//------------------------------// // Fleetfoot and Blaze // Story: Costume Catastrophe // by PrincessEnchanteDream //------------------------------// Finally having a break after their rigorous practice session, Fleetfoot jogged over the locker room to freshen up. She sighed in relief as she sat down on one of the benches and took a gulp of much needed water. Fleetfoot then decided that she had enough rest and made her way towards the sports field. However, she knew something was wrong when she struggled to walk properly in her kit. She had taken some time off the pitch in order to recuperate (cold water often that affect, as she personally disliked energy drinks), but this was rapidly proving to be very odd. The strange flashing lights and confusing light nearby didn't help, and it didn't help her chest felt constrained. What was causing this? She had no allergies that she knew of, and she looked down to try and see the cause of the problem. The cause of the problem was immediately obvious; her shirt had turned red. This was not the only factor, however. The shirt had also tightened around her waist and was restricting her airflow, forming an almost thin look to her waist. Fleetfoot heaved air into her lungs as best she could, not used to stuff like this, and watched in dismay as her sleeves and shoulders unthreaded and turned into a soft, wispy, red fabric, more suitable for decorative curtains than sports kit. Her clothes, such as they were, were changing, and the remains of her shirt dropped down to her upper chestline, held in place there. A new set of shoulder fabric, the same, rich red as the remains of her shirt, formed in place, and the cloak thing attached into it. What came next caught Fleetfoot off guard. Her shorts suddenly shot downwards, and as they did so the legs merged into each other and formed a single skirt. As they were still moving downwards, she could feel something race past her legs and some other things rustling about on top of the something. The something was pretty cold, though. Eventually her now skirt reached the bottom and touched the floor, and the other things stopped getting longer with it. Her shorts also turned red and merged into her former shirt, which was now a... bodice? Was that the right word? Imagine her greater surprise when her skirt began to expand and inflate. The fabric, far from a slow, gradual stretching across the floor from one location to another a la Cinderella, simply exploded outwards like a heated object that had just been exposed to a vacuum. It surged outwards in all directions, fabric and layers flowing in all directions and surging to reach their biggest size as fast as possible. Nonstop growth went onward, the skirt pushing outwards into an A shape of sorts. The skirt was not skipping or tearing in any way, with the fabric seemingly growing rather than stretching. The front and sides stopped after a bit, but the back of the dress kept on growing, spilling further and further back into the field as the teen watched in dismay. "How am I supposed to walk in this?" Eventually, however, it stopped growing backwards and stopped, forming a very long train. Not only that, but the whispy cloak thing extended backwards to cover all of the train as well, as the skirt and bodice became filled with sequins and diamonds to make it glitter and glow in the dark and the light. Fleetfoot was about to comment on what she was wearing, not noticing her boots had changed into heels in the meantime, when Surprise ran over, hauling a similarly heavy dress over to her location. "Hey Flatfoot!" she called. "Nice dress!" "Err, thanks?" Fleetfoot replied. "I'm not too sure myself. I mean, how do I walk in this thing without falling over?" "Lean slightly forward and lift the front of the skirt up with your hand if that helps." Surprise's advise was surprisingly accurate. Fleetfoot tried it out, and found it helped immensely. In fact, moving in such a huge skirt was easier than she anticipated. "So, how do you know how to move in these? This is a lot lighter than I was expecting." "I wore one to the Fall Formal one year," Surprise replied. "Nobody saw that coming!" "Otherwise you wouldn't be called surprise!" Fleetfoot laughed. "Err, guys? A little help here!" Both Surprise and Fleetfoot saw their friend, Blaze, wedged in place by her dress. Both of them sped over to help. 