...and Let the Old Year go
The Jolly Roger bobbed along the waters of the Outer Banks, on a cool Spring morning. The sun, although in the sky, was yet to cast its beams down upon the tired old world, and the boats were mercifully nowhere to be seen, so nobody could see that the boat was being commanded by a group of girls with strange skin conditions.
"I could do this all week!" Lyra called over to Vinyl.
"You kidding? This is sweet!" Vinyl shouted back. "That choppy bit was great! I almost lost my goggles, though."
"I was almost parted with my lunch," Octavia sighed. "Not fun, having to evacuate one's meals."
"Those two can be a bit crazy," Bon-Bon admitted. "But they're fun to be around."
"I can imagine," Octavia sighed.
"What is that meant to imply?" asked Vinyl. "Anyways, any logical pattern to any of this?"
"Why would there be a logical pattern to any of this?" Lyra countered. "I think, if I recall correctly, I was at Corolla, or something like that?"
"Corolla sounds like some sort of stomach bug," Octavia said quietly. She really wasn't enjoying this at all.
"I recall a place that was Quackers," Bon-Bon said next, trying to continue to piece their story together. "Chased by a flying belt. Trumps anything Twilight and company went through, eh?"
"I wouldn't be so sure..." Octavia stayed uncertain.
"Oh, come on, stop being such a worry wart!" Vinyl exclaimed, briefly letting go of the tiller to rub Octavia's shoulder. "We got each other, Tavi! Surely that's an indicator enough that things are OK, right?"
Octavia rolled her eyes. "That's precisely why I'm worried."
"Anyway," Vinyl snorted, not sure whether to laugh or be offended at that remark, continued with the general theme of the conversation. "That spooky house sure was a weird place to get it, huh? Don't think I'll ever be heading there again."
"It did seem to have a lot of odd things, and most people only know it through a very cheesy film," Octavia replied. "I was at a lighthouse."
"So, all we've ascertained is that there's no logic whatsoever to what's been going on," Lyra noted. "Funny. It's a mystery."
"ANTHROPOLOGY!" they all chorused.
After falling about laughing, and nearly tipping the boat over, Vinyl took up the conversation. "So, does anybody have any idea where we are meant to be going? The sky isn't being much help at the moment."
"I think there's another person out here, somebody I knew a long time ago. There's a road sign for a place called Ocrakoke, if that helps," Lyra said. "Although we don't have dubstep to guide us in this time, which is a bit of a bummer."
"It's quite a relief!" Bon-Bon and Octavia said, in unison.
"You two can be so boring sometimes," Vinyl grumbled, as she adjusted the engine. "Cool. When did this boat gain a petrol engine?"
"I dunno," Lyra replied. "Why don't you ask the author?"
"Err, who?"
"Never mind. Full speed ahead!"
The boat zoomed forwards, and off towards a quay to dock there now.
For those of you who like reading maps and plotting charts, the Jolly Roger had passed along the southern side of Hatteras and then turned northward into Hatteras Inlet before heading back southwesterly across Pamlico Sound. A rather odd journey, but it made sense to those sailing about (not least as Vinyl was struggling to control the boat's petrol engine). However, we will momentarily switch focus to somebody else.
Indeed, Jimmy once more. He was in Ocracoke, a town known for many things. The first is Blackbeard. The second is a cemetery unusual for the region in that all of those interred there are British. They were all sailors in life, the crew of the HMT Bedfordshire, an armed naval trawler and submarine tracking vessel ironically sunk by a German U Boat. As moving the bodies back to Britain would be impractical in the wartime conditions, the decision was made to bury them there (those whose bodies weren't recovered are commemorated on a memorial in Lowestoft, the ship's home port). It was also home to the United States' oldest operating lighthouse. Ocracoke had been in continuous operation between 1823 and 2020, barring a few pauses for equipment upgrades.
Jimmy, however, was in the Pirate's Chest. No, he wasn't in a physical chest. He was in a shop that sold pirate merchandise. He was looking through the many rows of pirate things, when he came across a purple headband with what appeared to be diamonds set into it.
