//------------------------------// // Adding some Foreground // Story: Stroke of a Digital Brush // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// The van was silent for the most part as we drove down the old East US 40, and I hoped that it would stay that way. It was going to be a long drive over to Chicago, and I don’t think I’d be able to hold in any agitation from Emi’s antics if they were as consistent as they normally are. The sky slowly turning dark as night washed over us didn’t really help with that either, considering how wound tight my nerves were right now. Thankfully, Emi was content with braiding her new tail while humming to herself, and I tried my best to focus on driving and staying awake. Unfortunately, my thoughts seemed intent on focusing on what was happening to Crystina and Damien. I was not entirely sure what kind of pony Crystina was changing into. Sure I knew it was a pony thanks to seeing her tail, but that was the only feature she had the last time I saw her, and she undoubtedly had yet another part of her changed. With how freaked out she was, I was really worried about how she was taking everything. Damien was an even larger wild card. He was a pretty open guy about ponies, but that doesn’t mean that once he found out that he was changing, that he would be relatively sane still. I just know his eyes turned blue, and that could lead to just about anything when it comes to whatever he’s turning into from MLP. Maybe he’s a minotaur? At least that way when you grow hooves someone can drive, and punch people! As much as I want to punch you brain, that’s a valid point. But only IF I grow hooves! I’ll be damned if I don’t find a way to fix this before then. That’s implying there is a way to fix this and we’ll be able to figure out what caused this in the first place. I shook my head and glanced at the radio, mulling over whether or not to turn it on. “May as well.” I flicked it on and sighed a bit as the music started to ebb away at my thoughts enough to distract me from my own traitorous brain, but let me still focus on driving. At least, until Emi started singing along. “-but somewhere in the rush I felt. We’re losing ourselves! And the days go by! I can feel them flyin’ like a hand out the window in the wind~” Curse you Keith Urban and your strangely fitting lyrics. A sigh escaped me as I kept driving, going over the bridge that crossed the Solomon River. I was going to be insane by the end of this trip if the world around me kept this up. As her friends gathered in Twilight’s library, the lavender mare paced around the bust that adorned the center. “But Spike, The Princesses normally would have a response by now! Especially if whatever I felt has anything to do with Pinkie’s doozy.” Spike sat on the couch watching her walk in the same circle she had been for at least an hour now. “We sent the letter less than five minutes ago Twilight.” Pinkie started to bounce just behind Twilight as she paced. “Yeah Twilight! It takes a bit for somepony to write a letter.” She hopped off to the side and looked down at Twilight. “Nice trench! When’d ya get it?” Twilight finally snapped out of her worried pacing and noticed the two foot deep groove in the floor before smiling sheepishly and climbing out. “Heh heh heh.... sorry. I guess this has me a little more stressed than I thought.” A wave of her horn and the floor shimmered and bubbled back up to where it was meant to be. “TWITCHY TAIL!” Pinkie shouted before diving under the center table, followed shortly by Spike. Twilight looked around frantically at everything that had the possibility of falling, before sighing in relief. “Nothing in here’s falling... I think we’re-” She was interrupted when a small wooden frame fell from above and hit her in the head. “OW!” She looked up at the bare ceiling and rubbed her head. “What in the world?” Pinkie popped out from under the table and picked up the frame. “Oh~ Fancy painting. Though I have no idea what this is.” Spike looked at the frame and his face scrunched in confusion. “I... have no idea what I’m looking at.” Twilight pulled the painting from the other two and looked at it herself. What she saw confused her a lot. It was a painting of two creatures she’d never seen before. The taller one had a near gold mane on it’s head and was laying against a tree, while the smaller one had long brown hair that was splayed over the larger one’s lap as it rested it’s head there. Both had clothes on their bodies, and smiles on their faces as they slept against the tree. One of the features of the painting that stood out though, was the single golden feather that laid on the ground at the base of the painting. “I... I don’t know what these are.” She squinted a bit and a spell later, there was a duplicate of the painting. “But I think we should send this to the Princesses. I’m not sure what it could be, but paintings don’t pop out of nowhere.” Solomon, Kansas. It was technically where I lived thanks to my house being just in the city limits thanks to some obscure mapping from ages ago, and it was where the Tech Center I attended was located. For me, it was a town of many memories. Moving here about eleven years ago, meeting Damien for the first time, and all the crap we caused in town. Ah, those were some good times. I don’t think that pizzaria ever let us in again after that jukebox incident. As I passed the sign saying we were entering the main city, Emi looked out the window at the night sky and frowned. “Hey Grent?” Curiously, I shot a glance over towards her. “Yeah Emi?” “You have any idea what Damien is turning into?” I