Author's Note

Hello everypony! It's me Midnight Blitzer and I'm finally writing again. Yay!

A Sudden Change

Chapter 15:

“So what are we going to do now?” Midnight asked as he began to rock on his chair only to be stopped by Discord who appeared behind him.

“Ok that’s enough. Rainbow, stop it or I’m going to ban you from the next challenge.” The draconequus warned, causing the cyan pegasus who was also rocking her chair to freeze in place. “Thank you.”

“Aren’t we going to have a break right now? We were inside that castle for a long time.” Shining Armor asked. Indeed what he said was true. It was now November 14th and the sun was hanging low in the sky. The chaotic lord thought about it for a few moments before shaking his head.

“Nah that won’t be necessary. You guys can rest while taking the quests. But anyway I think I found what we’ll be doing next.” Discord said as he pulled up a screen that only he could see. After scrolling through the list he smiled as he pressed some invisible buttons before causing a splash potion to appear on his hand. Immediately Moonlight and Shining Armor tensed up while Midnight and Rainbow looked indifferently at it.

“What’s that?” Moonlight yelled, knowing that whatever it was it would be bad for them. The chaos lord simply smiled as he began to toss it up into the air, making sure to catch it on its way down.

“It’s a genderswap potion. Here catch.” Discord said simply as he tossed the potion to Rainbow Dash. The mare simply looked it over, not sure what to do with the potion. An idea formed in her mind, but when she tried to smash it against her head the only thing she got was a concussion as the glass withstood the blow. The chaos lord simply rolled his eyes before snapping his fingers, causing the potion to reappear in his hand. “Alright let’s do it the other way.” Discord said as he snapped his fingers once more.

All of a sudden the four of them (not including Rainbow) appeared in front of a flower field. Immediately Moonlight scooted away upon sensing the smell, while Shining grimace as he realized what the quest might be.

Midnight meanwhile seemed to be the only pony unphased by what was going on.

“Wow! Those purple flowers look beautiful!” The blue pegasus exclaimed but before he could step forward and take one of them, Moonlight immediately grabbed him and pulled him back.

“I wouldn’t recommend getting near them Midnight. Those flowers right there are ponedrakes and well… let’s just say I’d go wild if you brought me one, or even had the scent of one.” The purple thestral warned with the occasional gasp for air as she found it difficult to maintain her cool, and that was with her being a good few years away. Discord simply smiled.

“Yeah, what she said is true, and here’s where the challenge comes into play.” The draconequus said before pointing forwards. “Beyond this endless field of ponedrakes is a mystical sword. If you manage to bring it to me, consider this quest finished.” Discord said. Midnight simply smiled.

“Well that sounds easy. I’ll go get it!” The blue pegasus exclaimed, but before he could spread his wings he suddenly was pulled back by Discord.

“There’s something I need to mention. Whichever of you decides to march forward must also take the genderswap potion, and you can’t use your wings or horn either. Here, let me take care of that.” Discord said as he snapped his finger. With a burst of smoke Midnight and Moonlight suddenly lost their wings while Shining lost their horn. Immediately the two latter ones began to shout in protest.

“Hey! My wings! Give them back!” Moonlight yelled while Shining growled at Discord. Midnight as usual became the outlier, gazing at his back before shrugging.

“Alright, that sounds fair.”

Moonlight and Shining simply turned around and gazed at him with owl eyes while Discord raised an eyebrow before shrugging.

“Are you sure you want to go there? If so, you do know that you’ll be turned into a mare right?” The chaos lord asked. Before Midnight could open his mouth, Moonlight ran towards him and clamped it shut while looking at him.

“You don’t need to do that. As stallions you’d be turned into mares, thus I think it’s only logical that I turn myself into a stallion and walk towards there.” The purple thestral said with a soft smile. Shining simply shook his head in the background.

“As much as I appreciate your volunteering, and I would’ve accepted if it were any other month, note that we’re still in November. If you were to turn into a stallion, you’d end up suffering through No Nut November like any other stallion. Worse still would be if you encountered a mare, and with your sudden hormone shift you’d probably lose control.”

“And I would immediately end the competition right there.” Discord said as he continued what Shining said. The white stallion simply frowned at him for what he was forcing them into. Moonlight’s ears flattened before flaring when she heard Shining’s next sentence.

“I think Midnight should go.”

Moonlight immediately spun around to face Shining, who blinked at her sudden movement. The white stallion began to sweat as Moonlight’s eye began to twitch and her fur began to tense up.

“WHAT!?”

