The Future Will Change

Just then, the transmission cut out. With nothing left to go off of, all they could do was listen and wait for the mysterious masked individual’s further orders.

“...I’ve lost the signal,” Cable commented with a nervous chitter as he typed on his computer. The mysterious file from before was now gone. “...sorry, guys.”

“...damn,” Aria sighed, then shook her head. “Nah, it’s not your fault, bud. We just need to regroup for now.”

“I take it that we need to wait for further instructions from them,” Aidon repeated the information that the mysterious figure gave them, “I suppose there’s not much else we can do but wait for their orders,” he gave a dog-like growl under his breath, “...as much as it pains me to stand idle.”

Aoife shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, well I ain’t exactly in the mood’ta sit around and wait fer no one’s orders.” With that, she turned and started to leave. “I’ll catch you lot some other time, yeh? Hopefully you make it through this.”

Luna tilted her head with a concerned foxy whine. “Hm? Wait, Ms. Aogami, where are you going?”

“Out. I’ll come on back if I ever need anything else.” And with that, the oni woman left the TV station and presumably went her own way.

“...I hope she’ll be okay,” Luna sighed.

“There’s not much else we can do at the moment, Luna,” Aidon added with an annoyed huff, “All we can do is wait for those directions.”

“I’ll head out too,” Aira commented, “I need to make sure my sisters know about this. Whoever that bastard is, it’s clear they wanna cause a bunch of freakouts just to prove why humans suck.”

Being a native human herself, Luna was unable to refute such a claim. “I mean, admittedly there are plenty of nasty and selfish humans, but that doesn’t mean we’re all like that. Whoever this is is clearly so utterly bored with themselves that they feel the need to conduct an experiment like this to give their pitiful existence any sort of meaning.”

“Well that’s a rather poignant way of putting it,” Aidon noted just how abrasive Luna’s comment was towards the masked figure. “But for the moment, let’s all head home and try not to end up on the evening new, shall we?”

And so they did. Everyone went their separate ways for the time being as they awaited the Masked Figure’s orders.

Meanwhile…

Unfortunately, as one would expect, numerous people had screwed around and found out about the curse of Enchanted Torment. The result?

Numerous arrests.

One after another within the last few days alone had started to appear on police records. Mutated animal-people were immediately arrested on sight without warning or being given a single chance to fight back. The Masked Figure’s point about humanity was already being proven fear of the unknown already overtaking them.

Just within the last hour:

A woman had found that her son had turned into a dog-boy and had him taken away.

A man that had been turned into a bear-man had been shot with a tranquilizer as soon as he unknowingly tried to get his mail.

A girl had been turned into a hawk-gal and was arrested on suspicion of being a harpy as soon as she left school.

“...and that’s just three of many cases that have happened today,” Starlight Glimmer reported on the news, “It is said that everyone needs to remain calm as the authorities sort the situation out and figure out whether or not the people infected by this ‘Anima Disease’ are harmful or not.”

Applebloom had been watching the news report at her family’s farmhouse and sighed upon hearing what had been happening around the country…

“Hot dayum,” the young woman lamented. Now an adult in her own right, Applebloom continued to manage the farm alongside her sister Applejack since Big Mac moved away to live with Sugar Belle.

After a long work on the farm, the haggard Apple Bloom was enjoying herself an ice pop while sitting on the couch and watching the TV. But it wasn’t long before Applejack awakened and stepped into the room.

“...aaaugh…mornin’ sis.”

“Morn--” Bloom stared at her sister. Applejack’s face was completely different and more…bovine-like. “...sis? Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“Hm? Yeah, wha…?” the half-awake Applejack rubbed her eyes. “What’s wrong with meh?”

“...sis, you’re a cowgirl.”

“...eh? I know that, sugarcube,” Applejack replied with a confused tone.

“No. I mean--hang on a spell,” Applebloom took out her phone, snapped a picture of her sister and showed it to her. “Look.”

“What’re you on about Applebl--”

Applejack froze as she looked at the photo, then down at herself. The curse had turned her into an ox-cow.

“...”