Tempora mutantur

by Tallow and Port


I think you can all guess what’s going to happen next

“I’m so glad you could make it, Fire” Twilight beamed before her eyebrows shot up “and it looks like whilst we’ve been slaving away to get this party started, someone forgot to invite us to their crowning ceremony!”

Fire Steam smiled apologetically, her once silky mane and tail of normal hair now swaying in a nonexistent wind as they both gave the appearance of strong blazing fires cracking around her “Sorry, it was a ‘Mum and dads kingdom only’ sort of ceremony.”

“Can I at least see the cutie mark that gave you this inferno of a hairdo?” Twilight continued with a smile as to lighten the mood.

“Sure” Fire Steam said, turning sideways to show off a picture of a green heart surrounded by orange fire rising out of a pile of ash.

“Wow, I wonder what it means! Looks sort of like your gonna rise from the ashes like a Phoenix” Pinkie exclaimed as she popped up beside the two “so when are you going to leave your parents place and find your own kingdom to rule?”

There was a brief flash of intrigue and curiosity in Fires eyes when Pinkie Pie said what she thought it looked like, but it was gone when she had asked the second question “hmm, I don’t know, pretty soon I would say; well, that is if I manage to gather a big enough herd to follow me, of course.”

Pinkie nodded in understanding “yeah. Whelp! Good luck!” She grinned and bounced away, snatching a glass of punch up in her strawberry red magic as she passed the dining table.

Twilight rolled her eyes “she can fly, yet she still bounces.”

“Hey, cool cutie mark, Steam! How’d you get it?” Rainbow called as she flew overhead with at least a dozen champagne glasses of cider floating behind her in the lime green glow of her own magic; man had it been difficult for her to get said magic under control when they’d been learning, but now she took full advantage of it.

“Oh! Yeah, I got it after I discovered a new form of transmutation! Don’t exactly know why it gave me a cutie mark that looks like this instead of something that more resembles the new magic, but hey, a cutie mark’s a cutie mark” the new queen chattered enthusiastically.

Twilight was now very interested, new form of transformation? Of course, it would definitely not be a ‘new’ form to her considering she was from the future, but there was still the chance that this could have been one that was lost to time and never made it to the future at all! “Oh? Can you show me?”

Fire grinned before raising a hoof “now, of course, I haven’t gotten it down to a fine art yet, but look at this!”

Her horn lit up and then, with a flash, her hoof and mane had changed colours, her hoof now looked like it had been dipped in purple paint and her mane more resembled Twilights own at that moment.

Twilight felt a twinge of uneasy familiarity with the type of transformation that was, but couldn’t quite place where she might’ve seen it before “amazing! That must take a lot of concentration!”

“Oh, it does, but with enough practice, anyone could do it” Fire waved off the compliment.

“Well then, Miss modesty, we’ll discuss this later, right now, on with the party!” Twilight cheered.

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Twilight really was getting a bit of a bad feeling about the type of transmutation Fire Steam was talking about as they sat in a private study over a book of object manipulation.

It was starting to sound far too similar with something else the princess had dealt with in the past, but she held back her speculations and merely discussed for now.

“So you’ve found a way to basically shift your whole mass into the shape of something else? Amazing! Well, when you’ve completed it, anyway” Twilight chuckled.

“Yes, it’s just so fascinating! And, oh, I haven’t even thought about the possibility of turning into something that isn’t a pony. Imagine being able to turn into a dragon!” The Queen breathed in excitement.

“Now that would be impressive!” Twilight nodded before pausing.

There was just something off about Fire Steams expression as she looked down at her cutie mark in contemplation “‘rise from the ashes like a Phoenix’ eh? I wonder what it could mean...” Twilight heard her mutter.

Twilight pursed her lips in worry for a second before smiling brightly when the black Alicorn looked back up “well, shall we get back to our chat?”

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

“Just a little more, Applejack, you can do it!” The pink Alicorn cheered, jumping around her second oldest sister as her horn flared a soft baby blue and she lifted the cup into the air.

Applejack merely grunted and continued to strain as the cup began stretching in odd ways, when suddenly, with a pop, it was turned into an orange “Oh for the love of-! An ORANGE?! What’s wrong wit’ APPLES ya good fer nothin’ horn!?”

“Can you stop complaining and just see if it worked?” Rainbow shouted from the top of a particularly tall palm tree.

“Ah’ll rhat, fan!” The orange princess snapped, glancing down at her rear “nope, not a lick ‘o difference, ah don’t think mah cutie marks gunna appear like this, Dash.”

“Then how do YOU think it’ll appear?” The multicoloured mare responded.

“Ah don’ know, probably bah doin’ somn’ honest and leadership like?” Applejack suggested.

“So what are you still doing here? Go make someone tell the truth about something or something!” Dash exclaimed.

The orange Alicorn sighed before trotting off to do just that.

::::::::::::::::::::::::

“Hey new queen, whatcha doing here? Ah thought you’d gone back wit yer parents?” Applejack called, trotting up to Fire Steam as she spotted her in one of the many hallways.

The fiery maned queen froze for a second before looking back at the princess with a smile that set off a dozen dishonesty bells in her head.

Applejack smiled back, she found that when someone was lying to her was the only time she was able to lie right back successfully, and continued “ah could’a sworn you’re not meant to be here.”

“Aha! Yes, well, I merely returned to talk with Twilight some more, I completely forgot to mention a certain detail about my new discovery” Steam replied.

Applejack allowed the queen to see her smile strain as she narrowed her eyes slightly “I don’t rightly appreciate it when someone lies to me, yer majesty.”

“Ahaha ahahahaha” the queen laughed nervously as she turned around and continued walking to wherever she was going, the orange mare not following her as she went.

“There’s something mighty suspicious goin’ on with that one.” The princess muttered as she watched the queen pick up and study a vase with her acid green magic before failing to casually walk around a corner and out of sight.