Magical Curiosity

by Comma Typer


How to Burn Your Monday in One Hour

Bzzt!
“Agh!”
And Sunset was awake, eyes dilated as she spun her head around and seeing things all a blur.
Then, eyes focusing and clearing up, she saw Pinkie beside her, holding a fresh pair of defibrillator paddles.
Sunset tilted her head at that. “Did you just—“
“Yup!” Pinkie said, using her mane to hold them up. “Who knew getting ponies back up was so easy!”
Sunset’s eyes dilated further. “It can’t possibly be that easy. You could’ve killed me!”
Pinkie laughed nervously. “Must be my Pinkie Sense!”
Sunset raised a brow. “But your Pinkie Sense shouldn’t be strong enough to do—“ and smacked a hoof on her temple. “No, no, no, no!”
Went to her four hooves, looked around.
While most of the magical flowers had been left alone, everything else was being unhinged. With so many ponies either panicking and running around or doing something to alleviate the damage, there was not a single bipedal creature in sight. Familiar faces had become new: there was Cheerilee the purple Earth pony counseling Photo Finish and Sandalwood though she was trembling as well; several police ponies were doing their best to defuse the situation but to no luck as they tripped on their hooves and dropped their now-inadequate hand cuffs; the soccer team either stayed put on the ground or crashed around with their brand new wings as pegasi, Soarin breaking through a school window snout-first.
Sunset’s eye twitched, ears drooping as she almost succumbed to hyperventilating. She pulled Pinkie to her face. “Is there anyone left? What’s happening beyond Canterlot? Any emergency news? Is it too late?!”
Pinkie gulped, shifting her eyes about, trying to buy more time. “It’s not too late, but..“ brought a phone up to her face.
It was broadcasting a live news report straight from Changeling City, the newsman all dressed up in suit and bow tie while chaos continued behind him as colorful changelings flew overhead and almost swiped him off—crash! as a store window was demolished by a particularly green one with antlers. “...with Micro Chips, a student from Canterlot High—woah!” and was nearly caught up into the air by the green one’s brother who blurted out, “Sorry there!” Visibly shaken, the anchor looked over the camera man’s shoulder and continued, gripping the microphone with dread, “This student broke the news via his MyStable feed right before the magical manifestations appeared all over the world….”
Pinkie put the phone down, giving Sunset a solemn face. “I don’t think we have much time left.”
Sunset galloped past Pinkie, moving to the statue’s broken base and the swirling portal—
Saw Twilight Sparkle moaning, resting on the ground as the principals looked after her along with the rest of her friends.
Sunset gasped, approaching her. “Twilight, are you OK?!”
Celestia brought a hoof to Sunset. In a somber mood: “She is quite alright. She’s almost done recovering.”
Sunset hesitated, looking down on her semi-conscious state. “So she’s back?”
“Most likely,” replied Luna.
As Twilight’s friends remained silent, watching her.
Sunset looked at Celestia. “A-Are you detecting a-anything?!”
Celestia nodded. “I and my sister can feel the magic spreading at an alarming rate. It’s already taken over most of the city, although there are a few who have not yet changed.”
“How far is it going?!” Sunset screamed.
“It’s gotten the whole country,” Rarity answered, stepping a hoof away from Twilight. “There’s reports of people turning into yaks, griffons, zebras, buffalo, two-legged cats—“
Sunset stomped her hoof on the ground, cutting Rarity short.
“Wuh?!” as Twilight shot up from her slumber, standing up on her hooves. “What happened? D-Did we win?”
And everyone was looking at Twilight, relieved that she was not a rampaging monster right now.
Fidgeting her hoof around, Sunset continued, “Let’s hurry up! We need to overpower the portal—“
And Sunset’s geode glowed.
So did everypony else’s.
They all looked at their glowing geodes.
Looked at the swirling portal.
Felt weightless as they were slowly lifted from the ground by the overwhelming magic of their geodes.
Celestia and Luna stepped back, beholding their students rising in the air. With a shaky hoof directed at them all, Celestia said,“I-Is that—“
“—the part where we’re going to save the day at the very last second?” Pinkie said, acting up and unmindful of her lack of personal gravity. “Absolutely-tootely! Next time, we’ll cut it down to the last millisecond, then the last microsecond, then the last yoctosecond—“
“We’ve got better things to do, Pinkie!” yelled Sunset as she pointed at the swirling portal.
As their geodes glowed brighter.
An idea struck Sunset in the head, making her turn to the principals below. “Celestia, Luna! Fly up here and fire all your magic at the portal!”