shook my head as I turned into the residential district. “Not a clue. I’m hoping it’s a pony, but we’re about to find out if it isn’t.” After a few more minutes of driving, I parked the van in front of the condo that Damien lived in, if the address he sent me was correct anyways. It was a fairly nice looking place, and I could see why he was able to afford the lessons at the techcenter. He did tell us he got adopted ten years ago, but never mentioned anything like this. “Alright Emi, I’ll go and get Damien. You stay in the van, and don’t let anyone see you.” “Alright. I was getting-” Emi paused and let out a long yawn before blearily rubbing her eyes, “-sleepy anyways.” Emi gave me a quick nod before diving into the back seats. Though as she did, I could have sworn that her clothes looked a little baggier than before. Probably just my imagination. I looked back as she laid down on the seats. “In that case, I’ll come get you if it turns out to be Damien’s house. We’ll sleep over for the night.” “Alright big bro...” With that, I hopped out of the van and left Emi inside before locking the doors. As I walked over to the front door however, I heard someone from the side of the building. “Hey, Psst, Grent! Over here!” I looked over and saw a guy wearing a tattered brown hoodie and boxing gloves for some reason. Squinting a bit, I could sorta make out his face and I was surprised when I recognized him. “..... Damien? What the heck are you doing out here wearing boxing gloves?” To my confusion, he ran up to me and looked around in a panic. “Dude, I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to be getting out of here.” I shook my head and stopped him from going past me. “No... seriously, what is going on? I know that we’re changing and all that. Its effecting Emi and me too. What’s making you so pani-” Damien jumped as I heard something scuffling from down the alley he had come out of, followed by the sounds of talking as someone was walking closer. “Dude we seriously need to get the hell out of here. Like now.” As I ran to the driver side door, I looked at Damien in a mix of concern, confusion, and shock. “Just what the buck did you do?!” He ignored me and jumped into the passenger side of the van and ducked down. I looked over at the alley again and saw three guys stalk out, two of which were holding lead pipes. “Heeeeeere chicky chicky chicky~” “Come on ya little freak, where are ya?” The third one looked over my way and I recognized him instantly. He was the school bully, Conor O’Brian.  He especially hated guys like me and Damien, and was one of the many reasons I kept pony loving secret. I saw a large gash down the side of his face as he shouted at me. “Hey you!” I jumped a bit and pointed at myself, suddenly very grateful that I hadn’t had holes cut into my hoodie, and just into my shirt. “Yeah you! You see some guy in a brown hoodie run by?” “Er... uh...” I’m not sure why he didn’t recognize me, but I was thankful that he didn’t. Either way, he was chasing Damien and that was enough for me to lie about it. “I think I saw him run down that way.” I pointed towards an alleyway across the street, looking rather confused. “Thanks kid.” He looked over at the other two and pointed across the street. “Hey, the punk went this way! Come on!” I stood there for a moment and stared at them run off until they disappeared behind the alley walls. As soon as they were gone, I got into the van and glared at Damien. “Dude, just what the heck was that about!? You had Conor after you!” Damien cut me off with his shushing and waving. “Dude, I said I’d explain!” I reached over and locked the doors before looking over at him. “Well, you better get to it.” He hesitated for a moment before sighing and pulling off the boxing gloves. It was around then that I noticed how torn up they looked on the inside of the palm. But that was a paltry detail compared to how Damien’s hands looked. Instead of his old hands, he had large, incredibly sharp looking avian talons. “I.... I don’t know what’s going on anymore. When I saw my eyes were different, I panicked and started trying to find out what happened. Then I found the site, texted you. I thought I was turning into a pony, like my OC. On the way here my hands... they just shifted right in front of me. Then Conor and his toadies saw it happening too, and started taunting me and....” He looked at the gloves and tossed them out of the van’s window. “I... I ended up clawing him in the face when he got a little close. I’m not even sure why I did! I-It all just felt natural! I just felt so... angry.” Damien was silent after that, seeming lost in his own head. I stared at the talons and let a shuddering breath escape my lips. I turned back to the wheel and could feel my ears pressing down as I started the van. “Okay then... Not a pony and we have Conor after us now. Wonderful.” I started heading down some streets to get to the highway and a thought came to mind. It was a long shot, but hopefully all the bad luck I’ve been having would make karma go in my favor or something. “Hey, do you know where Crystina lives?” My question was enough to snap Damien from whatever self destructive thoughts he was in and make him look at me. “Crystina? Like the Crystina from our class? Why do you need to find her?” I was trying to focus on my driving while listening, but knowing that Damien was getting hunted down right now was making me nervous. Still though, I was able to answer his question. “Because the last time I saw her, she had a pony tail. And I don’t mean the kind that go in your hair. It’d be better if we found her