//------------------------------// // 48: Alternative 4 by The Quiet Man // Story: Xenophilia: Shotglass Oneshots // by TheQuietMan //------------------------------// Alternative 4 by The Quiet Man An alternative ending to XFT's Just gonna have to be a different man. ******************** As the haze slowly started to clear around her, years of training kicked in and Rainbow quickly moved to do what a Search & Rescue pony does does best; she took stock of the situation so she could best help the affected. “Hey, everypony!” She called into the smoke, the smell of ozone mixed with rotten eggs and burnt sugar making her nose twitch. “Give me a shout here, I need to know who’s still conscious.” Flaring her wings she gave a them a mighty flap, pushing the smoke in the immediate area away from her and towards the edges of the room. Her first priority was to locate everypony and then figure out if any of them needed medical attention. “Twi, is that you?” Twilight staggered out of the smoke, her horn blackened and smouldering around the tip. Much of her fringe was burnt away and the rest of her mane was heavily singed around the edges. “I’m here. Got the biggest headache of my life though and the ringing in my ears is... Sweetie!” The unicorn cast about the room anxiously. “Where’s Sweetie?” From the other side of the room Lyra’s disembodied voice floated through the fog “She’s down here.” A mint green head poked up from behind a lightly smoking sofa before ducking back down again just to reappear seconds later with a giggling foal in her teeth. The youngster seemed to think the whole thing was a splendid game and could she have another go? Twilight breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the sight of the wriggling child. “Phew, ok, so four down, where’s the other two?” Alternating between calling for the princess and for the last member of herd Bellaphon, the three adults were unspeakably glad to hear Lero’s voice from the far end of the room. “I’m over here. Back to being human and I still seem to have all my bits attached as well which is good.” The biped pulled open one of the apartment windows, letting the smoke start to billow its way out of the room. As the air started to clear around him they could see that his normally smooth pink skin appeared to be rippling, stripes of short brown fur weaving their way over his body, though he had somehow managed to keep his towel in place. After a scant few seconds the furry markings dissipated in much the same way as when a transformation spell would wear off his annoyingly magic-resistant body, leaving just his tanned skin with a swath of paler pink across his chest where he usually wore a shirt. Suddenly there was a cough and then Princess Luna’s voice came from another part of the room, behind an overturned table where the force of the magical explosion had thrown her after Twi had tried her best to aim the explosion away from her human herdmate, accidentally catching the princess of the night in the blast instead. “Even for a pony of my power, being on the receiving end of a magical detonation of such power is... disorienting” She complained. “I believe next time, the deployment of some kind of magical armour may be a wise precaution” Expecting the alicorn to shake herself off and make herself known, the others started to become concerned when all that came from behind the toppled table for the next few seconds were a series of thumps and a distinctly un-regal growl of frustration, followed by the distinct noise of a table leg being snapped. “Oh dear. It would appear that I am experiencing some difficulty in extricating myself from your dining table.” Luna’s voice had more than just a touch of annoyance to it. Seconds later the terse tone was replaced with the full power of the Royal Canterlot Voice as she cried  “QUID FACTUM EST CRURA MEA?” With ears still ringing, Lero quickly pulled the table away to expose a very confused lunar princess who was flailing her limbs around in an especially unladylike fashion as she attempted to stand. As she wriggled and writhed, furry stripes of jet black moved across her body, fading away much like Lero’s had moments before to leave behind nothing but skin of a light tan colour, much like coffee with plenty of milk. Pushing her forelimbs out in front of her the princess could see that her forehooves had been replaced with hands sporting long slender fingers, much slimmer than those of her human friend. Light blue eyebrows reached for the heavens as her - still striking cyan, though much smaller than before - eyes took in the sight of these weird alien appendages at the ends of her arms, flexing and curling at her every command. Looking down she could see the rest of her body was slightly darker than Lero’s tanned parts, though she was much slimmer that he was and for some reason she seemed to have these two rather large mounds right on her chest where the human’s nipples were. The ends of her long mane fell lifelessly over her shoulders and across these... bouncy mounds, the strands of light blue hair showing no sign of moving in the ethereal winds, much as it had when she had first been freed from the corruption of Nightmare Moon. Moving her eyes further down she could see a flat stomach, then a small patch of light blue fur followed by a pair of long, curvy legs. Looking up to find her three startled ponies, with an exuberantly grinning child and a gob-smacked human all staring back at her, her features contorted into an expression that, what with her great age and experience, she had found very little call for in recent years. “QUID COITIO?” cried the very suprised new human. ------------------------- Lero just stood, slack jawed and staring. A twitching under his towel wordlessly communicating exactly what the rest of his body was trying to say even though both his mouth and his brain appeared to have clocked off for the day. “My god!” He finally stuttered. “Hot princess booty is HOT!”