Three days. It had been three days since Sunset Shimmer woke up with a horn on her head and she was no closer to discovering a means to remove it. Both she and Twilight Sparkle were in the lab beneath Sparkle Manor,and had been toiling away throughout night. The lab stank of coffee and the unwashed as the two finished conducting their latest scan.
Sunset pulled off the headset microphone she’d been wearing for the past two hours during the latest test on Twilight. For her part Twilight had lost the struggle to stay awake, since the test had left her sitting down for those hours. Sunset was barely an inch away from giving in to sleep as well, but she had a duty to science and herself. Poor Twilight. She hasn’t slept a wink since we started.
Sluggishly trying to refocus on that very science, Sunset averted her gaze away from the lab-cot by the wall. “I… I just gotta type up my findings… first.” Sunset feverishly rubbed her eyes to keep from passing out and snatched the last partially filled cup of coffee. The once good cup had turned into sludge overnight, but Sunset forced it down. The gag helped in its own way of keeping her awake.
The cup clattered back onto the desk before Sunset leaned back in her chair to collect herself. This is just crazy. What were those idiots planning to do? Her now prominent horn was the focus of her attention as she grumbled in impotent anger. Remembering why she wasn’t going to bed yet, Sunset looked down and grabbed her full length tail out from the side of the chair and pulled it up so she could kick her rolly chair over to another desk where the computer with her notes was located.
She let the armrest keep her tail out of trouble and clicked the computer out of sleep mode. Plenty of time for that myself later.
She didn’t get far when her government-issued chat program chimed softly before the face of a bald shaved man imposed itself on her desktop. “Miss Shimmer, glad to see you remembered our scheduled talk this time.”
“Uhh…” Sunset’s brain took a few moments to process the man’s words until she glanced at the clock. Seven AM… on a Tuesday. Ah shoot, that’s today “Ah, yes, Director Bradley. Of course. I just finished with my latest test with Twilight.” Sunset gave her best forced smile in history.
The Director of Section EM was typically a hard yet fair man, and today he only showed a ghost of his expected mildly good humor. “Good. Have you paid attention to the news as of late?”
Sunset grew worried, some of her fatigue faded for a few brief seconds. “No, director, aside from Twilight, I’ve only seen my friends around meal times. But they did mention a lot of people at the concert have… started developing pony features.”
“Then you already know half of the issue,” Bradley stated bluntly, causing Sunset’s nerves to frazzle even more. “However I want your report before we go into anything else.” He steepled his hands and prepared to listen, fully expecting Sunset to forward him her notes later.
Well I guess it can’t be much worse than the concert’s audience going pony. Sunset hoped she was right as she activated her dictation software. “Well, sir, the changes we’ve undergone so far seem different than originally expected.”
Bradley skimmed a file he had on his desk as Sunset tried to look more presentable by styling her hair around her horn. Sadly she could do little without a comb. “From what I’ve seen in your latest report, you think the so called Element of Magic is the root of all this?”
Sunset was caught with a lock of hair in her hand, and scrambled to pull over some of her notes from earlier. “Well in a way, sir. Pony magic is like any other force in nature, it strives to find a resting state. For us, that meant our magic was dormant for most of the time, but it had to convert us partially into ponies whenever we wanted to use our magic, hence the ears, wings and “ponytails”.
“Whatever the attack at the concert did, it must have broken what stability there was that the Element of Magic had given us. Now our magic is trying to find a new resting state, and changing us into ponies in the process.”
Bradley’s face became grim, far more so than Sunset thought he should be expressing. “Troubling, very troubling. Do you think you could reverse or at least halt these changes?”
“If I could get my hands on whatever tool or weapon that hit us at the concert, then maybe. But since the Element of Magic is unrecoverable…”
“…Yes,” Bradley said at length while working his jaw. “So you had mentioned a few years back. How far along these changes are, by the way? Do you have a time frame?”
