//------------------------------//
// Sci-Twi 
// Story: Costume Catastrophe 
// by PrincessEnchanteDream 
//------------------------------//

Flurry Heart giggled as her Aunt Twilight chased her around the house.

"Gotcha," Twilight Sparkle said triumphantly as she scooped up Flurry without missing a beat.

Flurry laughed and snuggled into her aunt.

Oh, how she adored spending time with her lovable niece. Sure, hanging out with the girls every once in a while was fun, but it's not everyday Cadance and Shining Armor ask you to babysit Flurry while they're away doing something important. Originally, she was going to go with her friends for the day trip, but she had to cancel it when Cadance had called her in an hurry. Not that she minded. Not at all.

Twilight checked her watch. Her friends should've probably reached home by now.

She was suddenly startled when a shriek rang out. Flurry whimpered and clutched her tighter.

Twilight held her comfortingly. "Don't worry Flurry, your aunt Twily will keep you safe." She then walked over to the other side of the room and placed Flurry on the sofa, so that she could inspect what was going on.

She was, however spooked by the strange golden-blue light sparks flying around.

"EEEEEKKK!!!" Twilight shrieked and braced for whatever was about to come at her.

Twilight, oddly enough, didn't really feel anything when the ball of light hit her. True, there was a brief, mild sensation of discomfort and a slight electrical surge, when one has been agonizingly changed into a monstrous demonic creature by dark, corrupted magic, any other impact feels minor and insignificant in comparison. She still had a job to do, though. Cadence was relying on her to ensure that Flurry Heart was OK.

She made her way to where Flurry Heart was, namely on the other side of the same room. As she walked, she could've sworn something weird was happening with the other wall. Namely, there was a painting which was about level with the tops of her eyes, only it seemed to be lower than normal.

She stopped momentarily to check if anything was lodged in her shoes. The only problem was that it wasn't her shoes anymore. In place of her normal dark blue shoes with mid range heels were a pair of golden heels. The angle on the heel was ridiculously steep, and was what had caused the apparent drop in height of the painting.

"Is this some sort of magic?" Twilight asked herself, looking down. Most people would probably be screaming their heads off in surprise if this sort of thing happened to them. Twilight, however, was of a scientific mind. This meant that she was instead fascinated, and felt obliged to make notes of what was happening.

She fished out her phone and set it to record her feet, certain this wasn't the end of it.

Alas, it was not. As she pointed the camera at her feet, she saw the pockets on her skirt begin to sink into the fabric, melting away as if they had never been there. "Oh, this is getting a bit weird."

It was about to get weirder. The skirt, which was normally purple, turned a golden color, the start symbols fading away and vanishing. Lines moved down from the waistband to the hem to separate the skirt into bands. Then it began growing. The fabric began to creak slightly as it grew longer. The fabric flowed over her knees, down past her ankles and completely covered over her feet, making it impossible for her to see them.

"OK, my skirt just grew in length. Not something you see every day!"

Twilight shivered as a band attached itself around her waist, underneath her shirt. This band suddenly sprouted vertical metal strands that raced down underneath the skirt and reached the floor. The bands were soon criss crossed with other bands that ran horizontally across the body of the frame, and the bottom was formed together into one other band. This caused the outer skirt to seem lumpy and disjointed.

There was a distinct rustling noise as Twilight could see (and briefly feel) several sets of petticoats growing underneath the skirt but atop the frame. They flowed downwards and to the floor, giving the skirt more volume.

Then, with a creak, the metal frame began to inflate. The skirt spread across the floor, rustling and stretching as it did so. Twilight still tried to calmly document what was happening. "Skirt is inflating and widening at a rapid rate. Fabric appears to be physically growing rather than stretching out. It's also a bit heavy too!"

It soon became apparent that the room Twilight was in had not been furnished with such wide skirts in mind. As it surged past 4 feet, based on Twilight's calculations, it began bumping into things and pushing furniture around. Twilight stepped about to try and mitigate the effect, but breathed an audible sigh of relief as the skirt began to slow down, and stopped growing altogether at six feet.

The fabric on the bottom of her shirt suddenly leaped down and attached itself to the outer skirt, before losing its purple lines and turning gold like the skirt. "My shirt seems to have become a bodice- OW! Seriously, why does this need a corset?"

As she glanced from side to side, she saw her sleeves suddenly start to deflate. They grew smaller and smaller, until the fabric faded into nothingness, and the remaining fabric fell to the side and formed two loops around her shoulders. Her collar shrank back, the bow tie vanished, and the neckline on the shirt dropped until it reached her lower chest, stopping just above her breasts. The fabric loops were now linked into that.

Her hair was then pulled from her signature high ponytail and into a messy half-bun with golden ribbons. Finally, parts of the skirt bulged out as darker golden fabric was run around the bottom, held in place with golden pins. Her bodice turned a darker gold than the skirt, and a pair of evening gloves appeared on her arms as the process seemed to end.

Twilight looked at herself in fascination. "I've never seen anything that can do this before!"

Flurry Heart was aware of Twilight's sudden change, and giggled. "Pwincess!" she said, in between copious quantities of childish garble.

Twilight tried to walk over, but her skirt kept bumping into things and swaying about. "This is ridiculous! This may look nice, but it's really impractical!"

She was just able to get to Flurry and pick her up before the doorbell rang. "Ah! That must be Cadence," Twilight said. She went to the door, forgetting her strange attire, before opening the door.

"Fluttershy?!" she exclaimed. "Why do you look like that?"

"I could ask you the same," Fluttershy replied. "This has happened to Pinkie too!"

Twilight put Flurry Heart down, and raised a hand to her chin. "Perhaps the incantation is unsound," she said. "The fulton particles in the fluoride array have been sometimes perpendicular, but I have never seen them perform complete molecular and atomic reassembly before! THIS IS SO EXCITING!"

Fluttershy blinked. "I don't mean to sound rude, Twilight, but I have no idea what you just said."

"Perhaps the incan-"

"What did you mean?"

"Oh." Twilight blinked. "What it means is that the magic may be wonky. Apologies. Sometimes it's hard to shake my hipopotomonstrosesquipidaliophilia!"

"Never mind hippos!" Fluttershy said. "We need to find a solution to this."

Moments later, a car pulled up on the drive.