“A-All?” Celestia stammered, placing a hoof to her chest. “But what about the illusory sky? They’re going to—“
“Everything will be back to normal!” Sunset shouted, emotion welling up in her eyes as memories of her time in this world raced in—“Just go!”
And Celestia and Luna hovered, flapped their wings, powered up their horns and blasted continuous beams at the portal.
It swirled faster, the thunder roaring as lightning zapped out.
Sunset looked at everyone else around her, half-closing her eyes at the colorful glare of their geodes. There was barely anyone else nearby—only them and those brave few who stayed behind.
“Spike!” Twilight screamed, re-noticing Spike who had backed up to the school’s brick walls. “Get away from here!”
Spike saluted her. “Sure th-thing!” and he ran down the the path and into the school’s front hall.
Sunset gulped.
Portal fiercely swirling, lightning shooting past her mane and almost singing it.
Closed her eyes.
Then: “Light ‘em up, ladies. This is now or never.”
Her friends exchanged one last look with each other.
Nodded their heads.
They charged up their geodes, then fired their magic into the portal.
The portal swirled faster, faster, faster into a blur—
Sunset turned back, then saw the magical flowers fade back to normal. “I-It’s working!”
The broken window repaired itself, the clouds slowing down to normal speed—
A few ponies turning back into people who then looked at themselves, wondering how it happened but still thankful.
Now teachers and students were watching the magical light spectacle before them, though some were already headed for the doors.
“A-Almost th-there!” Twilight shouted, stretching out her hooves as the magical beams continued and—
“Twilight!”
Her eyes glowed blue. “N-No!”
Rainbow Dash glanced at her. “Wait, wha—“
A shadowy figure tackled Twilight to the ground.
“Twi!” everyone screamed.
Down there, Twilight Sparkle was punching and kicking none other than Midnight Sparkle herself, now a truly real persona with equally real terror in her appearance.
Midnight shot a beam at her, searing pain on her enemy’s knees. “Genius of you to start doubting yourself at the critical moment!”
Twilight shuddered, moaning under the anguish, struggling to stay standing. “H-How c-could you be here?!”
Midnight chuckled, then shot another beam at her, making her buckle down with double the pain on double the knees. “Simple! You said you’re not me, and you’ve said it so many times that I thought, ‘Why not?’ So, I took your advice and became my own pony!”
Twilight’s eyes shrunk, realizing that Midnight had escaped her mind and into the real world.
“Why should I tether myself to you?” Midnight asked, stepping closer to her with a crashing stomp each time. “You may be smart, but you are so nervous, so anxious about everything. I’m surprised you could do anything, really.” Then, raising a hoof and readying her glowing horn with one more beam, “Why be bothered with the little things when you can do away with them? You’ll be free to study magic without anyone to stop you!”
“Well, you’re wrong!” yelled Sunset.
“Wha—“
And was consumed with the full power of geode magic, engulfed in the increasing glow until it was blinding.
A deafening scream, and she was out, not a single trace of her left.
Twilight blinked, looking at where her evil self had been.
Her geode glowed again, floated her back up to her surprise—“Aah!”—and fired its beam at the portal.
“Come on!” Sunset screamed, struggling as the combined sounds tuned out everything else. “There’s still time—“
And all went white.


Nothing.
Then, chirping voices, muddied noises. A feeling of something soft but rough on her back, lying down. Head moving back and forth, trying to wake up.
“Sh-Should we tell her?” came Fluttershy’s quiet voice.
Behind that, someone crying, someone mourning.
Eyes flitting back open. Saw something blue and big. Probably the sky—maybe a blue ceiling that looked a lot like the sky. A bit of white sped through and was gone.
Another blink cleared up Sunset’s vision.
Sure enough, it was the sky.
“Did we do it?” asked Sunset in a frightened voice, unprepared.
“Um...” was Twilight’s very short and very basic reply.
Sunset paused, refusing to pry her eyes away from the sky. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Pinkie’s pony face came into view, dampened with a frown. “It doesn’t.”
Yah!”
Sunset jumped up to her two feet—no, her four hooves.
She saw her friends and the principals, too, still ponies and looking at her with worry. Spike was also there, still a dragon as he tapped his claws’ fingers in restless waiting. Behind the princesses, the portal remained. It had calmed down to a normal swirl, but it was still operational.
Sunset shuddered. “It...it d-didn’t work?” but, without waiting for an answer, she spun her head around to see the school proper.
Everyone was still a pony, even the ones who had returned to normal for a while. They were all looking at her, demanding an answer from their friend.
Then, she looked at herself, noting her hooves, mane, tail, snout, ears, cutie mark….
