Magical Curiosity

by Comma Typer


Midnight

Fifteen minutes later found Octavia and Photo Finish still hiding inside the darkened classroom. Footsteps were muddled with hoofsteps—they could hear the heavier fall of the latter, giving Octavia cause to bite her hoofnails in horror at who else had become ponies in such a short time.
Photo Finish, meanwhile, was adjusting her rather bulky camera, turning a wheel and adjusting her lens.
“What’re y-you doing?!” Octavia whispered, annoyed.
“I, Photo Finish, muzt prepare for any poszibility!” She struck a pose and spun her camera around without dropping it.
“Are you going to spread the word?” Octavia asked, becoming scared. “How do you know that won’t make things worse?!”
Photo wagged her finger. “No way! I von’t be using this to take picturez!”
“Huh?”
Then, finally, the door opened. “Hey! Before you say, ‘Who are you?!’, I should say it’s a long story that involved a portal and I landed up here and—“
Flashbang!” yelled Photo Finish as she snapped a picture at the mysterious figure at maximum brightness.
Agh!” and the figure stumbled to the ground.
Then, Photo Finish and Octavia looked at the fallen stranger, the former taking off her shades.
After her irises expanded back to normal, Cookie perked up and went back on her four hooves, returning to excitable mode. She extended a hoof at Octavia. “Howdy there! Name’s Cookie, and you look familiar! What’s your name?”
Photo Finish left her mouth hanging open. Then, putting her shades back on: “I go!” as she rushed to the teacher’s desk and tried smashing the necklace with the full brunt of her camera.
Meanwhile, Cookie, oblivious to what Photo was doing, smiled at the other pony in the room. “Are you one of Applejack’s classmates? ‘Cause, you know, you’re here in a school, right?”
The gray pony gulped. “Yes. I am Octavia M-M-Melody.”
Cookie gasped. “That cello student?!”
Octavia nodded though tinged with pain as she looked at her hooves. “Please don’t remind me.”
Felt a squeeze around her neck and was tugged into Cookie’s hug.
“Yay! Another friend to talk to! We could eat at the local hang-out whatever place and drink some apple cider when this is all over!”
Octavia wrung herself away from the hug. “Wait, who are you?”
Cookie giggled. “Whoops! Forgot to introduce myself! The name’s Cookie!”
“...just ‘Cookie’?” Octavia asked. “Or am I mishearing?”
“I could say that Rarity’s name is just ‘Rarity’ but she’s not here yet!” Cookie hummed, trying to think or remember—“Ooh!” Looked back and saw Rose, complete with a rose cutie mark, screaming around as a pony in the hallway followed by more ponies falling flat to their faces due to their lack of four-leg walking experience. Looking back at Octavia, “I get what you’re trying to do! You’re trying to sleep through the apocalypse!”
Octavia winced, incredulous. “We’re not doing that!”
“No, no, no!” Cookie waved her forehooves around as if that would make Octavia sympathetic. “I mean, you should totally do that! I don’t like it when everyone’s panicking at being a horse and then they’re galloping everywhere. And the screaming.” She rubbed her ears. “It’s very noisy!”
Octavia’s eye twitched. “How could you be so calm?!”
Cookie giggled again. “Well, I don’t want to change back!”
Currently, Octavia’s mind could not process the very thought of it. That was made evident by her mouth moving up and down before forming one word to encapsulate it all: “Why?!”
Cookie’s ears drooped as she formed a warm smile. Her forehoof hung around, swaying. “Oh, I used to be just a horse. Applejack and her family were good to us three, but we wanted more than just being obedient horsies. When we became, well, magical, we—“
Octavia held a hoof to her mouth. “I’m talking to Applejack’s horse?!” Then, turning around, seeing Photo still smacking the necklace, now with the table slowly splitting apart. “Photo Finish, any progress?”
Whack! “It lookz about done! Give me a moment!” Whack! “Nuh-uh. Another moment!”
Whack!
Crack!
A very audible crack!
As the necklace glowed, magical arcs like lightning shooting out.
