Starfleet Magic (Movie): The Switch Before Hearths Warming/Christmas

ACT FIVE

Due to being a full emergency, Sunset used her magic to fly over to the school grounds to find all her friends lying flat on the ground.

She quickly rushed up to Artie and shook him softly. “Artie! Artie, wake up! Please, wake up.”

Artie woke up in a daze. “Sunset…?” He recognized the voice, which made him confused, “Sunset… what are you doing here?” Then he remembered, his wife never came to the palace at all and stayed home with the baby.

He then saw who it really was, and he knew right away this was not his wife. She never even came to the palace with them.

Suddenly, he found himself being squeezed by Sunset. “Thank goodness you’re okay!” she cried, and she began to plant several kisses on his face.

“Wait…! Hold it!” he stammered trying to explain to her, and then finally said “…At Ease, Colonel!”

“Huh?” Sunset was startled. “What’s the matter?” but then she got a look at him and felt something was wrong. He looked much stronger than before, and his energizer had a code beneath it-- HJ7V.

Even his wedding ring looked different, and that sealed it-- This was not her husband!

She let go of him and backed away in total shock, and confusion.

That’s when Lightning came to and shook himself awake. He immediately realized where he and everyone else were. “Oh, no! I was afraid something like this would happen!”

“Commander Lightning Dawn?!” cried Sunset.

Lightning saw her and saluted to her. “Colonel.”

With her eyes wide, and her mouth hanging over, she looked down at Artie, and on impulse she dropped him and backed away in embarrassment. “G…Gen… General Artie?”

“Right…” Artie grumbled while saluting as he got up.

All the others were waking up as well.

“Ohh! Did someone hit me over the head with a wagon?” groaned Applejack.

“What a wipeout.” added Rainbow.

Then, everyone took notice of their new bodies, and their surroundings “Lightning!” cried Starla. “Are we… is it possible…?”

Her husband nodded, “We’re in the Human World.”

Everyone got up and looked all around them. Already it felt so strange, almost as if nothing had changed at all, except for their bodies, their surroundings, and especially the warm weather.

Fluttershy gazed down at her hands, and she felt all along her human face, and noted her voluminous hair.

She felt more afraid than astounded.

“What’s happened to me?
Have I gone crazy?

What’s the big deal?
This all can’t be real!”

Rhymey calmed his wife,

“Whether it all seems crazy, my dear,
That doesn’t change that we are all here.”

Dyno and Myte eyed themselves and each other.

“Ay’ Carumba!” cried Dyno “We’re fully, complete humans.”

“It’s just so… so… unbelievable.” added Myte. “We’re actually here; in the Human World!”

Krysta and Spike had reverted to their alternate forms as well. Krysta was a robin, but since Spike was older and bigger, he took on the form of a Great Dane rather than an English Bulldog like the other Spike.

“Never thought we’d ever be back here again for some time.” Spike said.

Krysta flapped her wings and fluffed her feathers. “It sure feels strange to be back.”

Then there were their majesties. All three of them resembled their counterparts almost exactly, however, because of their magical auras, all their hairs sparkled just like back home. Celestia and Luna’s hairs flowed and fluttered, and Grand Ruler, his aura made Celesto’s cape sparkle and flutter much like his own cape. He also had three golden streaks in his hair as symbols of his gold horns.

All three of them were incredibly astounded.

Shining Armor and Cadance appeared regular, though Cadance had a slight shimmer about herself being an Alicorn back home.

“You look… pretty.” Shining Armor said.

His wife fluttered her eyes at him. “Not so bad yourself.”

“Wow!” Pinkie chirped as she bounced and leapt about, “This is so cool!” Then she curled up shivering in fear, “And yet so scary…!

It’s so cool!

But it’s so scary!”

She just kept switching back and forth, much to everyone else’s annoyance.

Sunset was still wide-eyed and shaking her head in disbelief. “No-No-No!! How did this happen? Where are all my friends?!”

Lightning looked back at the statue. He knew the portal was no longer there, but as for the other team, “…They must have switched places with us.”

He angrily stomped his foot. “I knew it! I knew something was going to go wrong! I just knew it!”

Starla approached him, “Stop! Stop it! You can’t lose your head. We’re in big trouble here.”

“I’ll say we are.” said Buddy. “Here we are in a strange world we barely know about, and our counterparts are back home in a world completely strange to them, and we don’t even know how to un-switch things.”

