Let it be known for centuries onward, that walking on two hooves rather than four, or as an average person’s definition of normality might dictate, two feet, is akin to chinese water torture of the most extreme degree when deprived of a stable support. It’s worse when you’re pants are now longer than your legs and the only saving grace that is keeping them from falling of my now equine rear, sans tail, was the belt that was conveniently already being worn. It was thanks to this that Crystina, whose pants were somehow staying up without a belt, as well as I were both stumbling like mad as we started to attempt a mad dash for the elevator to get back to our floor in order to check on the others. The other reason was, in my mind at least, that our changes could lead to possibly one other thing as well. If we had changed again, then the same could halve happened to Damien and Emi. Factoring in Emi’s accelerated changing rate, and my mind was already tacking on “to possibly worse degrees” at the end of that first conclusion. Just thinking of how I was failing to find a solution to this pony nonsense was making me frustrated beyond all belief.
What didn’t help my mood in any way, was the fact I was still constantly tripping over my own limbs. “Gah! Stupid... HOOVES!”
Crystina helped me stand upright again, even as she herself wobbled a bit. “Grent, please calm down. It’s hard enough walking without you freaking out.” A glance behind her made Crystina wince a bit and her ears to fold to her head. “That, and we’re causing a scene.”
A frustrated sigh escaped me as we started to finally get close enough to the elevator to at least hit the call button. “I’m sorry Crystina, but I am not going to be calm until we’ve checked on-” Before I could press the button, the elevator door opened up and we both jumped as a tomato red antro filly skipped out cheerily with her eyes closed. “Emi!?”
Emi stopped skipping mid-air, making my eye twitch as she slowly hovered back to the ground in blatant defiance of physics, and looked over her shoulder curiously before giving us both a wide smile. “Good morning Grent!” Emi beamed as she spun in place with a wave. “Ooooh, Nice new legs.” She reached behind herself and pulled out a small notepad, marking something off before putting it away. “Now I don’t have to buy you solid gold pants!”
I looked at her in confusion for a moment before shaking my head. “Emi this isn’t the time for jokes. With how fast you’re changing and... somehow defying physics, we don’t have long to find a way to fix this.”
Emi giggled and pulled something out from her coat. “Then I think you might want this!~”
A glance at the device made me blink in confusion before I reached down and snatched it out of her hands. “How the heck did you get my phone!?”
“Magic.” She replied with a smug smirk. “That, and you left it on the dresser in the hotel room. You really should keep better track of your stuff bro.”
Rolling my eyes and looking at the device I saw that she’d opened the internet browser and went to the convention’s website. A quick skimming of the article made my eyes squint in confusion. “Help wanted?”
Those two words made me read the whole article more. From what I could tell, thanks to the short notice and the convention center’s head honcho’s son being involved in the globally massive transformation madness, there was a volunteer drive going to help set up the entire thing. The one word I could think of when I looked at the amount of volunteers so far was “massive”. If this didn’t get the convention rolling soon, I don’t know what will. For me though, it was like seeing a glimmer of light in a cave. The faster we got this problem fixed, the faster I could keep a possibly permanent transformation from happening to my sister.
I looked up from my phone and at Emi. “Is Damien up?” She cheerily nodded and gave me a salute. “Good. Let’s go get him and head for the van.”
As Emi giggled and bounced back into the elevator, Crystina looked at me curiously. “Where are we going?”
Standing a bit straighter, I smiled as confidently as I could. “We’ve got a convention to help set up.”
In Ponyville, the search that Twilight had started with her friends had come up nearly fruitless. Pony after pony told them that they hadn’t found anything odd, or misplaced, nor had they seen anything simply pop out of nowhere. Just as they were about to give up however, they had all found a mirror had shown up next to the painting from before, and was showing a mare and another partially changed creature talking. Before they could say more though, the conversation ended and the mirror shifted to a more normal state.
It took not but a scant moment before Twilight grabbed both in her magic and pulled them behind her as she descended down into her lab, where she now hovered over each item; horn ablaze as she looked over both for anything strange in the magical sense. As she did this, her friends off to the side again waiting patiently.... well, mostly anyways. Rainbow was beginning to look absolutely bored as Twilight studied the items. “How much longer is this going to take?”
The farm mare rolled her eyes and looked over at her flying companion. “Now be patient Rainbow. It takes time to-”
“I just don’t get it.”
Stopping short, Applejack turned to look at Twilight in surprise. She scratched the back of her head as she glanced at the others before she looked back at the lavender mare again. “Uh.... get what?”
Twilight backed away from the mirror and painting before walking over to her friends. Her confusion was plain as the muzzle on her face as she spared a glance back at the two items. “Both the mirror and painting have the same type of enchantment on them, but they’re doing two completely different things. In one case, the effect doesn’t even belong to that spell category!”
