//------------------------------//
// High Winds and Misty Fly 
// Story: Costume Catastrophe 
// by PrincessEnchanteDream 
//------------------------------//

High Winds had been minding her own business when the incident had occurred. Although there had been an intense blast of bright light, 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. "What's that noise? I have no idea what could be making it. This day is starting to be a bit strange."

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?"

blue and silver 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, High Winds 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 High Winds set up and ready for the ball. Just two problems. There was no ball (of the dancing type), and High Winds was not at all familiar with how to move in these sorts of things, despite having secretly wanted to wear one since she was little.

The skirt was not as big as it could have been, but it was still far larger than High Winds 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 distinct silvery shade until about two thirds of the way up the skirt, when it abruptly transitioned to a dark blue shade. The skirt and bodice were 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. Instead of panicking about it, High Winds decided that the best course of action would be to locate her friends and see if they were also afflicted by this problem. So, quickly picking up her skirts to avoid tripping on them, she started to make her way across the field. She felt like Cinderella running away from the ball, albeit it was the wrong time of day entirely for that!

As she went along, she ran into Blaze. Literally. She came to a stop in time, but her dress had its own momentum and swung forward, colliding with Blaze's. Thankfully, no harm was done, but the two girls looked very confused.

"Sorry!" High Winds called. "I didn't mean to play bumper skirts, but this isn't easy to move in!"

"You tell me," Blaze replied, before her face turned to a frown, then looked down at her dress, then back to High Winds. "Hold on a minute..."

"Yes?" High Winds asked.

Blaze was silent for a few more seconds before replying. "Our dresses are the same design, just different colours. Mine's a pinkish silver, and yours is blue and silver. But the design, shoulder setup, skirt width, those are all exactly the same."

"Maybe it's just a popular design!" High Winds replied, doing a quick twirl. "This is fun! Although soccer practice was the last place I was expecting to wear one of these."

"Suit yourself. The sooner I'm out of this, the better." Both girls set off on their way to Spitfire, who seemed to want to speak to them.

Although Blaze might've......had.....just.....a little problem.





Meanwhile, Misty Fly had been practicing shot runs with Thunderlane when it had happened. Truth be told, she hadn't even noticed it until Thunderlane had pointed out the strange lights in the air. That had left her worried and confused, two emotions she normally didn't feel. The team considered her the radar of the unit, as she always seemed to know exactly where all the players on the pitch were and where the ball was with almost supernatural precision. Nobody knew how she did it, but anyways, she definitely knew what was going on when the strange energy hit her.

"Ouch!" Unlike most cases, the energy pulse not only knocked into her, but maintained the momentum, sending her flying into a tree and causing her to land on her back. "Well, that's gonna leave a mark. Hopefully this won't throw anything out again."

She sat up and got up, both of which are critical to resuming forward perambulation, when she began to notice something odd. "Hang on, something weird's happened to my clothes."

And it was. Her shirt appeared to be fading, rather like what happens when you set the washing machine incorrectly and it drains all the colour out. And this seemed to be happening. The blue and cream colours slowly faded away until the shirt was a flat white. Frankly, Misty Fly could do with a flat white right now to counteract all the craziness going on.

The top of the shirt started to unravel, the seams unthreading and the fabric slowly coming apart to expose the bare skin underneath. Misty Fly rubbed her eyes in surprise and shock. "This can't be happening."

But it was. Her shoulders and entire collar were gone, and the sleeves were already melting and sliding down her arms. The fabric continued to drop down, eventually stopping right above her breasts and forming a curve along them. The sleeves had now terminated in line with them, and had puffed up considerably, although still forming two small loops rather than the life ring shape you sometimes see on these sorts of clothes.

The white material had softened considerably from the hard worn feel of a sports' shirt, feeling more like a formal dress, and her front had also become adorned with lace. There was only one type of dress which had that, and Misty Fly knew that from accidentally coming across her mother's wedding dress whilst sorting the attic for junk they could sell. "Oh no."

It was about to get worse for her. The legs of her shorts also went through the same fading process as her former shirt had done, their former blue and cream shifting to white, and the shorts then grew upwards to merge into her shirt, turning that into a blouse of sorts.

The legs of the shorts then merged together, creating a skirt, which then dropped down over her knees and boots to the floor. Misty Fly couldn't see it, but she could feel her feet getting squished as her once roomy boots changed to a pair of heels, and her socks vanished so she could feel whatever material it was against her feet. Whatever it was it was very cold.

Another cold thing then brushed down her legs and stopped at the floor also, underneath her skirt. Some more things then flowed down the top of that, pushing the outer skirt out slightly.

What happened next went totally against the flow of what had previously happened. The entire skirt expanded in all directions, but slid sideways rather than pushing outwards, sliding out a bit to produce the top of a dome shape. It then poofed outwards in a spectacular burst of energy, covering several feet of the ground in fabric and skirts. It expanded so rapidly Misty Fly had to cover her eyes to protect them from the sudden white glare produced.

Flower patterns appeared all over the skirt and bodice as it flew outwards, eventually stopping after having consumed about five feet of space, which made moving not easy for a girl who hated dresses.

Misty Fly growled at her new attire. "Stupid thing," she said. "It's a wedding dress!"

"Hey Misty, looking good!" called a voice. She turned around to see Thunderlane, attired in a purple suit that looked like it had been borrowed from the personal collection of Elvis Presley.

"Shut up," Misty Fly snarled. "I hate dresses, especially these ones!"

"Wedding dress, from the look of it," Thunderlane continued. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"Shut. Up. I see you look stupid too."

"That I do," Thunderlane conceded. "I wonder what caused this?"

"Same," Misty Fly said. "I'm going to find who or what caused it, and give them a piece of my mind and hope they have the appetite!"

"Seems the others were affected too," Thunderlane said, pointing to the other girls and boys of the Wonderbolts running about in silly suits and fancy frocks.

"We should probably meet with Spitfire to discuss a course of action," Misty Fly noted, her level headed mode temporarily subduing her frustration and anger. "And hopefully change out of these whilst we're at it!"

"Not in public!" Thunderlane exclaimed.

"That's rather obvious, you fool!"

Without another word, the duo set off for the group huddle.