"Looks pretty. It might make a nice gift for Katrina or Steph if either decide to visit."
Jimmy stopped himself as he had a series of horrified realizations and recollections of past events involving these things.
It was late when he got back, and as he stepped through the door, he spotted something on the floor next to the doormat. It was a pink hairband, though why it should be inside his house was beyond him.
He put his bags down, and picked it up. He felt a sudden jolt through his body, and as he staggered back in surprise, he suddenly got stomach cramps.
“I’m gonna be sick!” he exclaimed, as he ran to his bathroom and locked the door. He flicked the light on and looked in the mirror, and what he saw shocked him.
Sitting on a table was another hairband, colored cream. Jimmy was on form with headbands, as well we know from another tale recounted on here:
Jimmy walked away from it. "Nope, I am NOT falling for that again!" he said. As he sat in his chair, he heard an odd whirring noise.
"Oh golly, how I'd love to get out of here!" it said.
Jimmy glanced about himself. "Who was that?" he said.
A loud whooshing and roaring noise started up, and the hairband took to the air. It flew along and lodged itself in Jimmy's hair. "No, not again!"
It was another day in Manteo, and Jimmy was thinking about one of his personal favorite characters. He had plenty of time to think about them, as no new episodes were forthcoming at this sad hour, and this made him sad. "Oh, will we see Starlight again?" he asked. Kelly Sheridan had a busy schedule, no doubt, but he was not sure she'd do fan work.
He went downstairs into his living room, with the note DO NOT TOUCH RANDOM HAIRBANDS on the door. But there was no hairband on the table. It was a hair ribbon, which he then touched.
The hair ribbon soon vanished from the table where it had been, and Jimmy glanced up at his mirror, to suddenly observe something baffling occurring to his hair. Well, it was baffling to most people at least.
As he watched the interview, he heard Tom speak of a pink bow sitting on a table. Jimmy glanced about nonchalantly, to see what was happening, as this business about strange and innocuous objects had been going on for some time. It was just then his attention was drawn to the item sitting on the table in front of him. It was a pink bow, just sitting there, doing nothing, as inanimate objects are known to do from time to time, and as Jimmy looked at it, it suddenly vanished and disappeared, as if it had never been sitting on the table in the first place.
"Where'd it go?" he asked, confused, as he had no clue where the bow had vanished to. He then felt a pulse from nowhere, and his stomach began to suddenly cramp up like the worst stomach ache ever, almost the intensity that would cause him to throw up.
Jimmy realized he had to get out of there. He sprinted for the door. He had to get back to the place he was before. But before he could get there, he heard the familiar WHOOSH!
"The Shooting Star is coming through!"
Really, Gordon?
"Sorry."
The whooshing sound informed Jimmy that his fate was sealed, as the hairband approached with terrifying speed. It crashed into him with a bang, and knocked him onto the floor, rolling him over with a huge bang and preventing him from walking.
He tried to sit up, but he was stuck in place. All of time and space seemed to have frozen around him all over. Which was a bit odd, but also par for the course if you don't think about it too hard.
"You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave!" said an ominous voice, followed by a massive guitar solo that went on for several minutes. It all sounded very strange, and Jimmy still couldn't move as time had stopped. It was a while until anything else happened. There was a loud bang, and a gigantic blue bolt of energy jumped all over the place and into his very figure. And lo, what was prescribed to happen happened.
The first aspect of any of this that he noted was that his shoes seemed to be melting, dripping like running wax until they were reduced to nothing but small black shoes with a single strap holding them on. This rendered his socks visible on the top, which soon changed to white as he observed them.
He had (for reasons best known to himself) worn shorts today, and so saw the short legs merge together to create a skirt. The divide between both legs then vanished, and the skirt flared out noticeably. The skirt changed from the previous cream to a deep purple shade, with the hem turning an even darker shade of purple. The waistline shifted, zip and button vanishing. Suddenly, fabric erupted from the top of the skirt, shot up and over his shoulder, down the other side, and connected to the skirt again at the back, changing the skirt into a sleeveless dress. Part of it was left open to allow space for the shirt, which morphed into a white, long sleeved shirt with a purple collar (talk about color clashes). The sleeves were rolled up as a diamond pendant appeared, attached into a fabric like thing, materialized in the gap. However, the shirt had an odd amount of space in it.
