Following the discovery of a strange sphere, Twilight is forced into a unique situation. Christopher isn't happy about it either.
On a trip to Baltimare, Twilight and friends discovered a small metal orb that was beeping. Unable to identify it, Twilight takes it back with her to the castle and studies it. On the third day, however, the orb makes its purpose known.
Thankfully for her, it doesn't do so to her directly.
Unthankfully for Chris, it does.
Added the Sex tag because of Chapter 5 and the problems that arise due to what happens in that chapter. Don't worry, there's nobody doin' the snoo-snoo.
Pillows pressed over her ears with every ounce of strength she could muster. Maybe this would finally work. Now perhaps, if she managed to lock her muscles in place for just long enough, sleep would become one with her. She only wanted an hour at the very least. It would be more than she had gotten in the past week. She wished that for once, she’d listened to Spike about taking a left instead of a right to get back home faster. But no, she and the others just had to take the scenic route. They just had to make their trip to Baltimare as memorable as possible, and head through the entire market district, and the park, and pretty much everywhere else. In her defense though, they did make sure Spike got to pick some of the locations. She never expected that there would be a comic book store that size, or have such an expansive range of topics and genres. It almost made her want to reconsider her opinion of comics in general.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Groaning and pulling the pillows from atop her head, Twilight Sparkle glared with heavily bagged eyes through her bedroom floor in the general direction of the most recent discovery she and her friends had made. The sound hadn’t been that annoying at first, just a quiet beep every now and again when it was in her saddlebags. But no, it just kept getting longer and louder with each passing hour. Getting up from the bed which yet again failed to provide any sleep, Twilight was seriously beginning to consider taking Rarity up on her offer to spend the night as Spike had. That, or let Rainbow have the Tartarus bound thing like she initially wanted.
On second thought, no. That wouldn’t be something she would wish on her worst enemy, let alone a friend. The princess of friendship couldn’t do that and rightfully keep her title, could she? Still, something needed to be done, whether it meant studying the strange finding until she found a way to turn it off, or just flat out destroying it. Admittedly, Twilight didn’t want to go with the latter. It could be something that would help all of ponykind. It might be something that would propel all of Equestrian technology and magic into a new era! Nothing like this anomaly had ever been found before in history!
The noise got louder as she walked down the halls and came to the source of her annoyance, and what little remaining reluctance to destroy it was rapidly dwindling.
Marching through the door to her lab, the lavender princess made her way straight to the source of the noise. It was barely larger than a golfball and shared its spherical shape. Whatever metal it was made of, Twilight was still trying to figure out. The only other discernible feature the rainbow orb held was a single blinking red light. A red light that screeched every time it lit up removed any magic she placed on the object, like say, a soundproofing spell, or a muting spell, or even when she attempted to levitate it, and would not turn off.
If Twilight’s irritation could melt steel beams, she would have bored several holes through the metal ball with surgical precision.
She and her friends had already made their guesses as to what it could be. Rainbow thought it was some form of an alien probe. Rarity had thought it might have been some science experiment from the local university. Fluttershy initially guessed an egg, but quickly took her answer back when it beeped. Applejack just shrugged, and Pinkie said some ridiculous idea that it was a machine meant to transform somepony from one species to another after gathering a sample. Not wanting to risk the strange orb causing harm to anyone nearby regardless, Twilight decided to take it back to her lab and study it. When her magic failed to pick up the object, had become even more determined to find its origin, resulting in it being contained in a specially designed glass case, and sitting on the main work table of her lab.
After an entire week of sleepless nights, however, the twitch of Twilight’s eyes was the only warning anyone would have gotten if she wasn’t alone. With a cry of frustration, Twilight front hooves slammed into the table the orb rested on, making the glass case jump slightly. “WHY WON’T YOU TURN OFF!?"
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
A rather unprincess like growl escaped the lavender mare as she started to the side of the room towards the supply drawers. “You know what? Buck it! I don’t care anymore what this stupid thing could bring to Equestria. I don’t care what ponies will think about how I’m behaving right now.” Levitating an excavation set out of the drawer, one she got from Rarity for her birthday, she pulled out the small hammer and moved back to the orb.
“I.”
The glass case was lifted into the air, and the orb rolled out onto the table.
“Want.”
She raised the hammer to her face, and quickly placed a hardening spell on the head. The hammer moved well above her as she fired pure fury from her eyes to the small orb.
“SLEEP!”
Hammer collided with metal with a resounding clang. Twilight waited and listened, growing more and more thankful as silence filled the air for the first time in days. It looked like her brother’s joke was right after all. If it needs fixed, get a hammer. Tears of relief and joy were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes when the orb suddenly came back to life, and flashed several different colors, and spoke in a language she didn’t recognize. The light was slowly getting brighter and brighter as she backed away and covered her eyes with a wing.
As the light was getting brighter by the second, Twilight began to regret resorting to using a hammer.
In another place/time/dimension/etc., Christopher C. Cohen was having what could only be described as the worst day of his life. He sat there, staring at the small screen before him as the cold December air sucked at the warmth of his body, even as his blue parka tried to keep him warm. Utter disbelief lanced its way through his very being as he stood in the snow-laced pathway. “Just.... how?”
The ATM before him read out a balance of $0.00 in his savings account. It had done the same to his checking account as well. That alone should have been impossible, as his paycheck was set to direct deposit, and he was paid yesterday. He had made sure about that with his boss, and they had agreed on the matter, having him get his pay early so he could surprise them with extra gifts last minute. There should have been so much more in there, to begin with anyways. Months of saving to make sure he had enough to afford the oncoming fortress grade assault upon his wallet. An onslaught that was known to all by one name and one name only, and was reaching the apex of its power over the minds of humanity.
Christmas Shopping.
And now he was broke down to the bone.