Rarity, and most of everyone else, cocked her head to the side. “Um.... could you care to explain a bit darling? How could they have the same spell and not be doing the same thing? I may not be a professional like you, but that’s just not how magic works.”
The frazzled librarian took a deep breath before she continued to explain. “Both items here have a specific form of scrying enchantment known as the Wandering Search Enchantment. It’s one that has been know to be customizable for various effects that can range on whatever the caster is attempting to accomplish to a limited degree. It is also known as one of the most complicated scrying spells ever written, and takes an immense amount of magic to even start, let alone completely finish.”
Rainbow perked up a bit and looked over. “Woah.”
Not seeming to hear the comment, Twilight continued her lecture/explanation. “The spell itself acts like a fishing line and attaches onto what the caster targets; be it pony, object, or spell.” Twilight levitated the mirror over to her right and pointed at it. “The mirror’s enchantment seems to be linked to a separate two way communications spell, and is acting like a bug; eavesdropping on the two users for us and letting us listen in on the conversation between the other two without us being noticed.” The librarian’s face fell a bit as she floated the painting over to her left and looked at it. “The painting though? It’s almost entirely one ended. It’s as if the caster placed several copies of the spell on it, and the spell is still trying to connect to the caster’s targets. The spells are active, but it’s like there’s nothing for the spell to connect to. I suspect that the mirror is also doing something similar from the traces of excess magic I found in it’s enchantment, but I can’t know for sure without the spell completing itself. And who knows what will happen then.”
Applejack whistled as she looked between the two floating objects. “That sounds mighty complicated there Twilight.”
“You have no idea Applejack.” Twilight shook her head as she looked back at the objects. “The sheer amount of magic needed to cast this spell even once, let alone repeatedly....It would be like trying to have the planet itself cast the spell.” The lavender mare looked over at her friends. “I’m going to see if I can find more about the spell. I think it’d be best if we didn’t all stay over here at once for too long. Ponyville tends to panic when we do.”
The others all nodded in agreement and waved Twilight goodbye, leaving the lavender mare to continue to examine the two mysterious objects.
After Emi went back to our floor, Crystina and I both waited back by the entrance of the hotel. It was just the two of us again for a few moments before Damien and Emi got downstairs. The sight of, well, the beak that he now sported made me start having a small, but thankfully manageable, panic attack. We all headed for the van as I explained on the way what we were planning on doing.
Damien was all for getting everything rolling. I didn’t really expect anything else from him. He always was the guy who would start working on something, be it drawing or physical labor, when he needed to occupy his mind. Emi was glad just to be on the move again, wanting to spread her “adorableness” everywhere. Crystina was a little apprehensive about the whole idea. I’ll admit, I was too, but it wasn’t like we had any better ideas to go off of. All in all, I was just praying that helping this get set up would make an answer, a solution, something arrive faster. If nothing did... then how was I going to...
“We’re here guys.” I was snapped from my musings by Damien pulling up to the convention center.
Giving him a nod as I slowly got out, I turned to the girls as they themselves carefully climbed out of the passenger door. Crystina’s legs wobbled slightly due to the larger steps, and Emi was just that short now and was having trouble touching the ground when sitting on the van’s floor. It didn’t help that she brought her bag with her, but it wasn’t like we could just leave Cricket at the hotel. He’d pee on everything and brutally maul the pillows and anything else with fluff in them if we left him to his own devices.
I clapped my hands and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Alright, let’s head in and see what we can do. Hopefully there’ll be something that’ll help speed up this convention.”
When we got inside the building, we were greeted by the sight of several dozens of people, both changing and normal, rushing about with various items in their grasp. I looked over at Crystina and frowned a bit. “See anyone who looks in charge?”
She shook her head and sighed. “I can’t really tell. There’s just so many people here.”
Emi started tapping rapidly until she looked down at her hoof and frowned. “That’s weird. It wasn’t that tingly last time.” She just shrugged and kept looking around, Cricket joining her by sticking his head out of the bag and sniffing, before she perked up at something off to the side. “Hey! She looks important!”
Turning to find what Emi was pointing to, I saw a taller woman with a blonde ponytail in her hair looking at a clipboard while heading down one of the hallways. My ears perked up as I looked down at Emi with a smile. “Good work Emi! Come on guys!”
We started to rush through the crowds of people, trying our best not to run into anyone as we chased down the woman. We darted down three different hallways and up a flight of stairs before we finally caught up to her, and my legs were starting to feel like jelly.
