Every Little Thing she does is Magic!
Tom was busy upstairs in his house, typing an email, rather than sending a message in a bottle. Being at the very centre of a network of oddly gifted friends certainly required a degree of communication skill to keep everything written down. Since the last time they had all met in one place, their odd affliction (Tom was hesitant to call it a 'gift', given that randomly changing into fictional characters usually proved to be a hindrance rather than a help) had only gone on and on and on and on.
Although John and Steph had reported nothing happening, the energies in the case of Tom, Jimmy, and Katrina had seemingly decided to engage in an arms race as to who could become the most characters (although in Jimmy's case he had a massive headstart). This had seen itself manifest in several different forms; Jimmy becoming six in one day, Tom changing into most of the Disney Princesses in one week, and Katrina going through several Disney ones herself (followed by lots of teleporting, alternate and parallel Toms arriving as Big Hero Six characters, alongside a robot and lots of flying things). It had been quite the chaotic few days, and for things to be back to normal was a relief.
Tom had been working on this, trying to discern a pattern to any of what was happening, and was as of yet unable to find one. He and Katrina normally retained their own memories (barring that one with the rock lady, where Katrina's memories had been suppressed), but experienced their personalities merge with the character they had become, along with gaining bits and pieces of their memories (such as how Tom had somehow gained knowledge of Sweetie Belle's ice cream tastes when Button Mash), as well as incredible levels of confusion. As far as he was aware, he had experience only one memory wipe- Sky Stinger, but later regained his old memories.
Recently, however, his attention had been turned to something else. A series of strange discoveries had been found in many parts of the world, which threatened to change everything forever. He had already emailed Jimmy about it (and based on the prescence of replicas of Somnambula and Mage Meadowbrook's outfits in his room it appeared he was connected somehow), and was emailing a new friend of his about it as well, as a way of sending an SOS to the world.
Like so many people he knew, Tom had met Sara Smith on the internet. Whilst he'd initially had some humour in asking her 'aboot' herself, he'd been quick to drop the jokes about Canadian accents upon seeing it annoyed her (initially mispelling her name as 'Sarah' probably didn't help). Whilst she'd initially been very skeptical about his odd circumstances, he had soon struck up a friendship with her, and this had helped to smooth things over.
But now, Tom was typing an email about his strange discovery. Odd artefacts had been discovered across the globe, such as bracelets, odd green necklaces, a shield in Vindolanda, and in one case there was a report of a book in a bookshop with a strange language contained within the pages, a language that nobody could understand.
Tom thought he had spotted a pattern. The items found all closely resembled ones that had belonged to the Pillars of Old Equestria, characters from the ancient past of Equestria who had fought against the darkness for years. Tom's visits from Celestia had somewhat blurred the lines between fiction and reality, not least the discovery that Equestria actually existed on the other side of the murky veil of dimensions (he sincerely hoped that Chris Chan never found him as he would use this as evidence that his claims of a dimensional merge were true), but Celestia was at least a source of comfort for him if nothing else.
The most recent discovery was that of the skeleton of a unicorn in China, alongside a flower that had no signs of decay despite being carbon dated to being over 1,000 years old. Tom suspected that he knew the significance of that, and now that his email was finished he sent it. It was late evening in Calgary, Alberta, so Sara would be able to read it and respond with her thoughts.
Tom sighed as he sat back. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw a piece of wood sitting next to his bookshelf. "Eh?" he asked. "How did a piece of wood get in there? And why does it looked like the Staff of Sameness?"
Suddenly, he fell out of his chair and onto the piece of wood.
In the moments after the shock jumped to him, he suddenly recalled an incident a year ago, when he had gone to Kansas to visit Katrina to see how she was. When he opened the door, it had been Starlight Glimmer who had let him in! She had been changed into this character by the piece of wood, the Staff of Sameness (allegedly one of Meadowbrook's many items of power, although it was just a normal stick in the episode). It was in that moment he realised that this was the exact same piece of wood as that day.
"Oh, dear," he said, as he became of being covered in... pink fur? What shade was this, even? It had to be some sort of pink, somehow.
The colour soon proved to be the least of his worries, or before long her worries, as the first thing to go was his bits down there, changed into the female version. Her feet and hands were changed into hooves as she shrank in size through her clothes, leaving a baggy pile of mess as it continued. She gained a purple tale with a turquoise streak running through it. And as she pulled herself out of her shirt, and tried to stand up, her limbs snapping and reforming into fore and hind legs, her hair was changed into this colour pattern of purple and turquoise, much of it flowing down her dramatically elongated neck and rolling down the right hand side of her head. The front part was parted to the right as well to make space for a horn, which made something of a rude entrance upon her forehead as her eyes changed colour to a colour not disimilar to grape flavoured gatorade. Her face, of course, now consisted of a muzzle created from her nose and mouth being pulled forward, and to conclude the process her flanks gained a purple star with two turqoise flares coming off the top.
"Well, this took a turn for the interesting," Starlight Glimmer commented. "I've still got all my old memories though, and hopefully nothing else weird will happen."
She was wrong. The stick zapped her again and teleported her to a square in a big city. Suddenly, her brain was assailed by an infodump as a brass band wandered by playing a song by The Police. "Hey, I'm in Vancouver! Where My Little Pony is... well, was made. Though all of this constant teleporting does addle the mind somewhat, I know I have a home here. Wait, how do I know that? Was it fate that I was to be sent here? Given the stick was an artefact of Meadowbrook, it may be connected to the Pillars."