His head thumped against the cold plastic as his sigh puffed past him. “Great.... Might as well just show everyone my hoover flags at this point.” Pulling himself up and headed to the bank’s front door, he shook his head. “Kim’s gonna be mighty sore if this isn’t just some card error. I still owe her for last Christma-”
It was that moment, he cried out in pain as something impacted the back of his head. Muttering silent curses to himself and the world, Christopher looked around and glared, trying to spot anyone who could have thrown something.
Instead, he found a small metal ball.
With no flourish or finesse, he picked it up and looked it over, noting how the metal had been treated to have that rainbow finish, faintly recalling that there was a small business that specialized in weapon making, of all things, and they had some knives and throwing stars with the same treatment.
“Great... wannabe ninjas, throwing shit at me now.” Looking out at the street, he flipped the unseen assailant the bird before he continued to head for the bank’s front door.
Beep
Christopher stopped in his tracks and pulled the metal ball out of his pocket, noting the red light and rapidly increasing beeps that made him think of one word.
Bomb.
“Oh Sh-!”
In a blinding flash, Christopher found himself entirely engulfed by a wave of static. When the light vanished, the only thing remaining in front of the bank was a trail of footprints in the snow and a large patch of snowless ground.
When the light faded, Christopher was stumbling as he rubbed his eyes, only to fall back and land on his behind in a pile of snow. “Gah! What the heck was that-” He blinked his eyes open and immediately was flooded with confusion. Gone were the bank, sidewalk, traffic, sky, and ATM. In their places, was a science lab made of crystal, and a purple horse with wings, a horn, and exceptionally abnormally sized eyes that were as tired as he was throughout his college years. A purple-wing-horn-horse that was staring at him with said eyes in both shock and curiosity.
His heart was beating faster than it had in any moment of his life prior, and some distant part of his mind wished he hadn’t skipped gym as often as he had. “What in heaven and hell’s names is going on?”
The metal ball in his hand took that moment to vibrate. “Systems online. Beginning Protocol: CC 0026.”
“Wha-?” Small holes across the surface of the metal ball in his hand and tendrils began to extend. Christopher watched in fascinated horror as shaking his hand to throw the ball away did nothing, and the tendrils held firm to his skin. “H-hey! Let go of me!”
A second orb on the table suddenly came to life as well, and a tendril quickly shot out of it and impacted the horse on the neck, making her yelp as it sent a tendril into it. The horse was freaking out just as much as he was, but unlike the one attacking him, the orb that had struck the horse let go moments later after a soft ding was heard. “DNA sample obtained. Begin Phase One.”
That was when the pain started for Christopher. The tendrils that had previously only clung to his arm began to burrow into his flesh, tearing their way through his jacket and shirt. Howling in pain, Christopher tried to pry off the strange machine, only to receive jolts of electricity in return every time he grabbed the orb. He only managed to rip away what remained of his jacket’s sleeves. The metal tendrils could be seen burrowing under his skin, bulging obscenely as they wove their way through muscle and sinew. He lost control of his arm when the tendrils, seemingly endless, reached past his shoulder and began to work into his torso. The second orb had pulled its way over to him and already burrowed into his thigh.
Through it all, he screamed.
The purple horse, from what little he could see of her after the tendrils made it past his tearing eyes, looked utterly horrified. Through all of his body, he could feel the metal snake this way and that, wrapping around his organs and violating him in places he didn’t even know he had. The orb in his hand had followed the tendrils down into his palm, and he could feel where it had come to rest inside his forearm.
“Subject secured. Begin Phase Two.”
Then to his amazement and horror, the pain became worse. The tendrils, now throughout his body, somehow felt infinitely sharper, and began to thrash. His screams died before he could even start, as his inner workings were reduced to nothing. Somehow, he was still alive. Still awake. His brain was the one place the tendrils refused to move, holding it in place, even as his skull was destroyed, and forcing him to remain conscious. His clothes had been completely torn away by what few tendrils had remained outside of his body, stitching his skin to keep it from being destroyed.
“Subject prepared for the procedure. Begin Phase Three.”
He could feel the tendrils forcing the remains of his body to morph like putty into an unfamiliar shape. His skin was stretched taught here and there, being forced to hold an alien form. All the while, he cried and screamed silently from within his mind. What was more, the strange and vile machines seemed to deem it necessary for him to hear his surroundings, which only gave him the knowledge that someone was watching, and retching at the sight of his form being wholly refabricated.
“Injecting DNA.”
The pain returned ten fold. The paste his body had become internally reacted rapidly and violently as the tendrils sent something into him. He could feel as bone and sinew reformed anew, and organs became present once more. With his heart back, he could feel it hammering through the ultra-sensitive ribcage, each beat sending more pain, and in turn, making his heart race faster. His body refused to listen to him at the moment, and even if it could have, he wouldn’t have been able to fight through the pain long enough to stand.
As his lungs returned, a garbled scream tried to escape. His skull and face were longer than they should have been, and something was growing from the center of his head. What hair he had before had rapidly fallen from his head, and disintegrated into nothing, only to be replaced moments later as new hair quickly grew. His spine was longer as well, extending past his hips. His skin was burning as it pulled taut across his body, thinning here and there, and hair rapidly grew across the surface. His fingers and toes were no more. Instead, semi hardened growths remained, with a supporting bone structure to match. When the shifting of his form was finally finished, Christopher’s body collapsed onto the snow covered floor as he panted in agony.
“Procedure complete. Protocol CC 0026, Successful. Disengaging from the subject.”
Christopher gagged as he felt something crawling within his stomach, or what he hoped was his stomach, and move further up his chest and throat. As he desperately pawed with his useless limbs at his throat, four tendrils crept from his lips and forced his mouth open as the two intruders pulled themselves from his body. They rolled along the floor for a moment before the tendrils retracted and the spheres stopped beeping.
The world finally chose to have mercy on Christopher that day and allowed him to pass out.
Twilight pulled her head away from the garbage bin when she heard the sound of metal clinking along the ground. Hesitation hindered her ability to turn and look, but when she did, there was no longer the sight of nightmares. Instead, the strange object and its duplicate rested upon the floor of her lab. The glass case nearly hit the floor and shattered as Twilight scooped up the two orbs and sealed them within the glass. It wasn’t enough in her opinion, but it was all she really had at the moment.