Rainbow complained, “My wings are gone! This bites! I need to fly!”

“How can you think about flying at a time like this?!” barked Applejack.

“Don’t yell at her!” snapped Artie.

The arguing intensified, until a bright light shone, caused by Grand Ruler. He still had magic and held up Celesto’s walking stick to make a flash of light. “That’s quite enough!” he scolded.

Everyone turned and bowed respectfully towards him and the two ladies.

“I realize how frightening this must seem,” his majesty continued, “But we must keep our heads if we’re to cope with what’s happening and hope that we can find a way back to our own world.”

“Can we count on you all for this?” Celestia asked.

Everyone bowed again in complete understanding, and Celestia made her way past the crowd to Sunset. “It has been such a long time.”

Sunset felt nervous, “Your majesty… I… Well, I…” she honestly didn’t know what today. The last time they had seen each other, she was mean, wicked, and stole Princess Twilight’s crown before fleeing to the Human World.

Celestia only smiled at her, “You needn’t worry.”

Sunset looked up at her.

“Though we’ve had our history, and it will never be forgotten, you have already more than made up for your mistakes, and I have long since forgiven you.

Can we both start over?”

Sunset felt like crying, and she hugged her former teacher, which gave a warmth to everyone.

While back in gate chamber…

While Professor Brain and Goldwin inspected the console for the gateway…

*Mykan’s POV*

Everyone was still shocked and astounded beyond imagination.

“So let me get this straight…” asked Spike “This… is the Magic World?”

“Yes.” I answered.

“We’re really… in the Magic World?” asked Rainbow.

“Yes.”

“This is really the Magic World, and we’re in it?” asked Celestia.

I was really getting tired, and I groaned, “Ugh! Yes! Yes! I think that’s been established.” I rubbed my head in frustration muttering, “This is very, very bad!”

Sci-Twi felt her head spinning with a mixture of so many emotions-- excited, astounded, fascinated, frightened and many others.

“This is… This is just so… absolutely…!” She couldn’t find the right words to describe, and in her giddiness her horn glowed and she shot a magical beam that jumped up and around all over the camber.

Everyone else ducked, jumped or swerved, until I intercepted the shot with my Shield of Righteous Courage.

Several of the friends glared angrily at Sci-Twi…

“Sorry.”

I cast my shield down and cautioned her, “You have to take it easy. You’re a full-fledged unicorn. Your magic is strongly linked to your emotions. Try not to get so worked up…

…That goes for all of you.”

Everyone agreed, and it was a good thing, unlike Sci-Twi, many of them had their experience with magic and knew how to handle it.

“This is fun!” Pinkie chirped as she fluttered around with her wings. “Hey, wait for me!” called Rainbow as she flew up and around after her.

Lightning and Starla concentrated hard, and made their hands glow softly. Unlike Commander Lightning, Human Lightning could do ordinary magic, but not the Uniforce since he had no golden horn.

“How do you do that?” asked Shining Armor.

“Like this…” Starla showed “You just concentrate, and…” she made her hands glow again.

Shining Armor, having no understanding of magic at all tried it, and ended up shooting another bouncing shot, which Cadance intercepted with a blast of her own, having already understood her own magic a bit. “…It’s easier than it seems.”

Everyone gawked at her.

Krysta looked down at her wand. “What am I supposed to do with this?” She had a very hard time holding it due to never having hands before. She dropped it, and the wand warped her and Spike up to the ceiling.

“Whoa!!” They both wailed as they fell.

“Spike!!” Sci-Twi and Rarity shouted.

Krysta managed to flutter her wings and stay in the air, but Spike continued to fall.

Buddy leapt up high in the air and caught the little dragon. “You okay…?”

Spike’s stomach gurgled, and he let out a big blech of flames that just missed Buddy’s face.

“Oops!”

Buddy nearly fainted in horror.

I could see this was only going to get more and more serious, and then came more bad news… I had checked with Brain and Goldwin at the console, and the professor shook his head at me. The controls and the systems were absolutely dead.

“That means we can’t reengage the gateway!” cried Goldwin.

Hearing this made the others all fret with worry.

“But we must get back home!” cried Luna. “This world is too strange to us. We cannot stay.”

“Is there anything we can do at all?” asked Celesto.

That’s when I noticed on the console, “The Message Book! Maybe we can contact the others and see if they’re alright.”

