Samantha sighed. The weekend again in sunny Ass-end-of-nowhere, where the nightlife was deader than her hands in the freezing winter air. The blonde girl walked along hurriedly, wrapped up warm against the cold, her padded coat offered respite, but her black leggings did not. She always wore them as a statement, but boy was she beginning to regret that right now. She adjusted her hood, trying not to mess up her short, but styled hair.
"Damn, why does it always have to get so damn cold when you're going out anywhere?!" she mumbled bitterly to herself.
The town was silent at 8AM, nobody had the right mind to leave the comfort of their nice warm beds yet. But not poor Sam; she had places to go. The damned store she worked at opened at 9 sharp, and she did the morning shift until 1. Some might call that a cushy little job, but Samantha could think of at least 40 other uses for her time. She snorted a bit, wondering what weirdos the morning hours would bring in.
The shop came into view: A pretty nameless, small town hobby shop, which meant it more or less sold whatever random crap they could, from toys to board games. Recently they'd gotten a shipment of pony toys in, nice quality ones too! She did like the show, but as of late had felt herself drifting away from it somewhat, work making her busy and all. The weird thing about the toys though; nobody could remember where they came from. They'd just been dropped off a week or so ago and management had decided what the hell, sell them. Hell, they'd been popping up in stores all over the country! She kept wondering about buying one for herself, maybe a nice Rainbow Dash, or Celestia. Sam smiled, that lightened her mood a little.
The bell above the door jangled as she opened it, loudly huffing from the pleasant blow of warm air the in-store heater offered. She waved at the manager, who was about to leave now that an employee was in.
"Ready for your shift Samantha?" her boss, an older lady asked. She always forgot her name, Rachael maybe? She'd go with Rachael.
"Yup. Ready to really make a difference in the world of commerce in this tiny little shop on the end of a street nobody ever walks down." Sam snarked, her boss rolled her eyes.
"Very funny, I hope you don't greet any future employers like that, but I don't mind it. Now, we open at 9 as you know, so get everywhere tidy before then okay? Kim will be in at 2 today, something about family emergency I think?"
"2?! I have to work here for an hour extra? You're kidding me?" Samantha groaned in annoyance, scowling at the notion of a whole hour extra of work.
"Oh hush, I'll pay you for the extra hour, don't be so bratty! Now, I'll see you next week, just be sure to put the My Little Pony toys out front, I want to sell more of them this week. People have been really eating them up lately, you kids and your fandoms..."
With that, 'Rachael' was out the door, leaving Sam alone. She rolled her eyes yet again and took her coat off, showing her black jacket she'd worn under it for extra warmth, her blue T shirt was on underneath that too. It was extremely cold that day so double or even tripe layers were excusable.
"Okay, now where did she put those plushies..." she mused to herself.
She found her answer soon enough; an entire corner of the backroom was stuffed with the damn things. Pinkie Pies and Twilight Sparkles and Lunas all stared back at her. They looked beautiful, really well made, almost like tiny life like things. She started to put them out front, mentally noting that if she found a Celestia plush, she'd be saving that for herself, she'd pay Kim when she was in later.
---
9 o'clock came and the shop opened as usual, Sam stayed behind the counter and awaited customers. She felt her phone buzz in her jacket pocket. A text from her friend Ashley, who was up unusually early.
"Sam, not gonna be hanging later, going to doctor. Woke up super itchy, and have weird blotches of hair not my color growing on me!! Yellow hair! Might be allergic reaction to that MLP toy I got yesterday, the Fluttershy one. WTF did they make it with!!?
Ash"
Sam blinked. Allergic reaction to a pony toy? The same kind that the shop was selling? That wasn't good at all, maybe she should take them off the shelves, have the boss look them over for safety.
Tingle
The bell rang as someone came in. A pretty, punky looking girl about Sam's age, hair dyed a bright blue, spiking and awesome looking.
"Hello, how can I help you?" Samantha asked, her drilled in response to all who entered, regardless of her or their mood.
"Hey, uh, is your boss in? I wanted to return something..." the girl seemed uncomfortable.
"Oh, return something? Okay, do you have the receipt?" Sam cocked her head a little, who returns something this early in the morning?