She briefly put a hoof to her neck and felt the warm touch of blood. The wound had healed alarmingly fast after the orb had attacked her, but it took some of her blood with it. Not enough to do any real harm, but her head was woozy from the lack of blood she now had.
With a soft thump, her focus was drawn back to what remained of the human-like creature the second orb had brought with it. Whatever it had been before, it was no longer. Its clothes, or what remained of them, were scattered around it amongst small piles of snow it had brought with it from wherever it had once been. Instead, Twilight stared at a near perfect copy of herself back when she had been a unicorn, had she never trimmed her mane or fetlocks. Shivers ran up her spine as she remembered the sound of its alien cries, desperately shouting and pleading in words she couldn’t understand the meaning of, but could fully know the intent. The princess had to force herself from retching again as she rushed over to one of the desks, pulling out paper and quill. She had no time to waste.
Hopefully, Celestia or Luna would know what to do.
As she had been writing, Twilight had moved her double’s body off of the snow covered floor and into the grip of her magic. The sight of herself outside of a mirror was surreal and made the changeling invasion flash into her mind, but she was not going to leave somepony unconscious on the ground. What had happened still terrified her though, and she could not deny it.
The magic unintentionally melted some of the snow, revealing more of what the creature had brought with it. The scraps of fabric remaining on the ground were unburied, and she briefly noted that there was what had possibly been a cellphone previously. It was in pieces now, but certain parts looked somewhat the same. Moreover, was a somewhat uncommon sight in Equestria, a wallet. These were typically seen in Griffon territory, as the paper currency was more accessible to store within it. The princess picked it up as well, setting it down onto an examination table. All the while, her quill continued to write her message.
It was when the double’s body was put down as well; she heard the sound of several hooves galloping down the corridor. She figured that from the screams, the last half of them sounded similar enough to her to alert the guards. It wasn’t long before her thoughts were confirmed, and the guards that been assigned to her castle came rushing into the room. “Princess, are you alright!” The poor stallion froze as he looked between the princess and her double. The other guards followed in after, and quickly had their spears pointed at the double, cautious of its nature.
Twilight raised a hoof, finished writing the last of her letter, and looked to the guard. “I need this message delivered to Canterlot castle. Preferably straight to Celestia or Luna.” She spared a glance at the unconscious unicorn and waved a hoof to the guards. “And lower your spears. From what I witnessed moments ago, she isn’t a threat to me or anypony.” She paused as her injury throbbed slightly. “If anything she is more a victim then I am.”
“Yes, princess.” The guards nodded in unison, one quickly flying away from the castle out of a window, while the others began to file out. Twilight hated using her authority as a princess like this, but it seemed that this morning was full of things she disliked.
One guard stayed back, however, looking to the unicorn. “Um... Princess? What should we do about her?”
Her thoughts snapped back into focus at the mention of the new unicorn. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what exactly had occurred her freshly made double, but she knew that it would be foolish to try and handle the situation herself, even if her stomach would have let her remember what had happened without lurching. As knowledgeable as she was, she was not a trained professional. “If you can, bring a doctor or two over from Ponyville General. I’ll give them the details of what happened when they arrive... um...” A faint blush crossed her cheeks as she fumbled for a name.
The guard gave her a rather quick salute that was slightly out of form, making him glad his commander wasn’t in the room. “E-Everclear. Private Everclear, your highness. I only arrived a few days ago, so it’s alright if you don’t know my name.”
The lavender princess nodded a bit, giving a small smile, uneasy as it was. “Right, right. If you could bring the doctors over, I’d like to have, um, her, medically examined.” Everclear gave her a quick salute and was heading for the door when Twilight stopped him for just a moment. “And please, just call me Twilight.”
Numb.
That was all Christopher could feel at the moment, and he was thankful for that. He would instead feel absolutely nothing and remain submerged entirely into that welcoming ocean of unconsciousness. He wouldn’t have said no to a bit of joy, but that had become hard to find. The shock that had been swimming through him rather frequently and frantically was probably to blame for that.
It was still better than The Pain though.
That was the only way he could really describe what he had just felt. It was far worse than anything he had felt before in his entire life. He would rather have been stabbed to death then feel that again.
Unfortunately, the numbness was slowly fading. His eyes felt swollen and heavy, something about his mouth felt off, and his forehead and tailbone had a dull throb coming from them. It wasn’t anything compared to the monstrous headache he had, but it was still better than before. He briefly pondered for a moment if this was how a fish felt when it was out of the water. His limbs regaining feeling to them brought the thought out of reach. He could feel canvas under him, but it was strange. It felt like his legs were resting in a way, that shouldn’t have been physically possible. He tried to move his fingers, maybe see if he could figure out why.
The Pain returned to his mind. The nerves in his hand ignited like roman candles and jolted his memory again. His body tensed, trying to stop the pain and only succeeding in making it worse. He stopped working to move his hands immediately and tried to force his body to do the same. He could faintly hear someone talking. He couldn’t understand a word of it, but something stuck into his neck. Panic came again. The echo of The Pain danced with The Pain in his hands across the surface of his mind. Slowly, however, it was fading again. He was sinking into sleep again. Maybe it was best for the time being that he just sleep.
Sleep sounded nice.
The doctors arrived in short notice and had quickly put the mystery mare onto a stretcher. Twilight watched in worry as they carried the mare away. She needed to figure out something to call them. Referring to somepony as ‘mare’ constantly just did not feel right. Regardless, they were carrying her to the castle’s medical rooms for the testing Twilight had requested. If Nurse Redheart had not been tending to her neck, stitching the wound shut and applying a bandage for extra measure, she more than likely would have followed.
As the pearl nurse finished wrapping the bandage around Twilight’s neck, she looked over her work. “Try not to move your neck too much. The wound may be sewn shut, but when the swelling goes down, it will hurt like nothing else.” Sighing as she put her tools away, the Nurse shook her head. “It will also probably leave a scar, but that might not be the case for you princess.”