Sunset turned around, stared at her friends dumbly with an open mouth.
They were all staring back at her.
Then, the portal flashed white as a figure came out.
It was Princess Twilight Sparkle.
She was not smiling, nor did she have the smug face of determination. She just looked straight at her friends. “Everypony?”
Twi raised a hoof. “No need, Sparkle.”
Sparkle’s ears drooped, wanting to walk forward but now having second thoughts. “So you know what,” made a huge gulp, “happened.”
Twi lowered her head. “Yes.”
Sunset took a step back, the need to breathe coming up on her. “We didn’t do it?”
Sparkle nodded. She took out her journal, showing the sun symbol emblazoned on its cover. “See this?”
She dropped it to the ground.
Sparkle kept looking at Twi, ignoring the book before her. “It’s o-over, Twi.” Sniffled.
Twi placed a hoof to her eye. She sniffled, too, and glanced away from her other self.
Sparkle trotted up to her.
Gave her a hug.
Sunset whimpered, eyes welling
Both Twilights cried on each other’s shoulder.
Everyone looked at the crying duo, tears blotching their faces and their coats.
Fluttershy placed a hoof over her mouth and snout, trying to hide her own whimpers but failed as she exploded into an outburst of tears.
“Wh-What a-are you saying?!” Rarity yelled, supporting Fluttershy’s sudden fall to her hooves. “A-Are you saying we’re ponies forever?”
Sunset nodded, yanking her in for a miserable hug with her brand of liquid gloom.
Rarity wrested away from her, then looked at the still crying Sparkle. “B-But you’re smart! C-Couldn’t you at least think of another way out?!”
Sparkle whispered something to Twi, then glanced at Rarity. Against her tears: “We tried, b-but the connection’s locked!”
Sunset gasped, the hug out of her mind for a second. “S-So...this w-world is going to stay this way until the end of time?”
Sparkle nodded. “Y-Your plan was fantastic—and then Midnight Sparkle came in.” She looked away, wincing as another tear came into view, fogging her sight. “The portal was given too much time, and then it w-went and sped up everything. Magic is so welded to the fabric of this reality now, even trying to remove it would destroy parts of its spacetime...l-like removing tape too strong from paper too weak!”
Sunset’s ears drooped, seeing Sparkle return to Twi to cry some more.
Rarity swelled with blubbers, going down on her four knees. “B-But I had a future! To grow old with all of you, have a good clothes store, and marry the man of m-my dreams!”
“Well, at least you’ll have us,” Sparkle said, smiling despite the sorrow. Then, the smile vanished. “But, the rest of your dreams won’t be the same.”
Rarity gasped, horrified at the thought of making cumbersome equine dresses and seeing that man as the unicorn of her dreams now. Flustered at Sparkle, she growled. “To think you can just waltz in and—“
Sunset blocked her path with a hoof. “Rarity, calm down!”
Rarity stopped, took in a huge breath which bulged her cheeks.
Then calmed down into grieving as the tears ruined her mascara, bringing on a black stream from her eyes.
Pinkie Pie also exploded into a stream of tears, crying beside the two alicorns who wrapped each other with a wing, holding each other close as their own tears flowed, too, in hushed sobs, the cosmos and that grand idea of immortality dawning upon them in stormy clouds. Even Spike and Rainbow Dash were on the verge of opening the floodgates; they stayed close, battling the instinct to cry.
And Sunset Shimmer looked on at the sky.
Seeing nothing but the blue horizon, the yellow sun, and a white cloud zipping around like a paper airplane.
Around her, chaos was only beginning. Earth ponies were suddenly growing plants as they ran, pegasi were crashing into people’s homes—no, ponies’ homes—and unicorns were issuing out magical beams every ten minutes or so with various side effects.
As the phone still on the ground regained an internet connection, picking up the broadcast again.
“….Wh-What’s that?! Are you telling me all of us have turned into these creatures? It’s not j-just the crew? The sun’s revolving around the Earth? And magic’s a thing now?! You’re kidding me, right?”
“Dude, you’re a changeling.”
“Don’t tell me that! Just let me pick up my micro—“
Thud!
“Oh, that’s right. No fingers! How are we supposed to report the news?!”
“...didn’t we report the news in front of a live audience just now?”
“In an unprofessional environment!”
A frustrated pause. “We became colorful flying bugs in a city burning to the ground as we speak, and you’re talking about being professional?!”
“Agh!”
Thud!
Mumbles and murmurs. Orders given to secure this or that item.
“And help me get out of here! How do insect horses move around, anyway?!”