That’s because you’re an out of shape string bean who's done nothing but play video games and eat ramen like the otaku he is, and despite the copious amounts of food and sodas you consume; have yet to gain any weight.
SILENCE I SAY! I know I’m scrawny dang it, there’s no need to rub it in.
Just get the lady’s attention so that we can end this nonsense. I don’t think I need to state my opinion of our situation again.
I shook my head clear of the thoughts and started to call out to the woman as she started heading through a glass skywalk that looked over the main room. “Excuse us!”
The woman stopped and looked up from her clipboard before turning to us. “Oh?”
I stumbled a bit, and was only caught by Crystina and Damien, when I got a good look of our possible head-of-affairs. She was.... well “blessed” might be putting it lightly. Seriously, this lady lucked out on the looks department of the genetics institute and didn’t seem to think anything of it or how it was making Damien stare.
Natural D20, all the way.
She could probably rock that shirt and make it completely true.
yep....
....
Okay, we’ve oggled enough. Get back to the task at hand.
Right. Let’s- wait a sec, did we just agree?
Shut up and get to work Thunderlane. You can stare at Crystina’s pair later if you somehow manage to gain the ability to woo her.
Buck you.
When we all started to get closer, a small frown crossed the woman’s face. One that momentarily shifted to surprise as she looked between the four of us, particularly at Emi before she directed her gaze at me. “Is there something I can assist you with? We’re quite busy at the moment, and I don’t have much time.”
I had to take a moment to catch my breath before I could respond. “Please give me a moment...” Clearing my throat, I straightened my posture and faced the woman. “Are you in charge?”
She shook her head and smiled politely. “Not exactly. Mr. Daven is the owner of this establishment and asked if I could overlook some of the procedures while he was away.” She offered a hand and I gave her a brief handshake. “Mrs. Fitzpatrick.”
“I’m Grent. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I looked at the others for a brief moment before continuing. “We were wanting to know if the help wanted advertisement we saw was still in effect. If there’s any way we can help, we’d gladly do so.”
The woman sighed before looking at her clipboard. “That makes you and just about every other person here.” She walked off to the side of the skywalk and motioned for us to look out the window. When I did, I could see just how many ponies were already here. The skywalk we were in was not where I thought it was. Instead, it was over a different, larger room that was packed almost to the brim with others who were changing, were simply there for support, or were already staff members. The one’s who were changed.... varied. Some had only a few alterations to themselves, while others were completely shifted from human to whatever fate had chosen. The sight of it all made my chest tighten, and I could feel Emi grabbing onto my pant leg. Cricket must have sensed her discomfort, and was whining as he rubbed her head from behind. despite this, Mrs. Fitzpatrick continued. “Ever since this fiasco was announced, people have been arriving at a constant rate. With how many showed up, we’ve been overstaffed and have even more volunteers showing up daily. But there’s just not enough room for everyone. You’d be lucky to get a hotel right now. Otherwise you’ll be sleeping here, in a vehicle, or on the streets.”
Emi looked up at me, her eyes wide and nervous as they bored into my own. “W-Well, it’s a good thing we already got a hotel room, huh?” The sight of Emi looking up to me right then... It was making my nerves wind even tighter than they already were. An unsteady chuckle escaped her as she looked back at the large group.
I cleared my throat; trying and failing to calm myself down. “Yeah.... lucky us.” Shaking my head, I looked back to Mrs. Fitzpatrick. “A-anyways. Would it be possible to get any information on the convention? We’re a little lost in the dark when it comes to anything right now, and we would greatly appreciate any information.”
Mrs. Fitzpatrick hummed as she looked over her clipboard. “Well... I could go and have a word with a colleague of mine, but I’m not sure where she is.”
Before I could even think of a way to respond, I felt Damien carefully put his talons on my shoulder. I glanced over and saw him looking at me in concern. “Hey, I can see how worked up you’re getting. Why don’t you and Emi start heading back to the van? Crystina and I will find out what we can here.”
Staring back for a moment, all I could think about was just how great of a friend Damien could be. A sigh left me and I slumped slightly before I glanced to Emi again. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Text me when you’re heading back.”
“Actually, um,” Crystina raised a hand and blushed some. “I was thinking of going with Grent back to the van.” She winced a bit and rubbed her leg. “All this walking is starting to get to me.”
We all glanced at her legs before looking to Emi, who looked back at us confused. “What? I feel just fine. Sure my pants are all baggy, but I’m getting around no problem.” A frown crossed her face as she shifted her shoulders. “Bag’s kinda heavy though.”
I just shook my head and started to walk away. “Let’s just get going.” Looking over my shoulder, I stopped for a moment. “See ya at the van.”
Damien nodded with a smirk on his beak. “Right.”