Before she could give her thanks, the door to the room burst open and Twilight found herself under the gentle assault of butter yellow hooves. “Oh my goodness, are you okay Twilight?” Nurse Redheart had taken the pegasus’s entrance as a cue to leave and gave the princess a quick bow before heading for the medical ward herself.
As for Twilight, the rest of her friends had started entering the room when she had finally gotten Fluttershy to let go. “I’m going to be fine. Just a small hit to the neck.”
Looking at the state of the lab, Applejack shook her head in disbelief. “If ya’ll just got a small hit to the neck, what caused all this?”
Rainbow flew over and looked around. “Yeah, it looks like somepony tried to have a snowball fight in here.”
Pinkie nodded rapidly, her demeanor far more serious than she usually allowed. “Rainbow’s right, My Pinkie Sense might have felt a new pony in town a moment ago, but my friends come first.”
Seeing Twilight shudder slightly, Rarity put a hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight?”
The lavender princess took a breath to calm herself and looked at the piles of snow herself. “I wish it were the case girls, but it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
Pinkie popped up from behind one of the tables and poked at the glass container holding the two spheres. “Is that why there’s two of the weird thing now?” Faster than any of them could react, the case was sent flying to the edge of the table, and crystal was pulled from the walls, encasing the glass to the point it was unopenable. Pinkie was still staring at the spot the case had been before she slowly lowering her hoof back to the floor. All heads were turning to Twilight, who was panting slightly as she focused on the trapped spheres, a thin smoke trail rising from her horn.
Shaking in place, Fluttershy took a step back from her friend. “T-Twilight...?”
Jumping slightly at her name, Twilight shook her head and tried to swallow. Since when had her throat been so dry? “I-I...”
She soon found herself on the receiving end of a small hug from Applejack. “Twilight, I can tell that something happened involving those things, and it’s got you rattled more than any villain we’ve sent packing. It’s alright if ya don’t want to talk about it just yet.”
Sighing as she accepted the hug, Twilight closed her eyes. “Thank you.” Breaking away from the hug, the lavender princess glanced down to the side. “But that doesn’t make it right for me to lash out like that.” She looked over to the pink party planner apologetically. “Are you alright Pinkie?”
Giving a quick nod in return, Pinkie walked back over to the group with a signature Pinkie Pie smile on her face. “It’s alright Twilight. Just give a mare some warning next time.”
Returning the smile, Twilight felt a bit better. “Alright, I’ll-...” She looked over at the snow again and began to think about what had happened again. “Actually, I think it might be easier if I showed her to you.” While Twilight walked past them out the door, the group looked amongst themselves for a moment before following close behind.
“Twilight darling, what do you mean by ‘her’?” Rarity let out a small gasp, and her hoof briefly climbed to her lips. “Did something happen to Starlight? I thought she was still on vacation with Trixie.”
The lavender princess shook her head. “No, Starlight’s still away. She isn’t due to come back for another three days, and that's if she doesn’t decide to come back early.” Twilight picked up her pace for a moment and looked behind her. “The medical ward shouldn’t be too far ahead now.”
As the group headed out the door, Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to decide just how she could correctly word what had happened, or even if she could word it.
Just thinking about it made her sick to her stomach.
The six mares continued to walk in silence, the group as a whole not sure what to say. Each of them either shared worried glances amongst each other every now again or in Twilight’s case, kept leading them down the halls. Soon, the sight of two large doors with red crystalline crosses embedded on them loomed before them.
Before they could enter, Twilight turned and looked at every one of her friends. “Before I show you this, I need to say a few things. One, she is not a changeling, Two, this is going to be weird to see, and three, there are currently doctors looking her over so please refrain from interfering.” With some hesitation, Twilight opened the door and headed in. As her friends followed, one by one, they noticed the purple unicorn that rested in one of the beds. The two doctors from the hospital both were moving about the room, going from machine to machine, making notes.
“Woah...” Rainbow hovered a bit closer and looked her over, before landing next to Twilight. “Uh... Did you have a twin sister and not tell us Twilight? I mean, there was your brother with the marriage, and...”
One of the doctors, a brown unicorn stallion with a caramel mane, looked up when the door opened and gave the princess a warm smile. “Good evening Twilight. My name is Dr. Oath. We came over as soon as word arrived that you needed assistance.”
The other doctor, an earth pony mare with a light blue coat and two-tones red and pink mane, rolled her eyes and kept looking over the mare. “Sure, go right ahead and only introduce yourself. As always.” The blue mare looked up from her clipboard and glared at the bluer pegasus. “If you would please stop flying and leaving feathers all over the place, that would be dandy. Or better yet, just start tap dancing on her. I’m sure it’ll work the kinks out and make my job so much easier.”
The blue flyer looked ready to take off the doctor’s head. “Hey! Don’t be such a jerk you-”
With a shake of her head, Twilight sat down and used her magic to pull Rainbow back over to the group.”Ignore her Rainbow. Dr. Home might be rather crass, but she knows what she’s doing. Back to what I was saying, do you remember when I told you about the adventures I had through the mirror, and how everypony there was a human?”
Pinkie nodded. “Yepperoni! You said that everypony had a human there that matched them in every way possible.”
Fluttershy glanced at the unicorn in the bed. “Did human Twilight come here and something happened to her?”
Twilight shook her head. “Not my human counterpart, no. But... the thing we found brought not only a copy of itself here, but a human-like creature along with it.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Uh... human-like?”
The princess nodded. “I wish I could go into more detail, but I didn’t quite get a good look at it until...” Twilight glanced at the mare and frowned. “Until after it started. What I did notice though, was its body was larger than the humans across the portal. I think I saw what looked like gills on the side of its neck, but that might have been due to the orbs...”
The rainbow flyer scratched her head and raised an eyebrow. “How could a metal ball give somepony gills? Aren’t those supposed to be on fish?”
