Tom knew something was up when his phone buzzed, indicating a call, but a quick check of his screen confirmed it was a number he didn't recognise. There was no name attached to it, and the caller ID was somewhere in the United States, indicated by the international call number attached to the front of the number. He moved the green dial to the side and began to speak.
"Hello? Who is this?"
The speaker on the other hand had a fairly strong accent, so it took Tom a few seconds to tune into the accent. "Are you Tom Haddington?"
"Yes, I am. How do you know my name?"
"The name's Steve Miller. I'm Katrina's dad."
"Oh, she's mentioned you a couple of times. Nice to speak to you, sir."
"Listen, I know this lockdown has made things difficult, and I'm not exactly comfortable with my daughter being stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic. But she says she trusts you. That doesn't mean I haven't got my eyes on you."
"How can you have my eyes on me from several thousand miles away?" Tom joked, trying to lighten the mood.
It didn't work. "I'm being serious. I'd prefer she wasn't living with another man (at this statement Tom internally rolled his eyes), but she regards you as family, so I'll take that."
"I'll do my utmost to ensure that her needs are catered for. I've already given her my spare room, and a key with which to lock it. I'm not a Peeping Tom... pun not intended."
"You'd better not be. When this crisis ends, if you've so much as harmed a hair on her head, well..." The call suddenly went silent, and there was a loud sound of a hammer engaging.
"Colt manufactured pistol," Tom quickly noted. "Chambered to what exactly?"
".45 Calibre." There was another pause. "It's in perfect condition. I hope you get the point. If you do hurt her, you won't live to regret it."
"I've made quite enough enemies for one life, sir," Tom answered. "I have no intention of adding you to the list."
"Goodbye. I need to get back to work. Who knows how many software bugs I need to fix today."
The call ended, and Tom sat back in his armchair. "He was intense."
Katrina opened the door and stepped in. "Are you OK?" she asked.
"Your dad just called," Tom replied. "Basically, don't harm you or I won't live to regret it. I totally get he's worried, but I think usage of firearms, not least because he'd have to cross to a country where pistol ownership is illegal, is pushing it a bit far."
"He can be very protective," Katrina admitted.
"And I understand exactly why, given past events," Tom answered. He pulled himself out of his chair. "Oh well, that's enough sitting about for me. I probably need to do a milk run. Figuratively and literally. But some idiots around here are still panic buying, making key resources quite hard to get."
Katrina sat down, looking to be about to nod off. "Urgh. I still haven't adjusted to the new timezone. Jetlag's hit me like a brick wall."
"You should be over it in one or two days," Tom smiled. "Us young people usually recover from it quickly. The fastest in my case was coming back from New York. One day, though I spent most of that day outdoors, so that probably helped. Speaking of which, the government doesn't know you're here. The rules only permit family members to reside together, and the authorities already know I have a sister, so that won't work. Would you be OK with me stating you're my cousin?"
"OK then," Katrina replied, her eyes closed. "It beats having nowhere to go."
"Good point. I need to be on my way now. Cheerio!" And with that, Tom was headed for the door. He needed to get back to the place he was before.
Now that Tom was gone, Katrina was on her own. However, she was so tired she was struggling to form coherent thoughts, and as such she soon drifted off, dreaming of exceedingly strange things, like giant monsters made of cheese, or rockets built in sheds and mountains of melting wax.
All of which had suddenly materialised in the middle of the desert for some reason. Which was nowhere near where she lived, so why was she even in the Mojave? It made virtually no sense, and when she finally woke up about half an hour had passed. Still feeling awful, she decided to recover her American grade coffee she had stashed in her case, and started to walk up the stairs to get it. It was a long and slow ascent, as British stairs appeared to be built at a much steeper incline than their American counterparts, and as such she had to devote a bit more energy to climbing them, as demonstrated by the much slower ascent caused by her incredibly tired she somehow was. But at long last, she reached the top, and opened her door to open her case. Her foot collided with something, and she hit the ground.
Behind her was a dark blue horseshoe that almost certainly hadn't been there when she'd moved in. As she looked back at it, her foot felt like it was cramping up, the muscles not responding properly. Then both her feet started to shrink, toes sliding back into them until they had become stumps that simply fell out of her shoes. Her socks came off with them, and Katrina regarded her new appendages with horror.
"Oh no! Not a pony!"
Her legs snapped backwards into an equine stance, and her rear started to tingle as her entire body was covered in an odd glow. Her neck started to grow longer, and her entire body began to grow in size, limbs elongating and stretching. Her hips cracked and forced her into a quadrapetal stance, and her rear started to tingle. The sensation was focused in her tailbone, and continued to build in intensity. She clenched her teeth as suddenly a tail started growing, flopping downwards. Mercifully, at this point, she still had her clothes on, but shortly after she felt like she was in a compression chamber. Whilst her breasts shrank back into her chest and appeared again further down her body, her stomach and chest abruptly began swelling, her arms snapping forward into an equine position and her fingers balling up. They merged together, and flatted into hooves.