Sunset narrowed her eyes in both confusion and suspicion. Why would he ask that? Thompson’s men are keeping tabs on all of us, so he’d know without asking. Keeping up an air of civility, Sunset didn’t call him on his elusive questioning. “If things keep going the way they are now,” Sunset started with downcast eyes, fearful of finishing that thought. The subject up brought her attention to her new, or old one could say, tail and the fur going from her neckline to her knees all the more out of place. “Even though I can study magic with magic now thanks to my horn, the only definitive thing I can really give you is that the changes were quick at first, but are thankfully slowing down now.”
“So there might be a chance after all,” Bradley muttered to himself, barely audible to Sunset’s new ears. The flash of deep concern was gone as quick as it came, leaving Sunset flat footed in trying to act like she hadn’t heard him. “You mentioned in your latest report that these changes are turning you into a pony, but… at the same time trying to keep you as human as possible. Care to elaborate on that?”
It was the question Sunset feared the most. Her face burned with embarrassment and she shrunk away from the screen. “Well. I only have one piece of evidence on that.” She paused, but Bradley impatiently cleared his throat. “It’s… my… ahh… my breasts, sir.”
Bradley arched an eyebrow at the pensive young woman. He saw no reason to draw this line of conversation out any more than necessary. “From what you’ve told us about normal ponies, they mostly resemble horses, correct?”
Some of Sunset’s embarrassment ebbed at his continued impassiveness. At least he’s making it easy on me in his own way. “Yes, Director, I was fully expecting to grow teats in soon after fur covered my stomach, or that my breasts would start to shrink for the same reason, but so far, neither has happened.”
Bradley was silent for a second or two as he mulled over the information. “Just how equine are you right now?”
“Well…”
Rainbow Dash was strutting her stuff through downtown wearing nothing but socks, shoes, a small backpack, and a sports bra the same color as her skin. With her new fur now covering everything from her neckline to her knees, it took over the job of covering the rest of her body. Mostly because the only other thing she had on was a smug grin plastered on her face. She was headed towards her favorite music shop for some much needed strings.
Even with a city as large as Canterlot, the Rainbooms’ pony-up states were barely a curiosity anymore after four years. A signpost for tourists really. Yet with Rainbow Dash now sporting an actual tail and half her body covered in fur, she was starting to turn a few heads.
However most passed her fur off as some new form fitting outfit and paid little attention to her beyond a few seconds.
All of which suited Rainbow Dash just fine as she wound her way through the streets. She came up to an intersection and opted to vault over the passing cars with a few flaps of her wings, grinning madly at the expected jealous faces of those still waiting for the crosswalk light.
Rainbow passed a few more streets before her phone started buzzing like mad in her backpack. Without breaking stride, she pulled the backpack off and fished for the phone, grabbed it, then replaced the pack. In a rare act of thinking ahead, Rainbow had brought her pony ear-adapted headphones to make up for the increased distance between her mouth and ears. “’Ye-ellow!”
Rarity’s voice practically screeched out at her. “Rainbow Dash! Please tell me Fluttershy was mistaken!”
Rainbow Dash casually inspected her outstretched hand, her grin never wavering. “About what?”
Rarity scowled at Rainbow’s tone of voice. “Don’t play dumb with me, missy! Are you seriously running around town in the buff!?”
“Maybe.”
“Rainnnboooow Dash this is by far the dumbest idea you’ve ever had! And there’s a long list of those I assure you.”
“Come on, Rares, we’ve got fur in all the right places,” Rainbow scoffed dismissively as she scratched an ear. She flew over another crosswalk, loving every second of freedom her wings granted her. “Besides, it’s not illegal to run around without clothes. Not that you can see anything anyway, my new tail hides it all.”
“You do realize that law only lets you go topless, right? You’ve got it backwards.”
“Hey, if the eggheads fix all this, there’s no way I’m ruining any of my good shorts by cutting tail holes,” Rainbow countered with her patented snark.
She could almost feel Rarity’s exasperated groan as the fashionista pinched her nose. “Stop, stop getting me off track. The Department’s not going to like it if you show yourself off in public, you know.”