Twilight shook her head with a sigh. “Yes, they are Rainbow. How the orbs could have done that is the same way they turned her into a mare. And even then, I might have just imagined it all together.”
“Speaking of which,” Dr. Oath trotted over with a clipboard in his magic, “Just what did happen to this mare? We’ve been running the tests you requested performed, but so far, nothing out of the ordinary has been found. Knowing what happened would help us greatly.”
Twilight flinched as her eyes dilated slightly, but she cleared her throat. “Er... right. I guess I should probably have told you that earlier.”
Dr. Home rolled her eyes as she continued to look over the mare, muttering to herself. “Ya don’t say?”
The princess looked between her friends and the doctors. “Around six thirty, one of the orbs that are currently being held in my lab activated after a week of constant beeping. When it did, it brought the second orb, and the mystery creature mentioned earlier. The orbs both then opened several small holes, and mechanical tendrils emerged. One pierced my neck, and from what Nurse Redheart told me earlier while bandaging me, took muscle tissue from the wound. The second orb, however, had begun to embed itself throughout the creature’s body. Judging from,” Twilight shuddered slightly, “from the screams, it did nothing to ease the pain.”
Fluttershy was shaking as she hid behind Applejack. The farm mare was doing her best not to turn entirely pale along with Rainbow. Rarity couldn’t have gotten her coat any whiter if she had tried, and Pinkie’s mane had gone flat. Dr. Oath, for their part, looked positively mortified. Dr. Home was listening with a stone still gaze, frozen between shock and fascination.
Twilight continued regardless, her own eyes unfocusing as she fell into the memory. “The second orb then joined the first, and the creature was... completely unrecognizable. I... would rather not go into details on what it looked like as the orbs did whatever it was to the creature. The end result however, is what you see there.” The lavender princess motioned to the room’s unconscious occupant.
Dr. Home looked over the slumbering mare for a moment before closing her eyes and sighing. “That would explain some of our findings. However, I want to be able to be as thorough as possible with helping her.” She let the clipboard lay on the end of the mare’s bed and started walking from around the table. “I would like to request that we are allowed to look over the devices that caused this.”
Before the princess could say anything, Dr. Oath’s surprise made him hit volumes close to the Royal Voice. “You want to examine something that caused this much damage? Are you insane? It’s a complete disregard for your safety and I will not al-”
Dr. Home glared at the stallion intensely, making him step back a bit as his jaws snapped shut. “Oath, you and I both know that this is far beyond any medical technology we know of, let alone what is available. Somepony is going to have to study those things further if we’re going to get any headway in figuring out what exactly happened, and I doubt your glory seeking posterior has the cerebral capacity to do it.”
“I hope we are not interrupting anything.” Everyone looked over to the door, where Celestia and Luna stood. Seeing her former teacher, Twilight smiled joyfully, rushing over for a brief nuzzle. “We came as fast as we could Twilight.”
“Thank you, Prin- Celestia.” Twilight backed up a bit and frowned. “But shouldn’t one of you still be at the castle?”
Luna huffed a bit as she shook her head. “A princess of the realm was injured. I would believe that would hold more precedence than most of the nobles’ squabbling.”
Smiling a touch, the solar princess glanced at her sister. “Now Luna, we both know that you shouldn’t speak of the nobles like that. They might get cranky.” Celestia’s gaze was resting on the doctor's bickering for a moment before she raised an eyebrow. “Dr. Home, it seems you still have some work to do on how to interact with others. I take it you do not plan on returning to Canterlot General?”
Not even withering under the scrutiny, Dr. Home looked over at the princess and nodded. “The ponies here somehow manage to hurt themselves in the most idiotic of ways, but at least they’re not bigots that try to tell me how to do my job.”
“I see. As for your request,” The lunar princess shared a glance with her sister before trotting closer to the two doctors, “normally my sister and I would be against this, but we would rather this be kept to as few ponies as possible. Information like this could spark events we all would be better without, should it spread uncontrollably.”
Celestia moved to be next to her sister and nodded in agreement. “You both have permission to study the devices that caused this, but only under the condition that you keep this away from public knowledge, and continue to help our unfortunate guest recover. Should any new developments arise, please let my sister and I know? Furthermore, please inform Princess Twilight as well, as this involves her as well.”
Giving a short bow, Dr. Home smirked a bit. “You have my word, Princess.”
Once more, Christopher found himself floating back to the waking world. Only this time, his mind seemed to be a bit more coherent. One of his immediate thoughts was, oddly, how every inch of him was tingling. His limbs still felt wrong, but there was infinitely less pain this time. It felt more like somebody had wrapped him in velvet.
Breathing through his nose, he could smell what had to be antiseptic. Spend enough time in a hospital, and you know that smell anywhere. Daring to crack an eye open, he was pleasantly surprised to not be face to face with the usual blinding white, but at the same time worried. Sure, he wasn’t having his retinas burned out by floodlight levels of illumination, but that meant he wasn’t in the local hospital this time.
He still couldn’t feel any of his fingers and toes, and he started to rake through his mind for even the smallest hint of what could have happened. Purple was one detail, though he wasn't sure why. There was also something vaguely like a horse along with a metallic swarm of tentacles, but again, he couldn’t think of why they were in his memories. Then he remembered the pain and the small beeping metal ball that blinded him with a flash as it detonated.
Were my injuries so bad I got moved to a different hospital? He tried to move his head and open his eyes more, but his neck felt like it was about to roll off of his shoulders. His heart leaped into his throat as an unsettling panic took its place. Good Lord, just how disfigured am I now!? Are my hands nothing but nubs? Did they have to push my shoulders down my spine to close a gap where my stomach should have been!? Is that even physically possible!?
His eyes eventually managed to adjust to the light, and he faintly spotted something purple below his line of sight. He tried to turn and focus on it, albeit only slightly, but it always hung in the same spot. Eventually feeling he just went cross-eyed and blinked dumbly at what he was seeing. Where his nose was supposed to be, was a large fuzzy mass of purple. I... but... sweet baby Jesus is that my nose!? Just how messed up do I have to be to have a nose this swollen and purple!? More importantly, WHY IS IT FURRY!?