Jimmy found he could get up once again, finding himself in his natural habitat as crossdresser. Needing to get some ground, he headed outdoors and for the terminal where the big ferries docked from far away.
Several people talked. Others poked each other in confusion. Still others were baffled at this sight.
"I never knew he was into crossdressing," said one.
"Has he gone a bit off his rocker?" asked another.
"Possibly," said a third.
Jimmy paid them no heed, and continued his stroll. When he sat down on a bench, it happened.
A deep purple fringe fell into his eyes, with some fragments of a lighter purple shade on the side. His skin entirely turned pink, followed by his ears shrinking and his eyes also turning purple. His neck contracted as the Adam's Apple vanished, and his shoulders cracked inwards. Years of accumulated fat sloughed off him like running wax, the clothing adjusting to compensate, and his chest began to tingle, swelling into a pair of breasts (held in place by another thing that had just appeared). His hips popped outwards and another thing got sucked inwards. Finally, her legs and feet slimmed down as she dropped in height very noticeably.
She decided to go and look in the water. There was this rather odd looking girl in the reflection, who Jimmy barely recognized.
"Hey! Sparkler! Over here!" called a familiar voice. Sparkler walked over to the end of the dock to see a boat docking, with Lyra, Bon-Bon, Vinyl Scratch, and Octavia Melody onboard, the last of those looking very seasick.
"Hey guys!" Sparkler replied, as she hopped aboard. "Where have you been?"
"Around and about all the islands," Bon-Bon replied, grinning.
"That sounds fun," Sparkler said, sitting down as Lyra prepared to cast off. "I've been here, with all these people and things all around. This has been a strange few days, what?"
"You've been spending way too much time with Tavi," Vinyl snorted. "Who ends sentences with what?"
"People who have been taught to elocute properly," Octavia replied. "It is always crucial, if we are to use long and esoteric words, to ensure that your language has both clarity and verisimilitude."
"...Say what now?"
"People sometimes try to look clever by using lots of big words," Lyra said. "Look at me! I have a bottle of dihydrogen monoxide!"
"Is that dangerous?" asked Bon-Bon.
"No. It's H20, or water."
"Ahh," all five girls chorused.
"Still, time to set sale!" Lyra said, and pushed back into the water, starting up the boat's engine. She swung the boat around and sailed for open waters.
Octavia poked Vinyl. "I know I should stop being such a worrier, but are you certain that this boat is designed to go out into the open seas?"
"I think Lyra knows what she's doing," Vinyl replied. "Let's trust her, and in the meantime GIVE IT SOME WUBS!"
The boat continued on its waterward course, when suddenly they sailed along a sound, up and inlet, and then fell into a giant wormhole that sucked the boat up. They fell through a kaleidoscopic tunnel of light and energy, suddenly emerging into another place where the sky was so blue, a storybook land of wonder. There were container ships both arriving in the harbor and setting out to sea. An oil tanker was offloading crude oil at a refinery, and further into the distance a pair of cruise liners were being worked on, including one in a drydock that had a nasty hole in one side.
Lyra picked up a radio set that had appeared from nowhere and spoke into it. "Silver Shoals Port Authority, this is Jolly Roger, are you receiving me, over?"
"Jolly Roger, this is Silver Shoals Port Authority, state your message, over?"
"Silver Shoals Port Authority, this is Jolly Roger, requesting permission to dock, over?"
"Jolly Roger, this is Silver Shoals Port Authority, cut engines and wait. A tugboat will draw you into dock. Please be aware of busy traffic in and around the harbor, over."
"Silver Shoals Port Authority, this is Jolly Roger, message received and understood. Out."
