//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: My Little Pony: Morphing is Magic 
// by Tricondon 
//------------------------------//

Author's Note: Written by Samaru163 and Tricondon.

Chapter 11

Jake


“So what are we supposed to do, oh fearless leader?” Marco asked sarcastically. “We’re trapped on an alien planet, billions of miles from home with no way back, and we’re trusting our lives to a bunch of talking horses. Oh, and did I forget that the Yeerks are hitting this planet pretty hard as well? Am I the only one who realizes how insane this is?!”

“Do you have a better option Marco?” Cassie asked.

“I know I do,” Rachel joined in. “We find the Yeerks, hijack a ship and go home.”

“Great plan, except we have no idea where they are or how powerful their forces are,” Marco responded.

“Enough,” I said, cutting off Rachel before she could retort. “We’re not getting anywhere like this. Now, does anyone have some useful ideas?”

<We could search the nearby town,> Tobias offered. <I’ve seen all manner of birds and smaller animals running around. We morph something like that, we could probably walk around without drawing too much attention to ourselves.>

I thought about it for a moment.

“Yeah, that does seem like the best action for now. Though don’t bunch together. Groups of no more than two at a time. And make sure to keep a reasonable distance, enough to still see the others while not looking conspicuous.”

Cassie stood up.

“What about just asking Twilight and her friends for assistance?”

“We don’t know if we can fully trust them. Who knows how many of them could be controllers?” Marco said coldly.

“Well obviously not Twilight, Pinkie or the white one. If they were then surely they’d have tried and saved that dragon controller.” She paused for a moment, probably taking in just how bizarre that sounded. I had to suppress my own laughter once I’d thought about it a little.

“True, but that still leaves the yellow one, the orange one with the cowboy hat, and that really aggressive rainbow one.” Marco looked like he was considering his options. “I think the rainbow one might be; she did attack Ax immediately and without much thought.”

<To be fair, we didn’t exactly look like the friendliest group at the time,> Tobias said.

“What is the matter with you people?” Marco asked incredulously. “We’re on an alien planet nearly run over by the Yeerks, and you want to trust a bunch of talking horses blindly?”

<Guys!> Tobias said suddenly. <Someone’s coming. I can hear them crashing through the underbrush.>

“Well, we know it’s not Pinkie, then,” Cassie muttered.

“Ax, Tobias, you remain here. Everyone else, morph something inconspicuous,” I said. The words had barely left my mouth before a purple Unicorn - Twilight, was it? - walked out from behind the nearest tree. 

She stopped as soon as she spotted us, looking around in confusion. Her mouth opened and closed at random, as if she was trying to talk, but nothing came out.

“Well, crud,” Marco said. Before any of us could even think of our next actions another horse came from the trees. This one was larger than Twilight and was a deep midnight blue colouring. What really got my attention about it though was its mane and tail. They seemed to flow in an invisible wind and resembled the night sky.

“Double crud,” I muttered.

“Uh, I, we’re...” Cassie stammered. 

“WHAT ARE THESE CREATURES?!” The larger horse bellowed, and I instinctively brought my hands up to my ears. Her voice - there was little doubt in my mind about her gender now - was incredibly loud, and I thought she could even be heard in the town, far away as we were.

<This horse’s defense strategies are most effective,> Ax said while holding his own ears.

“Ah, Princess Luna...well, the blue one is Ax...” Twilight mumbled. I straightened up in an instant, forgetting about the ringing in my ears.

“Princess?” I asked, dumbfounded. Looking at the horse again I noticed a small black tiara on her head.

“Oh, wonderful. What are the chances she owns the castle we crashed into on our way down?” Marco said under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

“SO THOU ART THE ONES WHO HAST ATTACKED OUR PALACE?!” she bellowed again. I winced slightly; her hearing was far better than I expected.

“Woah, woah, woah,” I said, motioning for her to calm down. “We didn’t attack anyone. Our ship lost control and we crashed.

The horse Princess didn’t seem too convinced with me. Twilight ran between us, keeping her eye on me.

“That voice...is that you, Prince Jake?” she asked tentatively. Before I could respond, the Princess spoke up again.

“THOU ART A PRINCE? WHERE IS THY ROYAL REGALIA?” she yelled, though somewhat softer than before. She seemed to be studying me carefully as she spoke, sizing me up with a critical eye.

“The Prince’s royal...things are back at his palace,” Marco said boldly, stepping forward. “We’re here on a sightseeing tour, and didn’t want to draw undue attention to ourselves.”

“AND WHO ART THOU TO SPEAK ON THY PRINCE’S BEHALF?” the Princess shouted.

“I am the Prince’s royal advisor!” Marco continued, trying to make his own voice match the horse’s.

<More like Court Jester if you ask me,> Tobias whispered.

“THOU TAKEST US FOR A FOOL!” she yelled, loud enough to cause Marco to stumble backwards. “THOU ART NOTHING BUT THIEVES AND BANDITS! WE DOUBT THOU ART EVEN A PRINCE!” she finished, looking at me.

“Who are you to just waltz in here and start declaring this and that on us?!” Rachel spoke angrily.

“WE ARE THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, CO-RULER OF EQUESTRIA! HOW DOST THOU NOT KNOW OF US OR OUR SISTER?”

“Forgive Captain Xena your highness,” Marco said when the Princess was finished. “She has a rather annoying habit of speaking out of turn.”

Rachel looked like she was about to strangle Marco, but I shot her a drop it look. I could see the method hidden in his madness and hoped the others would catch on too.

“Princess, I would like to apologize for the behaviour of myself and my entourage,” I said to the others' surprise. “But as you can easily tell we are foreigners to this land and do not know your customs.”