The sound of an alarm going off nearby made something move on the top of his head, the sound amplifying slightly as it did. Next, to him, he could hear what could only have been a heart monitor going ninety miles per hour. He rolled his head to the side, and caught a glimpse of the door just as it was opening.
The moment his eyes met with the sight of a small blue and red pony, holding a clipboard, and wearing a lab coat, there was pretty much only one substantial thought left in his mind. It was so constant, that even as the rest of his views began to fly out of his ears, it solely managed to escape his mouth. A thought that was also alarmingly calm compared to the rate at which his heart was beating. The sound of his voice only added to the feeling of alarm, as it was much more feminine than he remembered. “I have so many questions right now.”
He finally found the strength to move his head more, seeing his body’s reasons for feeling so off. His hands, his feet, and most importantly his familiar human body, all gone. Instead, the shape of the lumps under the covers was showing limbs that did not belong on any human. The hooves that were slipping from the far end of the sheets, and at the ends of his wrists, made his panic rise further and further, moving towards the realm of hysteria. The panicked shouts from the pony were not helping with this in the slightest.
Dr. Home was not having a good day, and that was putting it lightly. About three hours had passed after the princesses, and their friends had left, and in that time her mystery patient had woken up. Usually, this would be a good thing. She could go about the usual procedure of making sure they were alright and talk to them to learn their side of what happened. Only problems there were a few facts.
One, this mare used to be something else entirely and was so visibly distressed at the very sight of her limbs, that the patient was beginning to hyperventilate and spout nonsense. Two, Dr. Home was already startled at hearing the heart monitor going off as rapidly as it did, making her already less than approachable demeanor slightly worse alongside the situation and her stress levels. It was the bout of cursing as she tried to rush in and help slow the mare’s heart down to a safe bpm, that she learned three, this mare didn’t speak Equish, or any language she could recognize whatsoever, as she spouted some inane babble that vaguely sounded like sentences.
Finding herself with this, she decided to ditch verbal communication for the time being and instead was holding a hoof towards the mare, trying to pull her attention to her and get her to breathe. Pushing and pulling her hoof from her chest and letting out a few breaths, Dr. Home tried to get the mare in her care to look over at her. Purple eyes soon honed in on the doctor, and danced over every detail before the mare slowly started to follow suit with her breaths. Slowly but surely, her heart rate had finally dropped back down. Careful not to startle them, Dr. Home calmly moved over to the monitor and turned it off, before looking to the mare once more.
She placed a hoof on the edge of the bed, the mare awkwardly flinching away, before quickly raising her hoof defensively and pointing to the leads that were still attached to her. Slowly, the purple mare clumsily slid herself back to her previous position and watched nervously as Dr. Home removed the sensors.
Once that was done, Dr. Home decided to take a quick gamble and see if talking was possible. Yes, her patient had spoken another language, but to be safe, she had to make sure she didn’t speak her’s. “Do you understand me?”
The mare’s head turned to look at her before it tilted to the side in confusion. Sighing as she shook her head, Dr. Home turned to leave the room, and paused as she got to the door. Pointing at the mare, she moved her hoof to the floor and gave it a solid tap, before pointing at herself and then the door. Thankfully for her, the mystery patient understood at least that much and nodded.
Closing the door behind her, the doctor found her coworker standing at the window looking in. “Well, that was certainly faster than we predicted. I had expected her to be unconscious for at least another day or two.” Dr. Oath’s horn ignited, and a few papers floated out of his pockets. “Regardless, I just finished with the permissions needed to proceed with your insane idea.” The papers were given to Dr. Home, who took them in hoof and attached them to her clipboard. “You had best be careful about all this.”
Scoffing a bit, Dr. Home placed her clipboard in a pocket and looked to the door. “That’s great and all, but I was originally planning on looking the devices over before she had woken up. Now that she’s awake, we’ll need to focus our efforts on our Jane Doe here. She seems intelligent enough to realize I wasn’t here to hurt her, but doesn’t speak our language at all.”
Dr. Oath’s brow narrowed as he tilted his head slightly. “What makes you say that?”
Shaking her head, Dr. Home started to walk away from the room. “I had to calm her down from a panic attack, and I on top of that, she was trying to ask me a lot of things. What they were, I don’t know, but you can try and figure out a way to talk with her if you want. I recommend keeping Princess Twilight out of the room for the foreseeable future. If the sight of her own hooves was enough to make her panic that horribly, I don’t want to think of how bad she’ll be if she saw somepony who looked exactly like her.”
“Right.” As he neared the door, Oath looked over. “Might be best to add that into your report as well. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can devise a way to communicate with her in the short term.” With one hoof on the door, he could hear muffled noise from just beyond it. “I’ll let you know if something other than hoof gestures work.”
Looking back, Dr. Home was scowling but nodded. As soon as Oath was in the room, she started off towards her lab. “Imbecile.”
As soon as the door closed behind the mare, Chris flopped back into the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Okay Chris, situation time. Go over some facts and see if any faults would make this some awful fever dream. One, you’re a horse, and your voice is different. There’s a big one. Two, the other horse that was in here earlier was in a lab coat, tried to talk to you, and but you couldn’t understand a word of it. That’s another. Three said horse was freaking blue, and you’re purple.” He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and sighed. “Okay, this has got to be a dream.”
Sitting up slightly, he glanced around the area and frowned. “Wasn’t pain a way to wake from dreams?” Spotting a scalpel on the table nearby, his mind entertained the idea for a moment. He quickly shook his head and shuddered. “No, not even in dreams. Tiny cuts hurt.”