'Sped' being something of an operative word in the circumstances. Blaze meanwhile, was experiencing a weird day. On her way to the locker room, she had briefly stopped to tie her shoelaces, which had come undone, and looked up when a strange scream echoed throughout the air. Bright blasts of yellow and blue magic followed, and one such intense ball came rushing towards her, and pushed her headfirst into a nearby tree. Blaze groaned and rubbed her head as she stood up, her vision blurry and her joints in pain. "What... wass... that?" she asked, with slightly slurred speech as a consequence of whacking into a tree. She had no idea what had just happened. One moment the day had been pretty normal. Spitfire had sent them all off to do individual practice before they came back together for a practice match, all in preparation for them to take on the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts. This seemed to have been going normally so far, but that scream and the strange force that had hurled her into this tree had certainly done a number on her ability to focus. Not only that, it seemed as though the wind was somehow picking up despite it being a perfectly clear day. "No clouds, no obvious source of wind... this is a weird day." Blaze continued to make her way across the field, looking for her friends. The windy noise was picking up, and furthermore seemed to be following her. She stopped when she noticed light energy flying through the sky alongside vast reams of golden blue particles dancing across the skies. Then the energy began to circulate around her. "Huh?" Pinkish gold light surrounded her, floating round and round in a circle like a velociraptor circling its prey. It whirled round and round, cutting off her only routes of escape. It flowed in closer and closer like a snake, and as it did so her clothes began to change. Her shorts were where it began, naturally enough. Their former cream and blue colour faded from existence and was quickly replaced by a dull grey colour, almost the sort that made it look like she was standing in a black and white photograph taken in the days before people could afford colour. The legs of these shorts then merged into one and formed a skirt, wildly inappropriate for playing sport. This was not the worst bit, however. Neither was the next bit. The sleeves on her shirt stayed in roughly the same place, but the neckline dropped slightly to nearer her collarbones, and the bottom of the shirt merged into the skirt before turning the same dull grey colour, which also looked quite dull in shade. Moments later, the energies finally caught up as her boots morphed into a pair of heels, quite inappropriate for running. The outer layers and most of the fabric faded and melted away, reducing them so she could see her feet, although not for much longer as her skirt then began to grow, flowing down her legs until it covered over her feet. The only indication she had heels on was the compression she felt in her feet and her odd center of gravity. The aforementioned energies suddenly and dramatically flew inwards, and there was a blinding flash. In that moment, Blaze felt quite a lot of weight get added to her hips, and although the bright light was making it incredibly hard to see, she could have sworn she saw a metal frame or cage somewhere in the mix as the weight piled onwards, something very heavy now being focused onto her body. And with that, the light suddenly faded. Much like a Fairy Godmother, the magic had Blaze set up and ready for the ball. Just two problems. There was no ball (of the dancing type), and Blaze felt an idiot in the dress. The skirt was not as big as it could have been, but it was still far larger than Blaze was used to. It extended for several feet in all directions, sticking out in an A shape rather than the dome that was traditionally associated with this type of dress. Several layers of fabric helped keep the shape in order atop the metal, and the top layer was a shiny shade, almost a shiny light pink. The skirt was also covered in embroidery designed to look like flowers and patterns from nature, an image alluded to by the way the skirt curled in and out like petals on a flower. The bodice wasn't much better. It was tight on her, and although she had the inner dress on to prevent rubbing, her shoulders felt bare and naked without much fabric on them. Didn't help that the outer loops of fabric sat atop her arms rather than her shoulders. More of those flower patterns covered it, and Blaze sighed. "Well, can't practice in this. About as much use as a chocolate teapot when it comes to playing soccer." On the way to Spitfire, she briefly met and chatted with High Winds. High Winds went and Blaze was about to follow her, when something stopped her. She frowned and looked down, feeling something off. "Oh no." To her dismay, her skirts had gotten all tangled up in the thorny bushes. She groaned. Luckily, Blaze spotted Fleetfoot and Surprise at a distance not to far from her, both clad in fancy evening gowns, one a deep crimson red and the other a soft snow white. "Err, guys? A little help here!" she called. Fleetfoot and Surprise turned towards her, and upon seeing her predicament, hurried over to her as fast as they could given in their current situation.