Photo Finish slowly stepped back, aiming the camera at the topaz. “I think it’z—“
And was zapped, then glowed.
In her place, a blue Earth pony in a similar gaudy dress, wearing the same shades though a bit smaller.
Cookie smiled as she trotted over to the new pony. “Heya’!”
Photo’s mouth hung wide open. She slowly turned around, seeing her four legs and hooves, her mane and tail—
Aiee!”
And Photo Finish tried to run out of the room in panic, though tripping multiple times stopped her from continuing that frightful course.
Octavia helped her up, then noticed Cookie by the chalkboard. “Look, you need help, but you have to take it slowly and—“
“I’m a pony!” and waved her head and her forehooves about.
Also slapping Octavia’s face about with those forehooves. “Photo—ow!—Finish—ouch!—would you—agh!—calm dowow?!”
Cookie gasped, galloped to Photo, and dragged her away by the tail. She put Photo on the floor, though struggling as the new pony tapped all four hooves in fear.
“Octavia!” Photo shouted, trembling. “Pleaze tell me vhat to do!”
“Well, I don’t know!” she shouted, pointing a hoof at her. “You think because I can walk on four legs that I know everything?!”
“You muzt know something!” Photo snapped back at her. “If you could do that, you could teach me how to—“
“You can ask me!” Cookie said, raising a hoof and smiling, cutting short the argument. “I was born with four hooves, so I’m obviously the perfect candidate for the job!”
Then, with the door still open, they saw a freckled green pony wearing a familiar striped sweater. She looked straight into the room and then at the ponies there. “Octavia? Photo Finish?!” Then, dreadful face towards Cookie, “You’re not from this school! How are you—never mind!”
Octavia gasped, realizing who this green pony was. “Wallflower?!”
Wallflower nodded, biting her lip. “You have to go outside! Sunset’s back with everypony else and she’s got news!”
With that, they leaped out of the room.
Or they would have if it were not for Photo Finish’s lack of four-leg walking training as could be seen by her stumbling and falling on the floor.
Octavia groaned, helping her back up. “OK: Fore-right, back-left, fore-left, back-right. You’ve listened to me? Good,” and pulled her by the mane.
“Ow! Watch it!”


Octavia, Wallflower, and Cookie galloped to the school grounds, with Photo Finish lagging behind.
What they saw was unexpected, to say the least.
The statue was truly destroyed. Not much of a trace was left. What was left were chunks of marble from the base, the horse statue itself having completely shattered.
Floating over the base was a portal, swirling with purple and thundering with magical lightning.
Watching and either standing or sitting on the concrete path and not on the flowers were the students and the teachers who had not fled, especially those who had turned into ponies.
Standing before them were Sunset, Sci-Twi, Dash, AJ, Fluttershy, Rarity, Cotton Candy—back to using the name “Pinkie Pie” as they were talking with her that way—and Spike, still in their pony (and dragon) forms.
“Everypony, please settle down!” Sunset yelled, raising both her forehooves in the air.
And then, the mumbling and the screaming ceased, though there were still ponies running on the streets.
Sunset sighed. “Long story short, we’ve returned from Equestria when the portal turned on out of nowhere, sent all the lost students back here, cast a spell on the portal to maintain it—and we’re going to do something desperate because if we don’t, the whole world will change and be filled with magic, and everycreature’s going to stay that way!”
And gasps. The screams came back.
Quiet!” Twilight shouted.
And the screams went away, everyone including ponies now looking at her.
Then: “So, after a lot of planning a little too late, we’ve formulated a plan where, using our geodes—“ levitated her magical stone necklace and put it back on herself “—we’ll overpower this portal,” pointing at the portal right behind her, “thereby forcing it to return enough magic to Equestria, turning this world back to normal.”
“What’s the catch?!” immediately asked Micro Chips, raising a finger while checking what was going on in MyStable with his phone.
Twi lowered her head. “All seven of us have to be extremely concentrated. If we stray, we might instantly turn the whole world magic!”
