Tom had always been one who was prepared to receive big surprises. It rather came with the territory of his life. His full name, which he rarely disclosed to anybody, was Thomas Elias Haddington (his father had been rather strong on Chapel, and as a result had insisted that his son have two Biblical names rather than just one, which was the family convention). He had lived a fairly normal life up to this point, being a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and whoever knows how many spinoffs it got over the years, and had come to know several bronies and pegasisters across the years.
One such person he had come to meet was Jimmy Hook, an American chap from the east coast who had a large, slab like body and rippling biceps that enabled him to topple mountains (a cookie, or biscuit if you prefer, if you get that reference). He had been a rather quirky fellow with long hair and glasses (a rather unusual feature, the former was, for a man), and so he and Tom had struck it off pretty rapidly. He had heard rumours of a strange man who claimed to have been changed into many My Little Pony characters, but he brushed those off as false. After all, tales of fans and non fans being turned into characters from the show were a dime a dozen on sites like Fimfiction, Deviantart and Equestria Daily. Not a day passed without another person becoming Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, etc. So why would this be any different?
He came to realise how wrong he was one lonely night in California in the early summer of 2018, when he went on holiday with him and a mate of his, Troy Baker. Whilst there, at a sports game with a very rude woman, he had inexplicably and suddenly been changed into a perfect replica of Equestria Girls Rainbow Dash, complete with clothing, speed, and personality. A lucky escape had led to a mad few days in which the trio changed into many characters.
Since then, the friends had been on many myriad adventures, to several different places, and become many characters along the way. In fact, Tom had been keeping a careful list of how many there were to record, and this was how we find him on this dull morning in Nottingham, in his home which he called his own.
His journal was out in front of him, and he had many scribblings in it from journal articles he had been reading. He had been following a most strange case since the dawn of the year, and this confused him.
"Hello!" Katrina said, as she opened the door and put a coffee cup down for him, whilst placing one down for herself. Katrina was Tom's other American acquaintance, who was stranded in Britain due to Covid. "How's it going?"
"This case is most perplexing," Tom replied.
"Oh! The one with the artefacts!" Katrina smiled. "Interesting story, isn't it?"
"The first of the incidents occurred in February 2019," Tom began, "after Southwest Airlines Flight 405 crashed in the Mojave Desert near Bagdad, California, killing all onboard. Rescuers got to the crash site within minutes, followed by a tank column, but the rescuers reported seeing a pink winged horse dressed in stereotypical Egyptian clothing. They then fought off a giant purple cat thing that had appeared in a nearby pyramid."
"Sounds like a riveting adventure story," Katrina said, as they turned to a new page. "Who made that up?"
"It's not made up," Tom replied. "The entire incident was captured on film, and I got this pict capture of the creature itself. Compare this," he said, as he brought up another image, this time of Somnambula, "to this."
"It's an exact match!" Katrina said. "Now, I wonder who Somnambula was..."
"There were reports of a green object in the area," Tom continued. "And that's not all. In October the same year, an Amtrak service from Greensboro to New Orleans derailed in a swamp. No casualties, but one of the passengers vanished. Moments later, a blue horse dressed in stereotypical Cajun clothing was seen walking away into the swamp, and it was sighted several times throughout the next few weeks."
"Alcohol can do strange things to people," Katrina suggested. "Just ask Mad Uncle Geoffrey!"
"How do you know of Mad Uncle Geoffrey? He lives in Montgomery, Alabama!"
"Jimmy told me about him. Anyways, we have images of a strange bronze bracelet in the area, and we also have this sound recording, which I thought would interest you."
A series of loud stumbling noises could be heard as the recording started, followed by a strange voice which sounded oddly Southern. Then a man cursed, screamed a bit, and then the same Southern voice, before a trotting sound could be heard.
"That first voice was Jimmy," Katrina said.
"Indeed," Tom said, and then played a fragment of audio from an MLP episode. "And the Southern voice was Mage Meadowbrook."
"So, if I've got this straight, artefacts belonging to the Pillars have somehow landed in our world?"