Shining and Discord immediately covered their ears as Moonlight yelled out loud with hurricane winds, causing both of them to be pushed back a considerable distance. The wind eventually died down, however, Moonlight seemed incredibly ticked at Shining for what he was proposing. Mustering up his courage to face the enraged thestral, the white unicorn gazed down at Moonlight as he exerted his authority.

“As Captain of the Royal Guard, I order you to sit down Moonlight. Midnight is more than eager to take on this challenge, and with his neurotoxin training and hyper innocence acting as a buffer, he’s our only real option here. I’d succumb to the flowers while you’d succumb to your hormones, the risk is too high if either of us goes. Let him go.” Shining ordered, yet even while facing a superior like the Captain of the Royal Guard, Moonlight had a priority above her love for the military.

Midnight.

“No! I can’t let you do this! Midnight is innocent, I have to agree on that, but he might be too innocent to realize the danger of the mission! What if he’s not completely resistant to ponedrakes he ends up succumbing to his urges, or what if a stallion tries to mount him while he’s covered in that scent! You do realize what ponedrakes do to mares right!? I can't, I just can’t let him go!” Moonlight yelled before turning around to face Discord. “Discord! Let’s start this thing! Give me that potion now!” The purple thestral yelled. The draconequus began to search his pockets only to pull nothing.

“I don’t have it.” Discord said though Moonlight could see the subtle smile he had on his face. Noticing the reflection in his eye, the purple bat pony turned around before having an expression of shock on her face as she saw Midnight holding splash potion in his hand, looking innocent as ever.

“Thanks Discord! Don’t worry Moonlight, I'll come back safe and sound!” The blue pegasus said before throwing it high in the air. Moonlight immediately let out a scream of panic as she rushed towards Midnight, trying to knock him away and hopefully receive the potion herself. She leaped into the air and spread her wings… only to realize that she had no more wings. With a *thud* the purple thestral fell onto the ground and looked up just in time to see the potion come crashing down on Midnight, releasing its purple contents over him and covering him in light.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Moonlight cried out on the ground, picking herself up and looking in shock. She immediately spun around towards Shining with an urge to hit him.

“This is your fault Shining! If you hadn’t said anything Midnight would’ve handed me the potion and I would’ve transformed! Not him! Not him… not him…” Moonlight’s voice began to trail off as she began to cry on the ground, feeling defeated. Shining simply sighed.

“I think you know why this is not my fault, otherwise you would’ve told me about your plan of talking with Discord. But no, you knew I would say no, but you went anyway without my authority. And well now we’re here.” The white stallion stated. Moonlight immediately tensed up as guilt began to fill her heart.

Now she felt even more sad and depressed than ever. If anything bad happened to Midnight, it would be her fault.

And all because she wanted to make him her stallion and exit the friend zone she found herself stuck in ever since she met him.

“I’m… I-I’m… I’m-”

No matter how hard she tried to say she was sorry, she just couldn’t. She felt too guilty at the moment to say anything. Understanding what she wanted to say though, Shining nodded solemnly while noticing the light beginning to die down.

“It’s ok. It’s ok. We all make mistakes here and there, but we’ll ride out of this eventually. Stand up Moonlight, your friend is nearly done changing.” The white stallion said. With resignation, the purple thestral stood up and looked where her friend was just as the light died down.

And immediately all three spectators blinked.

“Uh… Discord? I think the potion didn’t work.” The blue pegasus in front of them stated as it looked at itself but couldn’t find anything that seemed off about it. After snapping his fingers and producing a scanner, Discord scanned the pony before reading the results.

“It says that Midnight is now a mare… but where’s the difference?” The draconequus exclaimed out loud. Meanwhile, Moonlight had walked over to Midnight and inspected ‘her’ new body. Using her sharper eyes she soon noticed some differences, though subtle.

“Huh… your mane is a bit longer, and smoother…” The thestral stated as she placed a hoof over Midnight’s mane. “Your build has shifted by just a tiny bit. I guess that makes sense since a shift from a form like Shining’s would be very noticeable.” Moonlight said. Midnight simply giggled, and like the rest of ‘her’ features ‘her’ voice had changed by just a tiny bit.

“See! I told you that I couldn’t see myself change that much if I was a mare!” The blue pegasus exclaimed, causing Moonlight to remember when they were talking about NNN and how she deadpanned at that statement.

“Yeah… hey where you’re going?” Moonlight asked as Midnight began to walk away.

“Towards the flower patch obviously. I’m going to win this quest for us. See ya!” Midnight said. Before Moonlight could stop the blue pegasus from venturing, he already had taken the first step.