Murmurs arose from the crowd, though the non-ponies kept to themselves, trying not to get near any ponies.
“It’s a great risk,” Sunset said, “but it’s the only way we can save this world while keeping the magic that’s harmless! We have to—“
Twilight’s eyes glowed blue.
Applejack stepped away from her. “Uh, I don’t think that’s a good sign right there.”
Twilight stood there, frozen, her eyes staying blue.
Sunset gasped. “Twilight! You’re not Midnight—“
Dark wings sprouted out from Twilight’s torso.
The audience backed away, beginning to panic though Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed to herd them back in, the farmpony using her lasso as a weapon of fear to keep them in and the quick pegasus appearing before any stragglers to order them back.
Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie trotted up to Twilight who was looking at them with one scared face and two scary eyes.
“I n-need you!” Twilight yelled, tears flowing from her glowing eyes as they rested on a terror-stricken Spike. “I c-can’t hold in Midnight much l-longer!”
Her horn cracked and glowed, becoming made of magical light once again.
Sunset yelped and so did some of those in the audience.
Twilight’s glasses turned into a glowing magical mask around her eyes.
As a tear dropped.
Spike turned his face away, a tear of his own flowing.
Twi closed her eyes, gritting her teeth as her purple coat turned dark.
Then opened her eyes wide, her whimpering frown becoming a sinister grin.
Turned to the audience.
Who were staring at Midnight Sparkle by the portal.
The alicorn laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, Twilight!” she yelled, her deep voice returning. “Repeating those words to yourself isn’t going to work so easily!” With a raised hoof, “But no matter! Soon, I will study magic in a much better way.”
The crowd stood up, ready to run though Applejack was shouting at them to “Stay calm! We’re gonna handle this!”
Midnight smiled, ignoring the farmpony’s words and flapping her wings into a hover. “I was wrong back then to recklessly destroy this world in my quest to satisfy my magical curiosity, but now...why have one magical world when you can have two?!”
Blasted her horn at the portal.
No!”
And Sunset lunged at her, then Rarity and Pinkie Pie restraining Midnight by the hooves, the horns, and the wings, Fluttershy screaming and shuddering while Spike looked on at his former owner.
Rainbow Dash stopped mid-air, looking at Midnight being held down.
The crowd looked.
And then they ran away, screaming and running and stumbling, much to the futile efforts of Applejack’s rope-handling skills, though it was probably hard to use a rope with mouth and hooves anyway.
Back to Midnight:
Sunset’s horn glowed. “Come on, Twilight! You’re not Midnight Sparkle!”
“Oh, she is!” Midnight said with a growl, and brought a hindleg out of a grip, kicked Sunset in the face, and got two more hooves free which she used to kick Pinkie and Rarity out of place.
Now unbound, Midnight floated above the portal, huge wings creating a current. Facing the dispersing crowd: “Look at your world! Magic is filling it up and soon, it’ll be ripe for study!”
Then, Sunset looked behind her.
Cookie was galloping away from huge flytraps trying to bite her hair. Ponies were running from plunderseed vines; a few had been caught, now wrapped in their grasp. Some were falling asleep at the behest of Somnambular Blooms, others were giggling by Giggling Funflowers, and Wallflower was screaming and running with a mane made not of hair but flowers thanks to some poison joke.
Sunset looked up, saw the clouds moving around erratically and—
“Ah, yes!” Midnight said, looking up, too, and grinning at the strange clouds. “Controlling the weather, just like how the pegasi among us should do!”
Then, Sunset saw her geode glow.
Caught her friends’ geodes glowing, too.
She looked up at the floating Midnight and yelled, “Twilight Sparkle! This is me and your friends! You’re not—“
Midnight blinked at her, eyes briefly back to normal.
Then blinked again, turning back to glowing blue.
And Midnight laughed as she zapped Sunset and made her fall down and tumble to the rough grass.
The last thing Sunset saw was the sky, maybe some white and blue wings.
Then, under the pain draining her of energy, she closed her eyes.
Unconscious.