first, rather than Conor finding us considering he’s still scouring the town for you.” “You have... a valid point.” Damien thought for a moment before sighing and putting a... claw over his face lightly. He ended up wincing and pulling it away a moment later, and I noticed a small set of pricks on this temple that were letting a small drops of blood out of his head. “Well... that’s just great.” He carefully pulled out his phone and used a knuckle to flick through his apps. “I’ll try and find out what her address is from her and my sister. One of them’s got to know if she won’t answer.” I nodded in agreement and we were silent for the most part. I drove, Damien texted Crystina in an attempt to.... ...Damien’s texting Crystina... He has her number numbnuts. Sorry dude, best bro beat ya too the hot chick. CELESTIA DAMN IT ALL TO TARTARUS FOR ETERNITY IN CHRYSALIS’S HAIRY-! Language young one. Watch it, you must. Screw. You. Brain. As my mental war continued, I was caught off guard as I heard Damien muttering to himself. “Come on sis... pick up...” The equivalent to trains screeching to a halt before the world imploded, was what my mind looked like as I tried to process those words. Wut? Wut? A small jingle came from his cell and he flicked through it a few times. “Yes! A reply!” Damien was carefully going through the message with his knuckle before he looked over at me. “She says that Crystina’s house is at 281 North Pine.” He blinked a few times and looked up. “Huh... so that’s why she always got to class on time. She’s practically next door.” I reached up to the console and grabbed the GPS before pulling over, trying to ignore the fact that Damien had Crystina’s freaking phone number and the whole sister bit I just heard. “Alright, I’ll plug it in real fast and we’ll be over to her place. Once we’ve got her, we can start heading to Chicago.” Thankfully, the drive over to Crystina’s was short. When I pulled over, Damien was about to get out when I reached over and grabbed his sleeve. “Oh no, you’re staying in the van.” He was about to protest when I pointed to the back seats where Emilia was sleeping. “I need someone in the van to keep Emi safe in case Conor shows up, and if I.... grow hooves, We’ll need someone out here who can drive.” Damien sighed a bit, but nodded and climbed over into the back to huddle down out of sight while I got out of the van. I glanced around and tightened my hood a bit before taking a deep breath. “It’s alright, just... heading to the house of the girl ya like to pick her up. No biggie.” Yeah, also keep completely ignoring the whole pony problem. THAT will make this all go swimmingly. I decided not to dignify my brain with a response, and started to walk to the front door. It was a simple matter, walking up the sidewalk, and was just about as easy as you would expect. What I didn’t expect, was for the door to swing open about halfway up to the porch and Crystina to step out with her head down. She looked... a lot different. Along with the tail I knew she had, her hair had changed to a long dull blue mane. Her skin was also incredibly lackluster, to the point it was almost rock like in appearance, yet still holding the flexibility it should. Wait... that’s three changes. Before I could ponder over the fact, or even look over myself, Crystina looked up and jumped when she noticed me. “G-Grent!? Wh-what are you doing here?” I will admit that I jumped and stumbled a bit at first, but then again, this was kinda awkward. “Well uh.... You never texted back and I uh, found out something about what’s going on.” I rubbed the back of my head and scuffed my foot on the ground. “You... need a ride to Chicago?” She froze for a moment before looking back at her house and sighing. “Anywhere, really.” Before I could ask further, she walked past me and towards the van. I was rooted in place as I looked between her and her house, wondering just what had happened. Ask her later, right now doesn’t seem like a good time. Agreed. Running to catch up with Crystina, I arrived at the van just as she opened the door. “Hey,” She looked over at me and I gave her a small smile. “Once we get to Chicago, we’ll find out how to fix this. Everything’s going to be fine, alright?” The look in her eyes was all I needed to know that she didn’t believe me. She climbed to the farthest back seat and I could only sigh before putting my attention on Emi. “Hey, Emi?” She groggily woke up and looked over at me. “Bwuh? Are we heading inside?” It was around then that I noticed her hair had also turned to the same green as her tail, and that she was a bit smaller than she used to be. I shook my head and smiled at her. “No, no we’re not. Sorry Emi. Go ahead and get back to sleep. I’ll make sure to wake you up when we get to Chicago.” She let out a yawn and laid back down, her tail curling over herself. “Alright... Night big bro.” “Night Emi. Sleep tight.” As I got inside, Crystina looked at Emi for a moment, before her eyes darted over to me. “Yes, she’s involved too. And so’s Damien.” Said man gave her a wave as he climbed into the passenger seat. I noticed that his arms were starting to grow downy feathers on them from the mid forearm up, and the rest had morphed to match his talons. I took a glance at the mirror, noticing that I had some gold hairs going down the side of my head, and that my hair was turning a mix of silver and green. I looked at the van’s radio as I started the engine, seeing it marked at 12:00 dead. “Midnight...” I flicked on the GPS and sighed as I set it to the Chicago Convention Center. Those morons better have a way to fix all of this.