Crystina and Emi both started following me back to the van; my sister on my right, and Crystina on my left. As we headed back down the stairs, Crystina held onto my shoulder for support, while I grabbed the hand rail. Emi got down the stairs no problem and started waving at us. “Come on guys! We won’t get to the van at all if you keep going that slow. Cricket needs a potty break!” From inside the bag, the dog barked in confirmation.
“Emilia, please slow down.” Crystina slipped and caught herself by grabbing onto my arm, forcing me to grab the railing a bit harder to keep from getting dragged down. “It’s hard enough to walk on level ground at the moment, let alone stairs.”
She slumped forward with an exaggerated sigh and pouted at the foot of the stairs. “Fiiiiiine...”
We sighed in unison as Crystina and I got to the final few steps of the stairs. Those things were a nightmare going up, but even worse going down with these new legs. I shot Emi a small glare as we started picking up the pace and headed for the front of the building. “Emi, would you please calm down and be serious for once? This is a really big problem.”
Emi stopped in the middle of the hallway, almost running into someone in the process, and rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? I’ve reached Petting Zoo People levels of adorable furriness. Me and Cricket here could give somepony a heart attack with just our eyes! Our eyes bro!” She started looking past us as she grinned and rubbed her hands. “World domination, here I come.”
Crystina gave me a sideways glance as Emi kept pretending to be evil. I pinched the bridge of my muzzle and groaned. “Ignore her, she’s just acting goofy again.” Turning back to my sister as we both got off the last step, I frowned when one of my wings twitched. “Happy now?”
“Yep!” Emi started to giggle again as she ran ahead of us. “Let’s get back to the-” To me and Crystina’s surprise, Emi suddenly ran into the air itself, making a small oomph from the impact and falling backwards onto her flank. “Ow!” She started to rub her muzzle and glare ahead of her. “Hey what gives!?”
I shook my head in disbelief as I watched her try and push past whatever was in the way, only to scrape her hooves on the ground and remain in place. Just..... what the hay did I just see? Running into the air like that shouldn’t even be physically possible. I started to walk over to where Emi was, if only to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. “What in the-” Before I could finish the thought, I stumbled forward as my vision blurred, tripping and landing on my face. The sound of Crystina falling back made my head twist around as I pushed myself up again. My jaw dropped at the sight of her shrinking slightly and her arms coating themselves in emerald fur.
From behind me, I heard what sounded like a small bell. “Uh.... G-Grent?” My head whipped back to Emi, and I froze.
Where my sister once stood, was a small, tomato red filly partially buried in loose clothes and a backpack. A tomato red filly that was currently surrounded by a nearly opaque, sickly yellow bubble that was humming ominously, and was staring at me with fearful eyes that were bordering on panic. “Bro, what’s going on? Get me out of this thing it’s freaking me out!” Cricket had jumped out of her bag and was starting to bark at the barrier, his ears folded back and growling as he circled around Emi protectively.
“EMI!” I scrambled over to the bubble and pressed my hands against it, trying to force my way in. On the other side, Emi was rearing up and putting her forehooves where my hands were. Others who were nearby were starting to notice and were getting closer. “Come on....” I gave the yellowish wall a solid punch, only to pull my arm back from a sudden jolt. “Gah! What in Tartarus is this thing!?”
Other people were starting to crowd around and watch. I wasn’t focusing on them though. I just kept hitting whatever this was, trying to break through to get to my sister. Crystina was trying to get someone to help, and a few started to also take swings at the bubble. One guy even hit it with a board and only managed to make it splinter into oblivion. Not even this guy who was turning into a dragon could break it.
Emi’s breathing was starting to get heavier as she looked around herself. “I don’t care what it is, get me out of it!” The humming started to get louder and Cricket stopped barking altogether, choosing to whimper instead as he pressed himself next to Emi. Crystina had come over and started to try and pull me back. Was it just me, or did this thing get brighter?
The others were backing away as well, and Crystina managed to pull me back a bit, only for me to shrug off her grip and continue to press against the bubble, punching it harder with now bloody knuckles. It all ended in a flash though, and I was sent tumbling back as I heard my sister scream for a small moment. I was launched back into someone, I think it might have been Crystina, and winced in pain when we landed on the ground. Blearily opening my eyes, I got up to continue my assault against that damned bubble.
Only for there to be nothing.
Instead of the barrier that was there before, a scorch mark was all that remained on the ground. I slowly walked over and stared in horror at the sight. Not a bag, a sock, or even a dog hair remained of what was seconds ago inside the sickly yellow bubble. All that was left, was soot, ash, and smoke. “E-Emi?...”
I fainted on the spot as the convention center broke into chaos around me.