After a few minutes wait, the small vessel was pulled into the harbor by a tugboat and was moored. The girls hopped off of the boat, noticing a vast crowd of people coming off a liner that had recently been repainted. Apparently, Silver Shoals Cruises had filed for bankruptcy after the loss of one of their ships, the Luxe Delux, and apparently all onboard, had led to a decline in their customer numbers. As they walked through the noisy port, the sound and thunder of machines all around, they suddenly hopped on a bus back to Canterlot (home). Once back in Canterlot, the quintet went their separate ways with Lyra and Bon-Bon back to their home and the same for Vinyl and Octavia as well. Which meant that Sparkler was by herself again now.
After purchasing some fabric from Rarity's Carousel Boutique (currently stationary as the rotation mechanism had broken down), Sparkler walked back home as the sun began to set and the light began to fade from the sky. She entered her home, locked the door behind her, and went to her room, hanging her new acquisitions up on the wardrobe door knocker, designed cunningly to hold hangers in their places, and then wandered over to her bed (she had gotten changed to head off to the land of dreams in the meantime). As she slipped under the covers, she dropped away into sleep, resting and ready for another day.
From nearby, two women were watching. One of them had pale skin and blue hair, in which a crown, also blue, was placed. Her blue eyes glowed in the darkness, and she wore a dress in differing shades of blue on the bodice and puffy sleeves, and a very large and poofy skirt that extended six feet in all directions and seemed to be partially inflated in places along the skirt itself.
The other woman also had pale skin, but her hair was a spectacular prismatic combination of purple, blue, turquoise, and green, and seemed to flow with ethereal energy. She also wore a dress, just this one was white, with low cut long sleeves, a relatively low neckline, and a similarly huge skirt which also seemed to cover six feet yet seemed by optical illusion to be even bigger. The dress had golden lining and trim, and the woman also had a golden crown set upon her head.
"I am relieved to see that those who were once Jimmy have made it safely home," the first woman said. "Navigating through the dimensional soup to find them was not easy."
"Indeed, Luna," said the other. "Even with your help, locating them was not easy. We still need to figure out how Equestrian Magic leaked into this world and how those people got their hands on it in the first place."
"Indeed we do, Celestia," Luna replied, straightening a section of skirt. "But those who have gained those abilities seem to have used them wisely."
"Yes," Celestia noted, "but not all of them are happy. Speaking of which, I really need to pay Tom another visit. He's had an especially rough time, not least because of all the chaos being caused by Covid."
"And I think Jimmy could do with some cheering up," Luna added. "But our time here is almost up. Shall we?"
Celestia nodded. "Let us return to Equestria."
Luna moved her hands, and the moon shifted into position, glowing brightly. Both women's clothes then began to glow as well, as did their crowns, as magical energy shifted through them, and suddenly, both of them vanished in a flash of bright light, returning as they did so to the magical land of Equestria.
Sparkler, of course, was completely oblivious to all this, and slept on soundly into the night, awaiting a new dawn.
Author's Note
The ending there is a callback to the first TF story of the year.
TA Moonlit Transformation
You know the Princess of the Moon, right? Well, you probably don't know this one...
The Blue EM2 ·
2k words
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Thought it would be a nice way to give the year's proceedings a sense of completion.
Anyways.... this here is the true last story of 2020 from me. ^^ Mainly, because it finally completes an arc that began all the way back on March 2nd, 2020. ^^
The first four, aka.... Lyra, Bon-Bon, Vinyl, and Octavia are from these four stories:
EG Lyra Heartstrings:
[Unpublished stories cannot be embedded]
EG Bon-Bon/Sweetie Drops:
[Unpublished stories cannot be embedded]
EG DJ-PON 3/Vinyl Scratch:
[Unpublished stories cannot be embedded]
and EG Octavia Melody:
[Unpublished stories cannot be embedded]
Now to closed out this Author's note and of course... my true last story of 2020.... here's the following five, symbolizing the completion of this arc! :D 
Enjoy!!!!! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
RQOTD 1: Thoughts on EG Sparkler? :)
RQOTD 2: Who is your favorite member out of the quintet: EG Lyra Heartstrings, EG Bon-Bon/Sweetie Drops, EG DJ-PON3, EG Octavia Melody, or EG Sparkler? :) 
P.S.: Be on the lookout for more transformations ahead for me in the coming year! 
