//------------------------------// // Chapter III- Arguing // Story: Portraits and Chaos // by Dragonborne Fox //------------------------------// "Ungh… I'm getting a sense of damn déjà vu," Charlotte grumbled as she woke up, once more sitting in Fluttershy's bed. When she made to rub her face with her hand, she stopped and glanced at her appendage, slowly going wide-eyed as she took in the sight of a pale blue hoof where her hand should've been. She scrambled out of bed, kicking the quilt off it in the process, before landing on all fours. She wasted little time hastily examining the rest of her body, noting an open spellbook with a pentagram on its pages plastered onto both of her hips. "Oh... that's what the spell I handed the winged unicorn did to me..." she groaned, grimacing at the thought. "Though I could really do without that… image plastered to my rear." She shot a glance at where Jonathan still lay, noticing that he too had changed. "Lovely, we're both equines. But... why does he have wings?" she mused aloud, seeing the feathered anomaly twitch as the man-turned-stallion mumbled something about scrambled eggs in his sleep. She crawled back onto the bed, mentally noting that her hooves somehow had a firm grip on the sheets, and slinked towards her companion to shake him awake. "Five more minutes," Jonathan grumbled, turning onto his side as a hoof shook his shoulder. Charlotte immediately snarled in exasperation, and used both of her front hooves to shake his withers with renewed vigor. He sat up after the shaking persisted for a moment longer, mumbling, "Alright, I'm up, I'm up." "Jonathan, we're horses now," Charlotte said simply, her tone icy. "And you have wings." "G-guh?" Jonathan moaned as he turned his gaze to the mare sitting next to him. He then looked at his own body, then back at Charlotte with a hardening visage. "I blame you for this," he grumbled. "Not my fault I can't read the equines' written language," Charlotte hissed defensively, crossing her forelegs in a pouting manner. "But you handed the scroll to Fluttershy so the horned pegasus could cast it! It's still your fault!" Jonathan retorted, eyes narrowing to slits. "Had I known she wanted to experiment on us, I wouldn't have done so! And it was you who found the scroll in the first place! How is this my fault, exactly?" Charlotte replied, her eyes also narrowing. "But it was your idea to go after that snake-thing! It's all your fault, Charlotte!" Jonathan retorted, brow furrowing. His newly-formed wings spread wide in a threatening display. Charlotte's horn began sparkling with a red light as her face turned crimson. "Well, excuse me, but weren't you the one who convinced me to do so in the first place?!" she hissed. And that was all it took; the powder keg lit up and was set to detonate. The two really began to vehemently argue for several minutes on end about whose fault it was in regards to the fact that they were in this mess to begin with. This left them completely unaware of Fluttershy trotting up the stairs and to them amidst their own quibbling. In fact, it wasn't until the yellow pegasus grabbed them both by the tails and tugged tightly did they cease their bout of bickering, turn in unison, and then notice her presence. "I take it you two aren't taking the transformation well?" Fluttershy asked rhetorically, and she didn't have to wait long for an answer. "No!" Jonathan and Charlotte answered rather loudly in unison, both with veins cropping up on their foreheads as their joined proclamation made the house shake a little. They saw Fluttershy flinch at their volume, and turned away with heavy sighs with a horn's light fading and a folding pair of wings. Their heads hung low, even as the two felt a hoof touch their withers. "It's alright; I understand all too well," Fluttershy spoke in a soothing voice, frowning when the two failed to make eye contact with her a second time. She sighed heavily and flew out of the room, going out the front door before finding herself on a trodden dirt path. "Maybe I should get Twilight to talk to them. But they seemed pretty mad... should I leave them alone?" she mused aloud, to none in particular. She hadn't even taken one step forward when she heard a nearby blast that shook the very house itself. Glancing up at her two-story home, she spotted a thick layer of smoke coming from one of the windows, as well as finding herself hearing a long string of curses coming from both Jonathan and Charlotte. Her eyes widened and she rushed back into the house and up the stairs to find a peculiar sight as the smoke cleared. "Oh my, why are you two covered in black soot?" Fluttershy asked in alarm, coughing between words as some of the leftover smog got into her lungs. "Charlotte... her horn glowed... and then I swear, it exploded," Jonathan replied, hacking violently as he spoke. "My head... hurts so much," Charlotte groaned, a hoof hovering over her mouth as she wheezed. "Oh no... this is bad," Fluttershy mumbled, eyes still wide. "Stay put; I'll have to get Twilight again." ~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~ Fluttershy and Twilight were in a massive crystalline