I began to write in it…

*POV Pause*

A flash of light shone on the ground in the school yard. “Is that…?” Lightning asked.

Sunset’s eyes widened. “The Message Book!” She remembered giving it to her husband, Human Artie. “He must’ve dropped it.”

She quickly grabbed it, and she was about to answer the message in the book, when Celestia, Luna, and Grand Ruler stopped her for a moment. “Allow us to try something.” said Luna. “Place the book open on the ground.”

Sunset trusted their majesties.

Grand Ruler placed his hand out, and the ladies placed their hands over his. They cast a magical light onto the pages, which reacted with the book on the other side.

It was no transport portal, but it did open a magical way to communicate verbally with magical holograms. Though it was very weak, like a fading television screen.

*POV Resumes*

“Hello?” I called through the images.

“It’s Mykan!” cried Lightning. He rushed in closer. “Mykan! Mykan, can you hear me?”

I heard his voice and sighed heavily in relief, “Oh, Lightning! Thank goodness…!”

The Magic Team had smiles of excitement and hope.

“Mykan, listen to me…” Lightning said “Is the team from the Human World there with you? Are they alright?”

“Yes, they’re physically okay.” I replied, “They’re shocked and astounded enough, but they’re alright, but we do have some appearance issues.”

I explained the situation, and everyone realized how serious this was.

“I’m afraid we have a huge problem…” Lightning said to me, and he explained about the situation with the portal. “The magic on this end is gone. We can’t get back.”

The two teams felt sickening turns in their stomachs.

“You mean we… can’t… go home?” whimpered Little Spike.

“But… we must return!” cried Human Rarity. “We can’t just stay here! We must go back! WE MUST!!”

Human Applejack calmed her down by shaking her, “Get a hold of yourself.”

Human Pinkie had tears in her eyes, and was shaking, trying hard not to burst out sobbing.

“Is there nothing that can be done,
to set things right for everyone?” asked Human Rhymey.

“You opened the gate once before,” said Fluttershy “Can’t you just whip up whatever it is you did before?” She referred to how Lightning used Princess Twilight Sparkle’s knowledge and ideas to reconstruct the portal so it could be used at any time.

Commander Lightning shook his head, “I wish I could, but we don’t have the proper equipment, technology, or resources in this world to do that.”

“Then there’s only one way...” Sunset said.

The Magic Gang all looked at her.

“This has happened before…” and she recounted the events of the Friendship Games, and how the magic was removed. She also recounted the light she saw in the skies. “We just have to get the magic back, and the portal will open again… only…” she paused “…I… don’t know where it went.”

“ARGH!!!” Everyone groaned.

Things were just going from worse, to unbearable, and Sci-Twi had even worse news to come.

She held up her Magic Modifier, which had been brought to the Magic World with her… and it was broken! The stress it underwent was too much. “Without this, they won’t be able to capture the magic.”

Shining Armor sarcastically groaned, “Oh, this just gets better and better.”

“Well, what are we going to do?” asked Human Starla.

“The only thing we can do,” replied Commander Lightning. “I really hoped it wouldn’t come to this but, until we can fix the portal, we’re all just going to have to live out each other’s lives.”

A very long moment of silence came.

“Um… that don’t sound quite right to me.” said General Applejack. “You propose that we start here, and like out their lives, and they do the same in our lives?”

“What choice do we have?” replied Lightning.

“I’m afraid he’s quite right.” said Grand Ruler. “This will give us a proper chance to locate the magic and attempt to restore it.”

Queen Celestia agreed, “Come to think of it, this could also be a wonderful learning experience for us all-- to learn what it’s like to live in each other’s positions and explore new worlds.”

“Yes,” agreed “And it has been our hope to introduce more humans to our world in peace and welcome.”

Many of the others began to realize this too, especially Sci-Twi, and she murmured to herself, “Think of all the scientific new discoveries.”

The other human counterparts were not so optimistic, “Yeah, um… you expect us to live magical lives here?” said Human Rainbow “…Here… in a world we have hardly any knowledge about, and pretend to be people we… sort of… are?”

“This absolutely crazy!” cried Principal Cadance. “I can barely manage a High School, and now I have to run a whole empire?”

“You mean “we” must.” corrected Shining Armor. “I’m already petrified enough to turn to stone! And Flurry Heart…! What’s going to happen to her?”

