CHAPTER SIX
It wasn’t long after Beast Boy had fled the tower, did the Titans start to receive emergency calls from all over town.
Apparently, several locations-- a jewelry store, an antique pawn shop, even the natural history museum-- all had been robbed by a mysterious, yet unexplainable phenomenon.
All the security cameras and night guards swore positively that no one had come near the places, nor were any alarms tripped, yet all the merchandise and items that were stolen… just vanished into thin air.
The Titans viewed the information sent to them by the places, and were just as baffled. They were viewing the footage of the jewelry store robbery.
“Okay, watch again…” said Robin, and he played the footage back in super slow-motion, which showed all the necklaces, rings and everything else neatly in their display cases. “First you see them… and now, you don’t.”
“They have gone… the poof.” added Starfire.
Cyborg examined the other two tapes of footage from the Pawn Shop and the Museum on the other monitors; it was the same thing. The artifacts and valuables… just vanished.
“I think it’s magic.” Raven suggested “I mean there’s nothing else that can explain it.”
“Maybe…” said Robin “But magic or not, that doesn’t explain who’s doing this and why. We’re going to patrol the entire city.”
“But, what of Beast Boy…?” Starfire asked. The others fell silent, still feeling a bit of regret about what happened. “We can’t worry about him now.” Cyborg said “But maybe while we’re out he’ll show up anyway.”
The others didn’t seem too positive on such an idea. Even if they were to find him, the odds were he wouldn’t be too willing to even talk to them.
Then again, were they even willing to talk to him?
Late that night in Equestria, Twilight and Spike were fast asleep, when a small ray of light shot out through the mirror gateway in the library, and hurdled out across Ponyville and landed in the fields.
Nobody noticed a single thing, as practically every pony was sound asleep.
Beast Boy finally began to awaken and gazed up at the light of the mid-morning. “I must’ve slept through the night.”
He groggily tried to stand up on his two feet, but found he couldn’t keep his balance and he flopped down on the grass, almost as if his bones didn’t want to work that way.
The grass was also a strange sight to him, as well as the entire meadow landscape around him. “Wasn’t I in the beach cave?” he wondered softly as he rubbed the side of his face, “Last thing I remember… that guy who looked like me… he…” He paused when he noted the strange feeling of his hand against his face. It didn’t feel like a hand or fingers, but something flat and solid.
That’s when he realized his arms were now hooves. “Oh!”
He felt along his face, and felt his pointy ears now sticking right up top of his head. “Huh?”
Then it got scary as he felt something long and hard sticking out of his head, like a horn. “What the-- What’s going on…?”
A small pond of water was right near him. He gazed down at his reflection, and he was shocked!! “Dude…!” he cried. He had taken the form of a green unicorn, almost like an alternate version of himself, and even more astonishingly… he could still speak normally like a human!
At first he thought he was going crazy and splashed water from the pond on his face. “Dude…! I’m not dreaming!” he cried, and that maybe he transformed while he was knocked out cold, but he soon discovered not only could he not change back into his normal form, he couldn’t seem to change into any other animal either… but his horn glowed, and he found himself surrounded by a sparkling aura that lifted off the ground like a balloon.
“Hey! Whoa… whoa…!!”
Suddenly, the magic stopped, and he landed with a splash in the shallow pond.
“Ugh’ll!” he groaned as he walked out on all fours, and shook himself dry. “Dude, maybe I’m dead!” he thought aloud, but then he realized how silly and least likely that was. People didn’t turn into unicorns and experience such magical things when they went…
…at least he didn’t think so.
Suddenly, something soared overhead. He looked up and saw another creature like him; a pony… only instead of a horn it had wings; like a Pegasus.
“Unicorns… now Pegasus?” he asked no one in particular as he was all by himself. Since standing around wouldn’t do, he realized he would have to explore and hopefully find someone who could explain.
Unable to animal-morph into anything that could fly, and not wanting to try that levitation magic and fall down hard again, he was forced to walk
Meanwhile, Spike had woken up and he stretched out and yawned. As he walked down the hallways of the castle, he saw Twilight in the library. She was examining the mirror gate. “Twilight, what’s up?” he asked.
“I don’t know how, but this gateway was activated last night while we were sleeping. I can tell because it’s warm, and the systems register positive.”
Now Spike was concerned too. Nobody would use their portal without a strong burst of magic to open it, and only Twilight and a select few, her friends from the human world, possessed such powers.
“I know it wasn’t Sunset Shimmer or any of the others.” said Twilight “They wrote to me last week, and said they were all on a month long school field-trip to a place called Paris.”
“Okay, but… then who used the portal?”
“I don’t know.” replied Twilight “I’m not even sure if whether the portal was even used to exit or enter Equestria. Spike, we’ve got a big mystery here.”
Spike agreed.