room, with shelves hewn of rocks that boasted all sorts of books. The two stood on a rug, and Fluttershy spent several minutes on end explaining to Twilight what happened this time, from the arguing all the way to the vehement explosion. "She tried casting a spell, and it backfired?" Twilight gaped at her friend, eyes wide and pupils naught but pinpricks as she struggled to process what she was just told. "There was a thick cloud of smoke. I think she might've had a magic surge. You did say her mana was out of control and not connected with her," Fluttershy replied in a quiet voice. "We have to get back to them quickly; I can only hope she didn't have another surge while I went to get you." Twilight nodded and her horn began glowing. In a flash of violet light, the two vanished and reappeared in the bedroom-turned-sick-bay. She witnessed the duo fervently wiping the black soot off of themselves and each other with their hooves, which only sent the dark residue everywhere else in the process. "I see you two need a bath," she said in a wry voice, which caused them to stop trying to slap the dust off of each other and turn towards her. "Yeah, we know. Thanks, Captain Obvious," Jonathan replied in a snappish tone, eyes narrowing low as he spoke. "Nevermind that; I'd like to know what the hell caused my forehead to explode!" Charlotte growled, her face set in a scowl. Her tone caused the alicorn to grimace for a moment, and she coughed nervously for another. "You... you had a magic surge. Your mana's still out of control, especially since you're now a unicorn. That's why your forehead exploded; your mana literally had no other way to get out," Twilight explained, donning a lopsided smile that wobbled as her lower jaw trembled. Charlotte weakly groaned and rose a hoof to rub her temples with it, her nose wrinkling as the horn attached to her forehead began glowing soft red in color. Her face set in concentration, ears instinctively flattening against her head as pain throbbed through her cranium. She soon relented, face relaxing as the glow of the pointed spire ceased. Jonathan eyed his companion warily, involuntarily flinching before relaxing when the soft red aura faded. He blinked when a violet flash erupted from the corner of his eye, briefly shooting Twilight a glance before diverting his attention back to Charlotte to find some kind of small ring clamping around the base of her horn. The ring, seemingly fashioned of some kind of steel with intricate symbols carved into it, glowed white for a second prior to becoming as pale a blue as the horn it snugly wrapped around. "The hell?" he asked, jerking his gaze to Twilight once again. "I just put a magic inhibitor on her horn. It should keep her surges in check," Twilight answered, her horn glowing brilliantly. An aura grasped the two ponies on the bed, and both began making more noises of dissent. "Um, Twilight, what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked, looking at her friend with a brow raised. She blinked when the same aura that gripped her guests took hold of her form too. "Teleporting us all back to my place. I think that Starlight will love to talk with these two," Twilight replied with a cheeky grin on her face. Jonathan and Charlotte started protesting some more, only barely getting to actually raising their voices when a bright light enveloped their vision. They felt their bodies hurtling at alarming speeds before stopping abruptly in the span of seconds, and before long they found themselves in a crystalline hallway lined with green doors and dangling gems on either side. The eyes of the two spun about in their sockets as their bodies ached, ducks circled their heads, and their forms swayed like blades of grass caught in a breeze. They immediately collapsed and sprawled onto the floor, weakly groaning as though they were launched through a painting all over again. "I see they can't handle teleportation well," Twilight sighed, grabbing the two with another aura that radiated from her horn and picking them up effortlessly. She turned to one of the doors and trotted to it, pushing it open with a hoof to find a bedchamber whose bed was fitted with crystal instead of wood. Sitting in a nearby chair, reading a scroll of some sort sat a pinkish-coated unicorn mare with persian blue eyes, and a purple mane that curled with noticeable highlights of turquoise. "Starlight Glimmer, I need you for a moment," she stated. Starlight Glimmer turned to Twilight and set the scroll down on a nearby nightstand, hopping out of the chair and trotting over. "Um, who are those two ponies? I don't think I've seen them in Ponyville before," she remarked, gesturing to Jonathan and Charlotte with a hoof. "I'm not—" Charlotte began, but was silenced as Fluttershy stepped beneath her levitating frame and thrust a hoof in front of her mouth. She then sent Charlotte a rigid, strange look, sighing when she merely mewled in pain. Fluttershy lifted her hoof higher and trotted to Jonathan on three legs, brushing aside the tails of his coat and some of his wing feathers before removing some dust and eying both sets of hips. On his side, a blade and a whip