Her body continued to shift, her limbs thickening like tree trunks and her barrel continuing to grow. Her clothes, now strained to their limits, could take no more. With a series of loud ripping noises, they all tore along their seams and fell away onto the floor, leaving a human horse hybrid thing. A pair of wings exploded out of her sides, covered in medium blue feathers, whilst more horseshoes, of the same colour as the first one, attached themselves to her hooves. Blue fur erupted from her flesh and spread like a tidal wave across her, before suddenly stopping when all was covered.
Her head cranked forward, as otherwise it had been jammed looking at the ceiling, and her eyes slid slightly further apart as her nose and mouth stretched forward into a muzzle. Light blue hair fell all over the place, dropping down both sides of her head and messily hanging there, rather than floating as she'd expected. Her ears stretched into a pair of pony ones.
Her hazel eyes switched to light blue as a symbol of a crescent moon appeared on her flanks, surrounded by dark blue fur, like the colour of the night. Dark blue barding with the same emblem attached itself to her front, and it seemed to be almost over. A horn popped out of her forehead as a dark blue tiara appeared near it, and with that it seemed to be over.
Katrina tried to walk... and almost immediately fell over. "Oww! I must admit, this is quite difficult. I have never moved in a quadrapetal stance before... wait a minute, who am I?"
Moments later, she could hear the door open outside. "Kat? I'm back!"
Realising her voice was now Luna's, she tried to feign her usual voice as best she could. "Aih'll be down staiirs as soon as Aih can."
"Are you feeling alright?" Tom asked from downstairs. "You don't sound it."
Deciding the game was up, Luna gave in. "Yes, good sir. I am in need of some assistance."
She could hear Tom bound up the stairs and stop to knock on the door.
"You may enter. I am not in a position to open this door."
The door opened, and Tom's eyes widened as he saw her. "What happened? I was only gone 30 minutes!"
Tom knelt before Luna, seeing her lying prone on the floor and presumably unable to get up. "Did somebody leave a strange object in here?"
"A blue horseshoe," Luna replied, as she let Tom help her up. "But you cannot let them see me! If the council were to hear that you had a talking horse in your house, they would-"
"The council isn't going to do anything," Tom replied. "I'll keep you safe until this wears off.
"But, I am an alicorn now! Are you not at least a little worried about that?"
Doesn't matter," Tom answered. "You're my friend, and I wouldn't treat you any other way. You could end up a potted plant, and I'd still care for you... I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that though." Seeing Luna trying to move, he offered some advice. "It'll feel weird at first, but don't think too hard about walking. Just move limbs as it feels natural."
He saw Luna tentatively put one leg forward, then brought one of the rear ones forward too. She soon had the hang of it, and trotted out of the door, nearly scraping her horn on the door frame.
"Tell me, how do you know how to do this?"
"Eh," Tom replied, "being a dragon and then a pegasus for a bit does rather show you the way. Fancy a hot drink?"
Later that day, Luna suddenly jumped up from a chair with a horrified realisation. "I had forgotten!" she exclaimed. "I have a conference call with my parents, but if they see me they will think awfully of it!"
"I'd imagine. 'Terribly sorry sir and madame, but your daughter is now a cartoon horse'. They'd put us both in the loony bin. Speaking of which, can you move the moon?"
"Dealing with six moving limbs is hard enough. I would rather not try a seventh."
"OK then, I'll type responses for you. Shall we get your laptop set up? I'll switch the webcam off."
A few moments later, everything was ready to go, and Tom hit 'call'. At last, the call connected, and two voices suddenly came in.
"Good morning!" said the first voice, a female one. "Or should I say afternoon?"
Tom typed back Good afternoon.
"Haven't seen a typed response in a long time," said the other voice, which Tom quickly recognised as the man who had called him earlier. "Is something wrong."
Tom typing here. Katrina has lost her voice and as such cannot speak at the moment. She's writing down what she wants to say and I'm typing it up.
"Well, I suppose you do have cold weather there. How's your first day in Britain?"
I'm settled in, thanks. The colours-
"Do not spell it the British way!" Luna interrupted.
"Backspace it is then."
I'm settled in, thanks. The colors are lovely at this time of year.
"That's nice to hear," said the female voice. "It's raining here, and Charlie wants to head outside but can't for obvious reasons."
Did somebody leave a cake out?
Laughter erupted at the other end. "That was quick!"
Suddenly, a loud whooshing noise sounded behind them, and Tom and Luna both turned their heads to see-
"Cozy Glow?"
"Nay, the same version of Cozy Glow I was at Walt Disney World!"
Cozy looked at both of them in confusion. "This is awkward."