//------------------------------// // Changes // Story: Ben 10: Friendship is Magic // by Firestorm808 //------------------------------// Morning "Wake up Tennyson," A voice said. "No Mom. I don't want to go to school today. I just want to stay home and bake cookies with you." "Ugh… Benjamin K. Tennyson, you wake up this instant!" it yelled in annoyance. "Aaaah." Ben woke up instantly. "Finally," it said in relief. While his vision was blurry, Ben looked around for the source of the voice but found none. "Who said that?" "I did," the voice replied back. Ben looked at the Omnitrix in confusion. "What?" Suddenly, the faceplate opened up and projected a hologram of a small frog-like being. "I've been trying to wake you for about an hour now." It sighed in relief. Ben raised an eyebrow. "Azmuth? What are you doing here?" "I'm not actually Azmuth. I'm the AI that runs the Omnitrix. Azmuth 10. Who do you think says all those indications to you?" Ben just blinked. "I'm surprised about seeing an AI besides Eunice." Azmuth 10 decided to explain. "The Omnitrix uses quantum computing to analyze all the DNA stored within along with monitoring the various functions. Azmuth couldn't trust any AI except one he made himself." "So why are you here now? You haven't shown up before." "I was given this feature with the latest update you received. Whenever you lost connection to Primus, things tend to go poorly, so he allowed me to speak to you in such cases." Azmuth examined Ben's current state. "I believe I found our first issue." Ben raised a brow. "What?" "You may want to re-evaluate your current appendages." When Ben's eyes left the Omnitrix, he could finally see clearly. however, what he thought was his hand revealed to be a hoof. He looked over the rest of himself to see that he was covered in tan fur. His brown hair grew to the point where it was a main, and a tail of the same hair color came from his rear end. Finally, his flanks held the Plumber's peace symbol. "I'm a horse alien?" "Technically, you resemble what Earthlings call a pony." Not a stranger to new aliens, he shrugged. 'Not the weirdest thing I've turned into. Thankfully, Wildmutt gave me some quadruped experience.' He turned back to Azmuth. "When did I turn into this alien? I thought I turn back to normal when I black out, but the Omnitrix is still on my wrist. Leg?" "I have good news and bad news." "What's the bad news?" asked Ben. "The bad news is that your current DNA has been overwritten by this planet's ambient mana, resulting in your new appearance." "How does that happen?" "From my initial measurements, this planet's concentration of mana is very high." 'So, like Ledgerdomain?' he thought. "How this affects you? I'm not sure. We just arrived on this strange planet. I will need to run further tests on the matter." "The good news?" "Good news is that you are relatively healthy according to my analysis." Ben cringed at the bad news. "Is this permanent?" Azmuth shook his head. "Thankfully, no. For some reason, when I tried to change your DNA to your original one I have on file, it kept getting altered by the planet right after becoming human. I have yet to test various other alien DNA and the effects. Once we leave the planet and head to Galvin Prime, the mana field will be out of range, and the first thinker can begin working on correcting your genetic code." The young stallion sweatdropped. "Uh... It's kinda my turn to give bad news." Azmuth sighed in annoyance. "What happened this time?" Ben relayed the events prior to his arrival here. "So you're one of the Sonosarian clones. Interesting." "Interesting? What's that supposed to mean?" "Remember when you split yourself using the Sonosarian DNA a while back." "Yeah. I ended up causing trouble because of the different personalities." "After you told me that, I was programmed to reduce mental side effects. At the moment, your mental state should be about equal to the originals. " "Well, that sounds good. If we're able to get back home, do you think that we could recombine." "I'm not so sure about that" "Why?" "Do you know how Sonosarians reproduce?" Ben thought about Echo Echo. "Isn't the species just living sound in a suit?" "Exactly. When Sonosarian clones are separated for long periods of time, their brain waves come out of sync. The clone becomes its own distinct consciousness. That's how they reproduce." "So if I don't get home soon, I won't be able to recombine with the original Ben." Azmuth nodded "That is correct." Ben sighed in relief. "That's not too bad. I'm alive. He's alive. Not the worse thing to happen." Azmuth smirked at the response. "I'm glad to see such optimism in our current situation." Ben shrugged. "Since we're pretty much stuck here with no way back, we should probably look for civilization." "Indeed. I may be able to help you in that regard. Raise the Omnitrix above your head." Ben did as requested. The hologram turned off, and energy emitted. Confused, Ben asked. "What was that?" Azmuth began to explain. "I used a small pulse to locate large concentrations of sentient life. Surprisingly, there are four large concentrations. There's one to the north and two to the south. One of those two happen to be at a higher elevation, possibly a mountain." Ben raised a brow. "And the fourth?" "Surprisingly enough, it's south but several kilometers in the atmosphere." "What?" Ben looked up in that direction and saw no signs of a satellite or spaceship. "Considering this planet's high concentration of mana and lay lines, it could be anything." Ben sighed. "I wish Gwen was here. She may have taught me the basics, but magic seems to be everywhere here." "Which one you should go toward is up to you. However, I wouldn't recommend flying there as we don't know if this planet is hostile to new life forms coming about." Ben nodded. "Thanks for the help." "It's what I was made to do. Call me again if you need further assistance." The Omnitrix closed back into standby. 'Now, where do I go from here?' Ben thought as he gazed at the land around him.