“What? Bradley? He can kiss my ass if he thinks I’m going to stay cooped up in the house all day until Sunny or Twilight fixes everything. Sides, Soarin needs some ibuprofen for his headaches, and I’m not letting him drive just yet.”
“What if you run into any of those ruffians who attacked us at the concert, hmm?” Rarity rebuked with a condescending tone. “You don’t even have one of the Department’s guards watching over you right now, do you?”
“I’m not that stupid, Rares,” Rainbow Dash was starting to get irritated, even if her friend meant well. “I let Thompson and one of his goons trail along.” Rainbow was about to say more when high tempo electronica music started playing. She turned towards the music to find a man had placed an active boombox down and was spinning some sort of advertisement sign. Rainbow gave him no more attention when Rarity’s nagging brought her back to the conversation.
“Honestly, Rainbow, I know how flippant you are about rules, except those pertaining to sports at least, but you should seriously rethink your-”
At this point, Rainbow was grumbling at the phone. “Rarity, I’ll be fine, okay! I don’t need the goon squad holding my hand.”
Pained shrieking in the streets forced Rainbow away from the conversation and drew her attention back behind her. The sign spinner was screaming in fearful shock and doubling over as a bright blue light shot out of the boombox and enveloped him.
Rainbow’s gut reaction was to vault into the air and try to kick the boombox away from him. Yet she only managed to get half way over the street before the mana surrounding the man exploded outward in a shockwave of blue energy.
Having no time to react, Rainbow Dash took the shockwave full on. The force of it jarred her from the air, causing her to land roughly on top of a semi-truck trailer. What felt like static electricity ravaged her, making Rainbow cry out in shocked pain. Rainbow felt her legs burn like fire as her muscles twitched and spasmed from the aftermath.
It took her several long minutes before Rainbow could perceive anything other than pain. She blinked a few times as her vision returned. Emergency sirens and shouting could be heard from below, but she knew she had to check herself for injuries.
Rainbow looked and flexed her hands in front of her face. “Ah nuts, I got fuzzy all over now?!” Sure enough, the fur that had once been limited to above the elbow now fully encased her hands, although the fur was absent on her palms and the palm side of her fingers. “Great.” Rainbow quickly checked her face, finding it human enough after rubbing it a few times, but like her hands, she now had fur completely covering her head.
She growled in anger at the sign spinner before turning her attention to her legs. Rainbow gasped in shock. Not only was she furry from head to toe, but she didn’t have toes at all. In place of her feet were hooves along with her legs being structured differently, with her lower legs bent just like that of a pony. As her feet and legs changed, Rainbow’s shoes had slipped off unharmed. “Da hell?! I got pony legs now? I swear I’m going to kill that guy!” A brief check found that the rest of her body was for the most part thankfully human, just with fur.
Since the explosion had happened on a stopped intersection during the light changes, there had been only one wreck. As a result of not being apart of that wreck, Rainbow’s trailer started moving again when the trucker believed both he and his truck were no worse for wear. Not wanting to be dragged off to who knows where, Rainbow tested her wings for a moment before grabbing her shoes and taking off. She flew over to one of the low rise shops before landing on the roof. Seeing an A/C unit, Rainbow propped herself up, eternally thankful that her bones were at least still designed for two legs only. Although her new hooves were by no means easy to stand on. She quickly tore her socks off and placed both them and the shoes into her bag.
Rainbow gazed back out over the intersection to find Thompson standinging over the pony-eared man while cuffing him. The man himself was barely conscious and absently muttered to himself while threatening to pass out. “Damn! He caught the punk before I could.” Rainbow fumed at being robbed her chance for a good beating.
Rainbow's vengeance was replaced by dread when she noticed Thompson had lime-green pony ears. She quickly looked around to find no one else had any signs of tails or altered ears. What the hell is going on!? Why did that bomb thing give me pony legs, Thompson and that guy the ears, but did nothing to everyone else?