Raising one of his arms, he felt his heart pick up its pace some. Licking his lips nervously, Chris eyed the hoof cautiously. “Well.... I guess teeth it is.” Hesitantly, he opened his mouth and slowly moved his arm between his lips. Not wanting to make this last any longer than it had too, he quickly bit down the moment he built up the courage to do so and instantly regretted it. A small cry escaped his lips as he brought the bit limb to his chest. Marks slightly visible under the fur throbbed with each heartbeat. “Okay... not dreaming,” an attempt at a gulp left his throat starting to feel dry, "which is even more terrifying.”
Rubbing his bit limb as gently as he could, he took several breaths. Desperate to distract himself, he closed his eyes and let his mind race through what he remembered. “Okay, what was I doing before this happened? Firstly, went to the bank. Need to make note to find out what happened to the lost funds. Second, got hit in head by an inconsiderate jerk throwing something small and metal. Three, thing that hit me e-exploded. Possibly was a flashbang, but that is currently unknown. Four...” His eyes glared at the ceiling intensely as he tried to focus his mind. With a growl, the raised hoof slammed back down onto the bed. “Damn it what happened next!?”
Rubbing his face, he grumbled and took a few breaths to try and calm himself. “Okay, uh, let’s focus on colors only. Maybe that’ll get us somewhere. There was, um, purple? I know there was something purple, and it wasn’t me. Maybe it was another horse thing? Then comes the metallic rainbow, which was our little bomb. There was also a lot of blue,” glancing around at the room, he sighed, “which would be explained by the current locale. Did, did it teleport me?” Scoffing a bit to himself, he shook his head. “No, teleporting is impossible outside of theoretical science and fiction. Something else had to have happened.”
Leaning to the wall, he tapped his hoof against the surface. “Wait a second. Is this, crystal?” He slid the hoof along the wall and frowned. “Seamless too? B-But that kind of architecture would be insanely expensive, and p-practically impossible!” Looking at his body again, a small chuckle escaped his lips. “Impossible. So is t-turning into a horse, yet here I am. Just about e-everything, I’ve seen so far is impossible.” About then he noticed that his blankets had slid down further off of his body. He was about to look at his body in full if only to see the extent of the damage his mind would have to adjust to when the door opened.
Glancing over, he saw a different horse in lab coat this time. The blue one with the red and pink mane, which still registered in the realms of inconceivable, had been replaced with a much more logically colored brown one, with a lighter brown hair that kinda reminded him of caramel candy. The trailing thought at least distracted him somewhat, but he noticed that the new arrival’s jaw was squarer than the last one. Something about how it looked was telling him this was a male horse. No, Unicorn. That was undoubtedly a horn coming out of its head.
What was the term again? Stallion? Now I wish I’d listened to Kim more. This is her obsession, not mine.
Clearing his throat, the stallion tried to talk to Chris for a moment, only getting a blank stare in return. With a slight deadpan, Chris instinctively facepalmed, which in retrospect, hurts more with hooves. “Did the other horse not let this one know I can’t understand them?” Sighing, Chris slumped back into the bed. “Stupid horse doctor things. Can’t even listen to their colleagues.” At that moment, some memories fluttered back to his forethought and his new ears fell a bit. ‘Like I was much better...’
A quick mental slap to the face, and Chris started looking around the room. ‘No. This is not the time for a pity party. This situation calls for an intelligent and elaborate method of communication.’ The horse in the room kept watching him even as he searched around. ‘Damn it why can’t I find a piece of paper!?’ For a second, his mind jumped back to the pantomiming the previous doctor horse had done. There was one problem with that plan though. “How the hell do I mime for paper?”
In the castle library, six mares all were gathered around a crystalline table. While it may not have been the same table they usually gathered around, the smaller, and less critical tabletop still served its purpose as an excellent place to read, without having to deal with holographic buildings blocking the pages at random times.
The atmosphere, however, was less than ideal for such activities.
The six had spent the past few hours discussing what to do about the particular situation at hand. More specifically, how they should approach the new arrival wearing one of their faces, and going through the stuff that Twilight had found.
Looking through the wallet, Rainbow stared at some green papers that she’d found. “This isn’t even close to the money Gilda showed me once. It’s so bland and boring. At least griffon money has some color to it.“
Shaking her head, Applejack looked over from the broken electronics on the table. “That ain’t what we’re going through this for Dash.” Poking at the device a few times and getting no response, the farmer scratched behind her ear. “What the hay is going through all this gonna help us do anyway?”
Pulling something from the wallet in Rainbow’s hoof, Rarity brought a plastic card out of a pocket and into her magic, humming as it turned. “I believe this may be a license of some sort. Shame that her language does not match our own, but we do get a good picture at least.” Glancing at her side, the seamstress noticed her bookish friend’s hesitation in her examinations and placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Are you sure you’re alright with doing this now dear? You look positively beside yourself.”
Giving her friend a small smile in return, the princess’s eyes showed the truth of just how tired she was. “I’m fine. Its just...I’m not sure how we should do this.”
Pinkie tilted her head, a sock that somehow survived earlier events hanging off her curls. “What do you mean?”
Twilight’s attention moved to her party-centric friend. “Well for one, this mare is completely removed from her home, and I don’t think she even knows our language. She’s probably going to be scared, confused, and unable to talk to anyone when she finally wakes up.” She frowned as her gaze moved to the items salvaged. A feeling in her core twisted slightly as she looked over each item. “Secondly, it feels, wrong, going through her belongings like this. I know we need to learn more about them to be of any help, and gathering information of any kind is going to take a lot of time regardless, but...”
“Twilight, I think we should do this later.” All heads looked to Fluttershy, and she hid behind her hair a bit. “I mean....We can tell this is bothering you, but um, if you want to keep going-”
Twilight shook her head as a small smile let a sigh escape from her lips. “No, you’re right. We should probably stop for now. Besides, we’ll be able to learn more when, when she,” a yawn forced its way out of her as she attempted to blink herself awake again, “wakes up and can tell us what she knows herself.”
With a hoof hitting her face, Applejack sighed and stood up from her seat. “Alright, that’s it. You’re going to bed.“ Walking over to her friend, the farmer started gently pulling her away from the table.