"No, I'm not after a refund or anything, just wanted to bring this back." the girl reached into her bag and pulled out a pony toy! Vinyl Scratch, with the little glasses and everything. It was so cute, why would she return it?"
"Aww, one of the plushies we're selling! That everyone is selling, seriously where're these things coming from?" She saw the frown "Why do you want to return it, ma'am?"
"I've been feeling, itchy, since last night. I woke up this morning and my hair, usually black, has started going blue!" she cried. "I didn't dye it, its been doing this since last night! And look!"
She tugged her shirt a little to show her cleavage, or more precisely, the faint, downy white hair growing on her chest. The same color as Vinyl.
Sam recoiled, "Jesus! My friend texted me earlier, said she'd been having similar reaction after getting a Fluttershy one...what's with these toys?"
"I know, right?! I'm going to go to the doctor, I'm not gonna sue you or anything, this has been happening all over since yesterday, every store, every customer with one..." she scratched at her leg. "Grrf, itchy!"
The girl walked out in a hurry after that. Samantha noted, by pure chance as she usually didn't stare at girls' butts, that this lady's butt seemed...big. Like, very big. Like something was developing back there.
She looked at the plushies. They had to come off now. They were a health hazard. The beleaguered employee quickly started bagging the things, every Pinkie, Applejack...Celestia.
Celestia!
Sam stared at the toy before her and for a moment, forgot what she was doing. It was cute, it looked just like the alicorn princess. She remembered that she really wanted one, and it just, looked so adorable.
No, no she couldn't. These things were doing harm. She sighed and put it in the bag as well after staring longingly at it for a minute longer. Ah well, she had it for a brief moment at least.
"All bagged, better call my boss..." she muttered, but before she could, another text message buzzed her phone, Ashley again.
"Sam
Oh god, Sam, for the love of god avoid the pony toys, was at doctor's and I started to...change. I have fur now, fucking fur, my hair's all pink! Its not supposed to be pink! I'm waiting for doctor to call ambulance to the hospital. A few other people came in with itching and hair, no, fur growth.
What's happening?!
Ash"
Fuck, Samantha cursed mentally. What the hell was going on? She moved away from the bag and seriously considered closing the store at this point. She scratched herself as she worried.
Wait, scratched? She was itchy.
Wait, itchy. Her eyes widened as she realized how damn itchy she was, like something was tickling her all over her body. She groaned and scratched like crazy. All she could think of was closing now, she'd have to call Kim, and then her boss. She fumbled for her phone, but before she could call, another buzz.
"Sbm smthng wrg haaaa cgng hffs od hylk mmmmm"
That garbled message was from Ashley. What was going on. What was going oh?
The itching got worse, but now something else was happening too: Her clothes felt tight. Her leggings felt tight, her shirt and jacket were tight. She unzipped the jacket, maybe she was just panicking so much she was imagining sensations, but nope. Samantha was swelling.
---
"Oh god, fuck, what the hell?!" the blond yelped, looking at how her belly was getting barrel shaped.
She was thickening as well as beginning to be covered in fur. She also noticed that the top shelves seemed a bit easier to reach, was she growing taller too?!
The panicking 19 year old tried to calm herself, but with no luck. It took her a few moment to realize exactly what was going on with her: She was becoming a pony. The fur, the height, the body changing, Ashley, that customer. Those damned toys! Whatever they were, whoever sent them, they were turning people into ponies. She noticed the growing fur was white, and that upon inspecting a few strands of her growing, elongating hair's changing colors, pastel ones, she decuded that she was becoming Celestia. On one hand, holy shit. On the other hand, holy shit.
"Okay, okay, Sam, calm down, this is just a bad dream. This is a weird, weird dream, and any moment you're gonna wa-agh!"
A sudden pain in her forehead disrupted any coherent thoughts. A sharp, stabbing pain, like something was pushing out of her skull. Of course, the horn. She screamed as it started to bulge out of her forehead, but the pain subsided instantly once it was done. She poked it with a hand, it was a hard, solid horn.
"Okay, fur, horn, what's ne-eeeegh!!"