Beast Boy continued to wander along the meadow, and he finally came across a town, and what he saw ahead astonished him again. Everywhere he looked he saw not a single human being, but ponies, ponies and more ponies! There were ponies of different colors, shapes, and sizes. There were unicorns, Pegasus, and even just plain ordinary ponies with no horns or wings.
Even more interestingly, each and every pony seemed to have a kind of picture tattooed onto their flanks, while sadly his flank was blank.
All the ponies were acting like humans, going about daily routines, some even have jobs and kids were walking to school. “Maybe someone there can help me.”
He galloped down to the town, but the second he stepped in and called out “Hello… Excuse me!” every single pony stopped and gawked at him as if they had seen a ghost. Some we’re even scared and tembled.
Now Beast Boy felt very embarrassed as well as confused “What’s the matter?” he asked, but no one dared speak to him and just kept on staring at him. “Look, what is all this. I just want to know where I am.” Then, not watching where he was going, he bumped into a yellow mare Earth Pony, with an orange mane and carrying a basket of flowers in her teeth, and eating a saddle bag, much like a purse.
“Oh, sorry.” He said politely, but the mare then just handed him her saddle bag whimpering, “Take anything you want, just please don’t hurt me.”
“What?” snapped Beast Boy, and he politely gave the bag back without taking anything much to the mare’s and everyone else’s confusion.
“He gave it back?”
“He doesn’t do that.”
Already feeling uncomfortable, Beast Boy just walked off confusing all the ponies even more.
“Geez… what’s with them?” Beast boy wondered, but strangely everywhere he went, every pony he ran into acted just the same… or worse.
They stopped and gawked at him. They would scream and run crying “Help!” and a few more ponies tried to give him their saddle bags or their money pouches, only for him to kindly reject and hand them back without taking a thing.
“What are they all acting like; I’m some kind of monster?”
Beast Boy was so lost in his thoughts, that he nearly got pushed over by a soaring Pegasus that came zooming by in a rainbow flash. “Whoa!” she groaned “Watch where you’re going, chump!” she grouched at him.
“Hey, I’m just walking!” Beast Boy protested “Maybe you should slow down.”
The pony looked like she was going to blow up. “Okay! No one tells Rainbow Dash to slow down. Not like that…” she looked ready for a serious argument, when she noticed “Hey, you look familiar.”
She then looked at him really hard from head to hoof while flying in slow circles around him making him dizzy. “Eh, I don’t have time for this anyway. I have someplace to be. Later, chump.” then she just flew off, leaving Beast Boy dizzy, confused, and annoyed that he probably made an enemy, but even more so, that was the first pony to not run from him and he could have asked about where he was.
His stomach growled, and he realized after all he had been doing he hadn’t eaten breakfast.
Fortunately, there were lots of food stands, bakeshops and café’ all over, but unfortunately for him he had no money, and even if he had he was shunned, denied and unwelcomed by the proprietors.
“You stay out of here!”
“I don’t do deals with the likes of you!”
Doors slammed, windows shut, and ponies shook their heads. Other evens picked up their wagons and galloped away very fast.
Now his head ached as well as his stomach, but he pressed on hoping to find some help and maybe some answers.
He found his way to a tower-like shop called “Carousel Boutique.”
“Maybe someone here can help me. Oh, who am I kidding?” still, he knew he had to try or he’d starve.
Inside the store, many ponies, mostly mares were admiring the displays of clothes and ensembles all over, when suddenly one of the ponies took one look at him, and you guessed it, she screamed, causing all the other customers to turn, scream and all run out of the store in such a panic.
The store was completely deserted, except for one pony-- one very beautiful unicorn pony, hinted light grey with a beautiful purple mane and tail. The owner of the shop-- whom came down the stairs from the upper floor when she head the screaming, “Whatever is going on here?” she asked.
Beast Boy thought she looked very beautiful and sounded so melodic, and then he saw her accidently misstep, and she would have tumbled down the last few stairs had he not rushed over to catch her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
The pony, breathed heavily, almost overdramatically, in attempt to catch her breathe. “Oh, my… how can I thank you?” she said, but when she took one look up at him, and… she SCREAMED and extremely loud screech!
Her screech was so ear-piercing, that Beast Boy fled the store like lightning, stopping in front of a lamppost to catch his breathe. “DUDE!!” he groaned “What the heck is going on here?!”
Suddenly, he looked up and saw a Wanted Poster on the lamppost, with a picture of a pony that resembled him in every single detail, and he read the list of charges…
-Thievery
-Assault
-Breaking and Entering
-Malicious Mischief
-Vandalism
-Possible Murder.
The more Beast Boy read it, the more livid he became, especially the last line which read:“He is known to be extremely dangerous and is ordered to be reported to the authorities on first sight.”
It all made sense to him now, or at least half of it, and yet when he slowly turned round, he saw that he was completely surrounded by a group of angry looking citizens and a lot ponies dressed in police uniforms.
“Uh-Oh…!”