, and he began to, for lack of better word, sing along."

"Now, then you had me." She dutifully drew herself with big glasses, swirls in them for extra anime geek iconography. "I saw he had started performing magic. What do I do? Well, I start monitoring intensely, of course. Which means I was in the exact same mental state." She drew those concentration lines. "And, pow, I fell right in. Now, see, before this point, only unicorns who knew magic and were focused on the act could have started this cascade."

I was getting the idea. "But it started skipping to unicorns who were not paying attention. How did that happen?"

"I'm so glad you asked." Twilight hopped and twirled in place. "With the help of a volunteer that is not magically active, they're a pegasus, I was able to determine something fascinating!"

"Which is...?" I rolled a hand at Twilight, not that she could see me.

"Magic has a sound!" She clopped her hooves and looked so self-satisfied. "It's very faint, but you get enough unicorns working in harmony, the sound overlaps and with the power of constructive interference, it gets just loud enough for unicorns to hear without being in direct sight."

"And like a song hummed down the hallway... they just started to sing along, not even knowing what they were doing..."

"Exactly!" She threw her marker across the room. where it bounced and missed its can, landing on the floor. She did not bother approaching it. "Get enough unicorns doing it and less attuned ponies begin to hear it. Then you're in real danger, because they can't follow it with their horn, which they don't have, so they sing, out loud. Now everyone's falling into it."

"Every single creature." She inclined her head at the camera and me. "Not knowing what it does or why it's so catchy, they just sing, and even their not-magical singing produces more constructive interference, helping it spread and making it stronger." She raised a hoof at me. "And we all had cloven hooves. Oh! Were you affected?"

Actually... "I wasn't." Earworms were no match of the power of noodles. "Starlight was, but it wore off. I swear she was mildly disappointed."

"Kirin have many interesting biological adaptions," agreed Twilight. "But so do unicorns. I'm perfectly happy with either phenotype." She stroked her chin. "Oh, right. I was distracted. So, the point is how to prevent a cascade, at least any time you're not specifically wanting one."

"Yes." I grinned at the camera. "Tell me you found something. I do appreciate you have a better understanding of how it happened, don't get me wrong."

"You need to know how something starts to reliably get it to stop," spoke Twilight as if she were reading from a textbook somewhere. "The first basic thing is a safety measure we didn't realize we needed to have. If you're not specifically participating in a spell, you need to not watch another unicorn that rigorously. I would suggest, in fact, that all such monitoring be done with a time delayed video at best, so even if we tried to harmonize, we'd fail."

"Twilight, you are our expert in this field." I wriggled fingers in the air. "I want you to educate all the spellcasters we have with this. We can't have that accident again. That aside, if it starts cascading, can we stop it? We really need a way to put the breaks on that chain reaction before the reactor explodes. Next time it may be more than a new round of species dysphoria."

"I'm on the case!" She saluted the camera. "I'll prod into ways to stop a cascade, though an ounce of prevention here is what I think will work the best in the long run. Still, yes, it would be good to have." She rubbed her chin with a hoof. "Oh, since we have this... can I resume my research?" Oh, that smile. That sweet sweet smile, her eyes shining with hope.

"I actually have an assignment for you."

She covered that distance almost worryingly fast, her face right up on the camera. "Is it a magic assignment?"

I reached through the camera, gently pushing that excitable nerd of a horse back. "You're lucky I like you," I laughed as I drew my arm back. "Okay, so, the top brass got wind of the cascade, and they see possibilities. If you can revise the spell Sunburst made to turn a pony into a human..."

She applied a hoof to her own forehead. "How did I not think of that already?!" She threw a hoof aside. "Well, I have no interest in returning to homo sapien. I have a working sapient mind, all I need out of that package. I rather enjoy being a unicorn, but I can see why they'd be interested. Consider me on the case! I will need the assistance of my #1 spell designer, however. So...?"

She was rolling the ball back towards me. "Of course you can bring on your #1 designer and your #1 caster." Actually... "Come to think of it, your caster made a new friend today. She will need magical tutoring, but I think it will be good for her to have something to focus on besides her... condition. She was human before the cascade put her on cloven hooves."

Twilight hissed softly. "As much as I have grown to enjoy my form, I can still imagine how terrible she must feel." She raised a hoof to her chin. "Though, she may be our first test subject, depending on how she feels about the idea of returning to humanity. How exciting! I'm on the case!" She slapped the top of the camera, but it remained on. Not like we installed a turn-off button up there.

Thinking I wasn't watching, she turned away, tail swaying as she sung a little song of victory to herself. "Gonna do some science, gonna do some magic. Gonna do it all because I'm Twilight!"

"I'm still here," I gently reminded with a lopsided smile. Silly dork. "I'll see you later. Be careful. Oh! This comes with a little bonus for your efforts."

"Lovely." She didn't turn, already jotting numbers and figures. The money didn't really impress her much, I figured.

Author's Note

Welcome to a new era, maybe? What could go wrong!?

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