The Princess considered what I had said for a minute before replying.

“Perhaps We were too hasty in our assumptions,” she said, much softer than before. I was secretly thankful she had stopped yelling. 

“Um, Your Highness?” Cassie meekly spoke up. “Who is your sister, anyway?”

The Princess blinked in surprise for a time before shaking her head, as if in understanding.

“Ah, of course. We realize our banishment had only ended a short while ago. Our sister is Celestia, Princess of the Sun.”

<Rulers taking on aspects of the day and night. I thought that sort of recognition was reserved for deities,> Ax spoke to me privately.

Cassie seemed to be looking at the Princess with great interest and scrutiny.

“Princess, I noticed you have both a horn and wings. Does either of them actually work?”

“Of course they function properly!” Luna said as if insulted. She then unveiled her wings and flew a few feet in the air. “Allow us to show thee.” Her eyes then began to glow a brightly and thunderclouds accumulated over the forest.

All of us looked at the princess in amazement; Ax especially seemed blown away by the spectacle before our eyes.

“That’s amazing!” Cassie said, almost like an eight-year-old watching a magic show.

<This is an impossibility,> Ax said as if correcting her. <How can this creature manipulate the weather?>

<Well these clouds aren’t like on Earth. I was able to land on one the other day,> Tobias said, still focusing on the Princess, who finished her display with a crack of lightning.

“That’s incredible, Your Highness!” Cassie squealed. “Can Celestia do that too?”

Luna narrowed her eyes as she folded her wings against her body, staring at all of us.

“Dost thou not know of Our power?” she said. “How can thy be unaware of our sister?”

“Well we did just get here, so sorry if we don’t know everything right away,” Rachel spoke up.

Luna eyed Rachel intensely, but seemed to calm down after a moment.

“We offer our apologizes. We were unaware that knowledge of our power did not stretch beyond Equestria’s borders.” Luna brought a hoof to her chin in what looked like thoughtfulness, though I was more interested in how she managed to bend her leg like that. “We are curious, however; how didst thou make thy metal chariot fly? We saw neither Pegasus pulling nor sensed Unicorn magic keeping it aloft.”

<Our spacecraft was propelled by rockets that used propellant mass for forming a high speed propulsive jet,> Ax said. I could see the brief look of confusion on Luna’s face, but she hid it well.

“What he means to say is that our ship wasn’t powered by magic or pulled by anything,” I offered. “It’s instead pushed through the sky by columns of fire.”

“Columns of fire? How does that work?” Twilight finally spoke up. Before I could answer her the Princess made a beckoning motion with her head. Complying, Twilight followed her as they headed into the trees.

“Well this is just perfect!” Marco complained. “Tobias, I thought you said you would keep an eye out for any horses that were getting too close. This is the third time you’ve let us down!”

“Marco, shut up,” I said. “Whining isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Do you think she’ll have us taken prisoner for damaging her home?” Cassie asked.

“She’ll never take me without a fight,” Rachel said proudly.

“Oh, yes the mighty Captain Xena versus the magic talking horse who can control the weather. I’m sure you’ll come out on top,” Marco quipped. This got him a small shove from Rachel.

<I still believe that they are performing some form of complex illusion,> Ax said. <These feats of ‘magic’ as they say are scientifically impossible.>

“The force is strong with these horses,” Marco said.

I was about to reprimand Marco when Luna and Twilight came back. Twilight looked rather upset, though she was trying to hide it.

“We believe our sister would like to speak to you in greater detail,” Luna began. “Thou may stay with Twilight Sparkle until tomorrow, when thou shalt all take the train from Ponyville to Canterlot. We will be awaiting thee there.”

With that, Luna turned around and flew away, leaving the seven of us behind. Twilight watched Luna go, then turned to look at me.

“So, Prince Jake, is this what you really look like?”

I saw no point in denying it any longer.

“Yes it is Twilight. Were you expecting more?”

“Well, no. Just...different,” she admitted after a moment. I could feel that she had more questions to ask, but Cassie interrupted her.

“Wait, we’re supposed to spend the night at your place? I’m uneasy about walking around town like this.”

“Well, why not just turn into ponies? You’d blend in well like that.”

“Oh, uh, we can’t. I mean we shouldn’t. It wouldn’t be right,” I stammered. “Not unless we ask for permission first, at least.”

“Well, what if I gave you permission on behalf of the ponies?” Twilight suggested.

“No, that wouldn’t be right. I mean, it doesn’t work like that,” Cassie explained. “See, we actually become copies of other creatures, right down to the cellular level.”

Twilight stared at us for a moment and seemed to be processing what we had said.

“So, what does that mean? You can only directly copy another pony?”

I nodded.

“It’d be weird, having seven Twilights walking through town.”

Twilight seemed to consider this for a moment before giving a little shout.

“Oh! I know! I can get my other friends! There are six of you and six of us! So long as we don’t all walk together, nopony in town should notice there are too many of us!” Before any of us could object a flash of pink light came from her horn and she vanished.

“Well that went well,” Rachel said after a moment's pause.

<Went well, I’d say it went perfectly,> Tobias said. <Think about it, we were just discussing how we can get around town easier, and now we have a way to.>

“But don’t you think it’s wrong?” Cassie asked.

<Twilight agreed to it, and from what we’ve seen of her friends they’ll most likely agree as well.>

<But we do not know if all of them are not controllers,> Ax mentioned.

<Well if any of you have a better plan, I’m all ears,> Tobias said.

I sighed in resignation. This really was the best plan we had at the moment.

“Alright, but be ready for a fight if one of them is a controller,” I said. I secretly wished none of them were, but wasn’t looking forward to meeting them.

“Is it too late to call on Captain Kirk for help?” Marco asked.