The lavender princess protested weakly as she was moved from her chair. “Applejack, please I’m fine. I’m not that tired at all.”
The apple brand deadpan stare was the start of the farmer’s response ”Ya look like you’re about to fall right over any second now.” With a slightly firmer tug, Twilight found herself flopped across Applejack’s back. “Now help me find your room, so you can get some sleep.”
When the only response she heard was a gentle snore, the five friends all shared a small laugh at their sleeping princess’s expense.
As Christopher watched the stallion leave, he felt a straggling shudder crawl its way up his back after the door was closed, as if it was afraid to do so with the doctor in the room. “The hell was with that guy?”
The entire time the new doctor was trying to talk to him, something kept twisting in his gut. It was like just meeting the stallion put his nerves on edge, even though the way he was moving about painted him as a complete buffoon, including his repeated attempts at communication without any form of understanding between the two. Yet through it all, all Chris could feel was a bubbling pit of resentment from the doctor. It was a palpable taste in the air around him and had started making the poor man sick to his stomach until the stallion finally left.
Chris had to take several breaths once he was alone to shake the queasiness. Taking a quick look around, the bedridden pony quickly scooted himself to the edge of the bed and tried to roll off onto his feet. His back legs landed with a clop, sending a jolt up his spine that made him flop his face into the bedding. “Holy crap that feels weird.”
The sensation of hoof meeting crystal was... unique, to put lightly. It was almost like he was standing on his nails instead of his toes, only now his nails were growing from around his entire foot and were able to remain attached despite the sheer amount of weight his body was placed on them. He could still feel the ground below, and the echo of a chill from the minuscule amount of space that was left under his new limbs, but that did little to ease the feeling running up his legs. If anything, it made it worse.
There was another feeling however that made him worry a bit more. The space between his legs felt somewhat breezy. Like something was either incredibly shrunken or missing.
Both options were less than ideal in Christopher's opinion.
Gulping, Chris took a breath and looked between his forelegs to see the extent of the damage, and shortly after, regretted doing so.
Gone. A part of Christopher that he took for granted was wholly removed from his body. Only a pair of soft mounds could be seen on his underbelly, and neither were as far back as he would have liked them to be nor did they dangle. Any hint of a remnant of his former pride, the only part of him he wouldn’t have had any problems becoming a bit more equine if he wanted a size boost, was stripped away from him.
Not only did the world make him a horse, but it also made him a girl too.
Yet, Chris did not feel a panic attack as horrible as the last one coming on. Sure, this was the newest revelation of how utterly screwed over the world made him, but it was the latest in several that happened back to back. If anything, the panic attack decided to let an echo of the last one take the next shot, only accelerating his heart rate half as much instead. He paused for a moment to breathe like the mare from before showed him.
With a push, his forehooves landed on the ground, and Chris stood on four unsteady legs. He had a feeling that he wasn’t supposed to try and walk anytime soon, but he felt the need to get out of the lingering scent the stallion had left behind. Get out to where though? He wasn’t sure. As long as he wasn’t in that room anymore, he didn’t care.
He started his unsteady gait towards the doorway when he saw his reflection in the crystal. It was distorted slightly, but he tilted his head out of curiosity regardless as he started examining himself.
A horn, of all things, was protruding from his head. He stared at the protrusion, before shakily letting out a breath. “Unicorn... of all things to be turned into... a unicorn...” A gulp raced down his throat as he thought back to what myths and legends he knew about the legendary equines. “I hope none of those myths about their blood are true... I don’t want to be hunted.”
He then took a moment to look at his face. He already knew that he was purple now, but he didn’t realize how extensive the color was until now. Eyes, body, hair and tail, all of them were some shade of the color purple. The only exception he could see on his body was the streak of pink in his tail and hair. He refused to call it a mane if only to hold on to some shred of his former species.
It was then a thought occurred. “Wait... that stallion was a unicorn too. Was that uneasy feeling because we’re both...? He didn’t want to... did he?” A shudder ran up his spine. “No, not thinking about that. It’s fucking gross. Ew.”
He felt the tickle of something on his neck as he shuddered though, and leaned against the wall for a moment to orient himself properly, before taking a small step to the side and trying to get a good look at himself in the reflection. “There’s... something under the fur?” Try as he might, however, he couldn’t get a good look. Whatever was on his neck, he couldn’t see it under the lavender hairs.
He needed a mirror to get a better look. Not some heavily polished rocks.
Ending his self-examination, Chris stumbled out the door and down the halls. The farther away from the room he got, the fresher the air became.
Going down the halls, Christopher checked every door he could, pushing them open with his head and shoulders. It hurt and exhausted him, but how else was he going to open the doors with no hands? He was just happy that the doorknobs weren’t too troublesome to operate with his teeth.
It was further down the hall when he was finally reaching a T in his path that he heard the same sound his own limbs were making, only far more plentiful. Fear pierced through his mind as he looked over and darted into the nearest room, and pushed the door shut. He could hear them talking to each other as they passed, but the words were lost to him. Seeing no other options to understand what might be happening, he dared a glance, cracking open the door to peer out.
There were five of them. Pink, white, blue, orange, and yellow, moving past the doorway. On the orange one’s back, however, he saw another purple pony. She looked shockingly like he did, but had the addition of a pair of wings sprouting from her back.
And for a moment, he remembered the pain.
His mind was racing with possible reasons. Did they do this to him? Did they do this to her too? What were the bandages on her neck for? Why did she have wings? Why was his vision getting fuzzier?
Starting to gasp for air, he ducked back into the room and tried to shake the thoughts away. As he did, he could feel the weight in his stomach again, only this time it wasn’t a feeling of resentment he was overwhelmed by, but concern? It wafted off of the mares as they walked by, almost a literal cloud of tastes and scents, to the point that Chris could feel his eyes watering from how intense it was. It was too much, and he backed into the room further, getting as far from the door as possible.
He sat alone in that room, hugging himself as he scooted into a corner and cried silently.