Rainbow nearly fell on her shaky unfamiliar legs, but she steadied herself by gripping the A/C unit harder. I gotta get back to Sunny and Twilight. They’ve got to be able to slow or stop my changes. Wings are great, but I’ll be damned if I end up on four hooves. Two’s too many already!
Not trusting her new sense of balance, Rainbow pulled her phone out to find Rarity frantically trying to text her. The call must have dropped when the bomb hit me. Instead of reading the avalanche of texts and missed calls, Rainbow opted to just call Rarity back. “Hey, Rares, sorry-”
“Heavens, Rainbow,” Rarity all but screamed over the phone, making Rainbow thankful her headset had been knocked out of her ears and on her neck. “What happened to you? There was all this static and then the call dropped. Are you hurt, was it just a glitch? What’s all that racket in the background?”
“One thing at a time, Rarity,” Rainbow started, trying to slow her friend down so she could think. “Sorry, but I can’t talk right now. Something big just went down. Can we meet up back with you at Twilight’s?”
Rainbow’s tensed voice and curt tone was all Rarity needed to hear, and she knew to be quick. “Alright. See you there.”
With her friend placated for now, Rainbow speed-dialed Thompson. She watched him from her perch and waited for him to finally pick up. “Miss Dash, I saw you were caught in the explosion, but I couldn’t see where you landed. Are you alright?”
Rainbow huffed angrily through the phone. “No, I’m not. Damn thing sped my changes way up. I’m half surprised I’m still on only two legs.”
She could see Thompson grab one of his new lime-green ears with dread. “Aye, we’ll get some answers out of him.”
“Give him a bloody nose for me will ya? Oh and send that boombox he used over to Sunny and Twilight, they might find a way to reverse this!”
Thompson was wary about touching the now silent device. Aside from a thin wisp of black smoke, the boombox was inert. Nevertheless, he pulled the spin advertiser away from it just in case he suddenly awoke and tried to activate something on it. “I was thinking the exact same thing, but only after I’ve had a bomb expert inspect the thing.”
“Sounds fair to me, see you later.” Rainbow hung up. While her altered legs were unfamiliar, her wings at least was something she had plenty of practice with.
Rainbow Dash decided against flying over the streets and climbed high enough to clear any of the local tall buildings before making her way back to her car a few miles away. The normal thrill of flight was heavily dampened by the foreboding oddity of her legs and the bomber himself. A younger Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have taken even a second before giving a cursory snap judgement, but the Department’s training had taught her to think. I don’t like it. Why would the bomber even bother going on foot? Since that thing didn’t do any serious property damage, he could have just sat in a car, blew the magic bomb, and then drove away when he came to. Or at least try to flee the scene.
It’s almost as if… Rainbow Dash came to a complete halt as a worrying trail of thought entered her mind. “...Like he didn’t know he was a bomber.”
She shook her head at the impossibility. “Nah, no way. The others can probably make better sense of it.”
Right as she resumed her flight, Rainbow Dash saw a brief blue flash in the corner of her eye. Fear kicked into overdrive and she sprinted away from the flash, dearly hoping she wasn’t about to be forced into being a full pony.
It took her a moment, but she realized this time, the flash was far in the distance. Rainbow hovered over the parking garage where her car was, yet her eyes were fixed on the skyline, searching for where that second flash came from. However, a third flash occurred, a few miles further downtown.
Rainbow Dash felt a pit of cold fear sink into her stomach, which deepened when a fourth flash detonated from the south, then another up north. Every last one of them was street level, save for an eighth flash in the middle of a glass skyscraper. The last one had been close enough for Rainbow to see it came from a window washer now slumped in his scaffold. She dared not to get any closer, for fear of a repeat mana explosion.
“What the hell is going on!?” Rainbow forcibly shook her head to get her thoughts on track. No way I’m driving back. I might get caught in more of this craziness. Her thoughts were punctuated by yet another mana shockwave deeper in the city. Big boss’s gotta know what’s going on.
Rainbow flew as fast as she could to Sparkle Manor while dialing Director Bradley directly. He’s going to flip when he hears about this.