intertwined to form a crude cross of sorts, the latter weapon's tail coiling around like a snake. "Whip Strike and Sacred Tome," she said to Starlight. "They just arrived last night, and they're very tired." "Tired?" Starlight asked, a brow shooting up. "They look like they've taken a tumble through a chimney to me." "Strike tried flying and lost control, and he landed in an ash trough," Fluttershy replied with a nod. "And Tome was there, too." By now, Charlotte gained enough clarity back to perceive where Fluttershy was going with this, and decided to more or less play along. "And then he crashed into me after trying to fly again. One of his wings got sprained," she grumbled. "My everything hurts," Jonathan murmured indignantly. "Uhuh," Starlight murmured with a slow nod of her head. She turned to Twilight. "Do you want me to watch them for a bit?" "Actually, I was going to put them in the next room over. I just wanted to let you know they were here first," Twilight replied with a small smile. With that, she cantered exactly one room over and opened the door, half-flinging and half-dragging the two ponies to rest on the bed inside. She shut the door behind her, but not before Fluttershy slipped into the room. Twilight and Starlight chattered amiably in the hall outside, though the noises faded in tandem with hooves clicking on crystal. "I have to ask," Charlotte began with a grunt, "where'd you come up with those names? Did you make them up off the top of your head?" "I looked at your cutie marks," Fluttershy replied simply, tottering over when her guest rose her head and made an inquisitive noise at the words 'cutie mark.' She joined them on the bed, and pointed a hoof at the pictures on their hips. Both of the visitors followed the yellow limb, though Jonathan briefly gained a vexed look on his face before Fluttershy moved his coat again to reveal his cutie mark once more. "And… why do we have these… cutie marks?" Charlotte murmured, eyes darting between her mark and Jonathan's. "All ponies have them, once they find their special talent. I guess Twilight's spell recognized your skills and choreographed cutie marks suiting you two. Or something like that," Fluttershy answered, smiling. Charlotte went wide-eyed. "Speaking of spells, where's my spellbook?" she asked, turning to Fluttershy. She relaxed when she spread one of her wings, revealing that she somehow cradled the book with the damned thing. She slumped on the bed again, turning to Jonathan as he spread his wings and flapped them once, pushing aside the thought of where and how Fluttershy obtained her book for the time being. "You're in no condition to be flying yet," Fluttershy chastised in a soft tone, only to be met with a huff. "I'm not trying to fly," Jonathan snapped defensively, eyes narrowing as he spoke. "I'm just trying to figure out how my damn wings work." "Oh. I'm sorry," Fluttershy mumbled, smiling when Jonathan nodded to her and flapped his wings again. Charlotte abruptly sat up, jerking her gaze to Fluttershy so fast she let off a squeal of surprise. "Are… ponies here named after their talents or something?" she asked, sporting a glint in her eyes that suggested something had clicked into her head a little late. "Usually, yes, but not always," Fluttershy replied with a nod. "I know a filly named Scootaloo, but her cutie mark doesn't relate to things that scoot, if you get the idea. I merely came up with your… monikers so nopony else will ask you two a question too many." "Wait, did something happen?" Charlotte persisted, a puzzled frown on her face. "No, no, it's just how it tends to work here. Aside from you two appearing in the Everfree Forest, nothing much has happened," Fluttershy answered, tilting her head. "Though, I'm starting to think that the fact that you two arrived might not be all that coincidental." Jonathan and Charlotte exchanged another glance, then turned back to the only other pony presently with them. "Is it alright if we walked around a bit? My arms and legs are going asleep," the former sighed, wings flapping for the third time that day. "Go ahead, just be careful. It's not like I'm stopping you from trotting about," Fluttershy answered with a sigh. Under her watch, the two crept out of the bed, though they promptly fumbled and faceplanted within two steps on unstable, uncooperative legs. That did little to stop them; they simply got up again and tried taking another few steps around the room they'd been more or less unceremoniously thrown into. Though after a few minutes of this new routine, Jonathan sighed and spread his wings as he got off the floor after he fell for the upteempth time. After another few steps, though, this did little to actually help him keep balance. "You two are doing really well for having been transformed into ponies. Keep it up, and you could be gracefully cantering at the end of the day," Fluttershy encouraged, smiling as the duo got up yet again. "Thanks for the vote of confidence…" Charlotte grumbled, spreading her hooves out a little after she managed to stand. All this accomplished was her hooves slipping out from under her, and she landed on the floor belly-first.