Before she could even ask herself that, her hands and feet throbbed and pulsed, her backside also felt painful. Fingers and toes started to crunch and squish, nails growing, as they fused together into increasingly marshmallow looking hooves. She knew she couldn't use her phone anymore, and figured the pressure around back was her growing, well, plot. She made an awkward, shuffling waddle into the backroom, feeling her clothes shred and rip with every passing second.
"My poor leggings, those cost me over 30-" rrriiiiiiip
Sam's leggings burst apart from the onslaught of expanding pony thigh and rump, her new tail lashed wildly as she felt the new nerve endings firing off. Her back arched and cracked, her scream died in her throat as the enormous, avian wings Celestia had burst from her back, tearing her shirt right off and flapping before settling against her. Another crack signaled her back giving in, shifting her from unwieldy biped to a still unwieldy quadruped.
"Ugh...ow...okay, I'm Celestia...this is, kinda cool, but at the same time: AAAAAAAGH"
Samantha stopped screaming, she breathed in and counted to ten. Okay, she was a pony now, she was Celestia now, she might as well act as it. She looked in the mirror hung up in the backroom. Yup, purple eyes, pastel rainbow mane and tail, tall and majestic.
She then remembered: Ashley! Knowing that she now lacked the most useful of all human appendages: Oppossable thumbs, she tried out her magic. She furrowed her brow and grunted, a golden aura encapsulated her horn and her phone, screen cracked from being dropped during her change but still working, levitated up towards her. Yes! Now to call Ashley with the same power.
The voice on the other end wasn't Ashley's. The usually nasal, confident New York twinge of her friend was replaced with a meek and quiet, but very very angry voice.
"Sam? You would not fucking believe-" she began
"I know! I'm currently in the store as freaking Celestia!" she chuckled under her breath. "Lets get together before they like, herd us all off to be experimented on or something."
---
"What in the name of absolute fuckery."
Kim, the red haired co-worker, had come into the shop at 2 as her boss had said. She'd been asleep until 12 and didn't notice any of the madness going on until she stepped out of her front door. She'd seen real life MLP characters running around screaming or enjoying themselves. She'd been hit on by a Dash who said she wasn't 10 seconds flat 'where it counts', and now she was talking to Celestia.
"Avoid the damned pony toys, burn them or something!" Samantha used her magic to pile as many as she could up. "I'm going to go walk to doctor's to get Ash. I have no idea how to fly and don't want to end up crashing into a plane or something and becoming mincemeat."
"Uh, yeah, right...seriously what the hell?!" Kim kept repeating, totally unable to process this chain of events.
"Tell Rachael to close the shop for a while, yeah? I have a feeling this is going to be a long day..."
Samantha's trek to the clinic was eventful to say the least. A few ponies who were probably previously cops all cordoned areas off with tape, looking as humorless as they did when human. A Vinyl Scratch waved her over as she trotted, the lady from this morning!
"So uh, might as well stick with you, I can tell its you, no other Celestia's around here..." she laughed nervously.
"What's your name, anyway?" Sam inquired, her hooves clopping against the pavement as they walked.
"Beth, but, going by Vinyl now.
"Sam. Now Celestia. Well, at least today can't get any worse, right?"
"Yeah, at least we kept our minds, imagine if the changes like, overwrote us and made us not remember who we are anymore, that'd be horrible!"
Sam chuckled, "Yeah, now let's go and get Fluttershy, and then find Twilight Sparkle. Then we can go and find my sister."
Beth didn't reply, she just smiled and nodded, she Vinyl Scratch didn't speak in public, even to the princesses.
Celestia flapped her wings, she allowed Vinyl to climb onto her back and took off, she loved flying, these humans were such fearful creatures. She used her magic to call on her phone mid flight.
"Fluttershy, are you still at the human clinic?"
"Yes, Princess Celestia. Twilight is here, she said she thought she was a human a minute ago!"
"Oh dear, we really need to find out where these humans are coming from...see you soon, my friend.
The two ponies would find the other Mane ponies and their friends, and then they'd try and find out what these replicas of themselves were doing here, and where these humans were coming from.
---
Back in Equestria, Discord smiled. He knew he wasn't allowed to mess with ponies any longer, Celestia forbid he upsets Fluttershy doing that, but they never said anything about messing up other dimensions now did they? He cackled to himself, it was temporary, but watching these weird humans become ponies and deal with the madness amused him to no end.