"Or, they are the leftovers of an alternate set of Pillars who, instead of getting caught in limbo, were teleported to ours and died here, leaving the artefacts behind so that nobody would forget them. And this theory recently got some new evidence, thanks to an archeological find in China recently. They found a flower that they dated to the Liao period and had apparently been owned by a great sorceress. They also found a body embalmed nearby... of a unicorn."
"Wow," Katrina whispered. "All this time... I mean, we both know that Equestria is real and exists, but to think that our worlds have been connected for so long! It's a discovery that has the potential to change most of history should it ever be uncovered further!"
"They're doing a new dig somewhere in Scotland, and I recently bought some books from a local antiques shop, so you never know. Keep an eye out, or you may become Rockhoof!"
"I sincerely hope not," Katrina said. "I'm perfectly happy as I am... though changing into fictional characters at random moments does have its perks."
"It does indeed," Tom replied. "Well, I'll finish up here, then it's time for lunch."
Once Katrina had left the room, Tom started to look through the books. The book pile was big and heavy, and full of books (as you would expect). He looked at the first one. "A comprehensive guide to peas." Nonsense. He put it away, and looked at the next one. "The Myth of the Giant Fish; Moby Dick revisited." He shrugged. "I've already read that." He then looked at the next one. "Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music? Sounds worth it." He put that on the keep pile.
The last book in the pile was the one of greatest interest to him. It was a book with a blue cover, and that itself was decorated with an irregular hexagon on the front, with several swirls and several stars on the front within that. He blew the dust off of it, and flipped to another page.
"Hearg sylfum se Ponhenge, wir gingen weiter Toward dol grimlic of Fola Firgenbeorg user endemest scield." He blinked. "What language is this?"
Tom was somewhat weak when it came to foreign languages, so he had no idea what any of that meant. He turned to another page. "Das beste elements innerhalb uns kann Ausbreitung Licht und virtue, und ich kennt ponies Wer represent Sie alle." He sighed. "This feels like somebody mashed up German and old English. But wait, those words seem familiar."
He looked at the cover again. "This is the journal of Starswirl the Bearded! Further evidence for my theory!"
Suddenly, the book shocked him, and he was thrown backwards into a wall. "Ouch! I say, what a mess. This chair was mosty poorly placed. It does my back in so-"
He stopped. That wasn't his usual tone. He now sounded old, wizened, even perhaps a little gruff. "What is this?"
He got a clue as he suddenly shrank straight through his clothes, getting smaller and smaller as this happened, until he was hidden within them. His entire body was suddenly covered in a layer of grey fur, with the bottoms of his hands being a darker shade of grey than the rest of his bodily fur. He looked rather like a yeti.
He freed himself from his clothing just in time, as his hands glowed with white energy and morphed into a pair of hooves. Keen to continue work on his former arms, his elbows snapped and inverted to the reverse position, suitable for a horse to walk.
"Ouch! Good heavens, this is awkward."
His legs sprung him upwards into a bipedal stance, still covered in fur, and his neck grew upwards and clicked backwards, so he was now looking straight ahead. His hair, once brown, dropped down his head and turned to varying shades of grey and white, soon meshing with his stretched face created from his nose and mouth merging into a muzzle (not to mention his eyes turned from brown to blue). From the front of his face, a moustache dropped down under his nostrils, followed by a beard underneath that. Both were white and grey, soon joined by a white and grey tail. His head soon gained a horn, followed by his ears sliding up his head and growing taller, like giant radar dishes.
On the topic of changes, his feet morphed into hooves and his legs snapped backwards.
"Seriously, does this delight in causing one such discomfort?"
The final stage was underway, and a blue cloak floated into place over his back and sides, covered in bells and coloured two shades of blue, with yellow stars and a single crescent moon atop that, held in place with a purple clasp. Then, a hat floated into place whilst leaving space for his ears with the same colours, patterns and bells, completing the process.
Starswirl stepped over to the book. "Whomever last looked after this did little to control the magic filters on this," he said, flicking through the text. "Ah, excellent. The text is undamaged, which is perfect."
The door suddenly opened, and there was Katrina, looking in confusion. But when she spoke, Starswirl struggled to understand her.