Just as suddenly, Sunburst teleported in. He looked very confused.
"OK, three things," he said to himself. "Firstly, why am I Sunburst? Second, why have I changed gender? And third, WHY AM I IN VANCOUVER?!"
"Are you feeling OK, Sunburst?" Starlight asked. Sunburst swung around to look at her.
"How can I possibly be OK?" Sunburst replied, panic striking his voice. "I've swapped genders, something which may I remind you is COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE without surgery and somehow warped across the country! So no, I'm not OK! OK?"
Starlight sighed, and shifted her mane a bit. "OK, sounds like we need to get somebody up to speed. There's been all sorts of weird phenomena going on across the world turning people into ponies, and it doesn't seem to be at all random."
"There's something incredibly random about finding items that belong to a character from a cartoon!" Sunburst replied. "Besides, I'm incredibly confused and disoriented right now! Switching species isn't fun, but genders too? This is like something out of a weird horror movie!"
Starlight looked surprised. "So you switched from female to male? That's a first. I'll need to write that one down. Until you get everything figured out, I'll happily accomodate you in my home in this part of the world."
"Won't people react weirdly to ponies?" Sunburst asked.
"We're in Vancouver!" Starlight replied. "The home of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! Besides, we're in Canada. They accept practically anypony!"
Suddenly, there was a bright flash in the sky. "What was that?" Sunburst asked.
"It came from the viscinity of the Lions Gate Bridge!" Starlight said. "I'll get things set up at home, you go investigate."
"Yeah, thanks, let the guy who's all discombobulated investigate the weird thing," Sunburst grumbled.
Starlight made her way down streets, keen to avoid the fallout of becoming a pony and suddenly having a mountain of extra data shoved into her brain like an unwanted injection into her mind. She trotted along, no longer questioning why she knew where she was going. It had been frightening the first time, but for the most part she'd got used to it and just accepted these circumstances now. In fact, she'd become so familiar with it that switching from one set of pronouns to another was very easy for her.
She opened the door, and to her shock her father was standing there. Seemingly on a call. To Stellar Flare.
This was the worst possible timing, the interfering mother in cahoots with the embodiment of the embarrassing dad. "Oh, look who it is!" he said, turning his screen. "If it isn't my pumpky wumpkin! How are you, sweetheart?"
Starlight growled. "Dad. I told you to stop doing that. I thought you'd learned to cut the crap."
"Relax, I was only messing with ya," he replied. "Now how can I help? Drink? Cookie? Anything else?"
"Sunburst will probably be back here soon, possibly with somepony else," Starlight said. "Three coffees and a tray of cakes, if you wouldn't mind."
"I'll pop over as well," Stellar Flare said, over the mobile communication device. "I can only imagine you may need some help given that Starpoint is out, and Sunspot is a little busy at the factory tonight."
"Don't you have a business to run?" Firelight asked.
"Who phones for a wedding plan at nine at night?" Stellar Flare replied. "See you shortly."
Firelight shuffled off as Starlight began rearranging all of the chairs, tables, and items in the front room to leave space for food, drink, and books, as she suspected there would be a lot of reading, and re reading, and re re reading. After what felt like half an hour, she heard the doorbell ring, and she went to answer it. She was no longer so lonely, and so spoke up. "Hello Sunburst!" she said. "How was your stargazing?!
"Not great, Starlight, to be honest," Sunburst replied. "Too much cloud and light pollution. But I did find this guy at the top of the Lions Gate Bridge."
'Starlight' took one look at Starswirl and nearly fainted. "Y- you're Starswirl the Bearded!" she exclaimed. "None other than the Father of the amniomorphic spell, the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era, the creator of more than two hundred spells, and-"
"-I even have a shelf in the Canterlot library of magic named after me," Starswirl finished. "I appreciate the sentiment, but sadly we lack the time. We must work fast and now, or else we are in grave danger."
"What sort of grave danger?" Sunburst and Starlight asked.
"The world is going to end type of danger," Starswirl explained.
It seemed as though she had been hurled into another adventure, and Starlight would play her part in the coming days.
Author's Note
Starlight Glimmer is something of a marmite character in the MLP community; ever since her first appearance in The Cutie Map a little over 5 years ago she has divided opinion, with some loving her and some hating her. Her role in this story will become clearer in the future, but for now enjoy this story tying into the events of Fire and Faith and The Sorceror's Apprentice, where Starswirl and Sunburst are from respectively;
ELegends of Equestria: Fire and Faith
A brony goes on a great adventure. Being one of the greatest unicorns of all time is an amazing added bonus.
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TLegends of Equestria: the Sorceror's Apprentice
The mysteries shall forever be uncovered, and a great threat unveiled...
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Starlight's mother being called Starpoint is a nod to a fan theory, as she never appeared on screen in the show's run, leading to suggestions ranging from deceased parent to being away on business trips (or by far the wackiest one, turned into a potted plant). Here's an EqG image of the Light family I especially like.
The chapter title is an allusion to the episode Every Little thing she Does, which in turn is a reference to Every Little Thing she Does is Magic, a song released by The Police in 1981. I have hidden quite a few references to the band's songs throughout this story. Can you spot them all?