All these worrisome complaints and wailings never seemed to cease, but in the end, it was no use.

“Mykan…” said Grand Ruler. “I’m putting you in charge of things.”

I blinked in shock, “Me, your majesty?”

“Yes. You’ve seen all of us in action at work before. You can help our friends acclimatize themselves to their surroundings and help them play their roles well.”

I looked around at the frightened team that stood near me. The pressure was immense, but knowing how important this was, and with the knowledge I already had of everyone’s lives, and that it was exactly what I was working for-- to make United Equestria welcome for tourism…

I bowed graciously, “I’ll do my best, your majesty.”

“We’ll help too.” said Goldwin.

“Of course, we shall.” agreed Brain.

Sunset even offered to the Magic Group, “I can help you all do the same.”

“So can I.” added Commander Lightning “I have plenty of knowledge of this world myself. I learned to fit in. I’m sure all of you can too.”

The others all agreed to try and be brave about this as they agreed to do their best.

“Good. That’s settled.” said Celestia.

“Just one last thing…” said Grand Ruler “And this of critical importance to everyone, including those of you back in our place…” he referred to the Human Team. “No one… I mean absolutely nobody outside of either of these groups may know about this switch.”

His human counterpart could already guess why. “I see… if word gets out about this, then those who oppose your forces may take advantage of us in our current state.”

“Precisely.” said his majesty.

“Why? Don’t you have faith in us?” asked Human Pinkie Pie. “We’ve dealt with plenty of monsters and bad guys before-- even those from this world.”

“It’s best not to push it, Pinkie.” said Human Luna. “Some of us are still unskilled in fighting,” she referred to herself and Celesto, Cadance, Shining Armor.

“And what is more, this world is full of far more dangerous beings than what we have ever seen or faced.” said Celestia. “They might not be as easy for us.”

I agreed with that, “All the more reason for us to fix the portal as soon as possible.”

The Magic Team agreed. It was up to them for most of it now.

“We’d better go now.” said his majesty “I don’t want to alert any unwanted attention. Good luck to you all.”

The human team and I bowed, and then the magic ceased, and the images were gone. The book just lay flat on the ground, and I picked it up, but I was still trembling a bit, knowing all the responsibilities I had been given.

I looked around me at all my new friends. “Well, I guess we’ve got work to do.”

*POV Ends*

General Starla approached Lightning still feeling rather nervous. “So… what do we do first?”

Pinkie’s stomach gave a loud growl. “I think we should all get food now. I missed my pre-supper snack.”

“Are you kidding me? Thinking of food now?” sneered Buddy, but then his stomach growled too. “Come to think of it, some vittles would be nice.”

Everyone else was feeling the same.

“Wait!” cried Spike as he looked around. “Where’s Rarity?”

Everyone looked around.

“Didn’t she come with us?” asked Artie.

Suddenly, there was a small rustling coming from the shrubs by the edge of the grounds.

Lightning moved over, and even though it was dark, the brightness of the streetlights gave a soft silhouette away.

“Rarity, what are you doing? Come out of there!”

“Never!” shouted Rarity tearfully “I dare not ever come out!!” She started to whimper, like a sad puppy.

Spike came over. “Rarity, what’s the matter? Come on out.”

“No!” Rarity barked “I won’t come out, not even for you, Spike! I’m so hideou-he-he-sss!”

Lightning was losing patience, and he reached to pull the shrubs open, “Rarity stop being ridiculous and-- ” was all he managed to get out before he and Spike gasped in horrors!

Everyone else looked on and couldn’t believe what they were seeing!

Rarity did look like the way her human counterpart would…

…Except… she was half dog! She had a black pug-nose, white furry, floppy ears instead of human ears. Fangs hanging out of her mouth. Claws instead of fingernails, and toenails, making it uncomfortable to wear her boots and they poked right through her stockings White fur covering her lower arms and all over her legs, and she even had a long, white furry tail sticking out behind her.

“Rarity…!” cried Spike.

Rarity burst out crying miserably, “…I’m a Free-hee-heek!” and then she let out of a wailing doggie howl, and she quickly slapped her hands over her mouth in shock!

Lightning suddenly realized, “Of course…! When ponies pass through the gate they become full-fledged humans, and while some other creatures turn human, dragons become dogs.

And Rarity was half-pony and half-dragon.”

Sunset shook her head in total disbelief, and she worried about how the others were fairing, what with their own appearance problems.