//------------------------------// // 24- Decrescendo; Rainbow Rocks // Story: Applegate // by Flutters Is Shy //------------------------------// The deralict compound creaked with age, a rat making its way through the halls that hadn't seen life in literal ages. It had been coming here for years, a storeroom of abandoned foodstuffs all the incentive it needed to call the place its home. It had no mate, but that was fine. It had food. It had never known hunger since it had found this place. As long as it stayed here, it never would. A rumbling sound made its way through the halls, a terrifying clatter that made the rats hair stand on end. A thing was near its food. A thing from inside the space, next to it. Down the space from the food space. Was it after its food? Was it another rat? Another rat after its food!? It couldn't have it. Unless it was a possible mate, then it could all the food it wanted. They would have plentiful offspring, there was enough foodstuff here to raise a strong, voracious family. It crept forward, out of the foodspace into the connecting space. If it was a competing rat, looking to move in on its territory... the plentiful foodstuff had allowed it to grow big. Any female would be willing to have it as its mate. If there was another, it would kill the newcomer. And add its body to the foodstuff. That would teach an interloper to encroach on its territory. Sounds... voices... voices. Tall things were here, here to steal away its foodstuff! What was it to do, they were big tall things! They always harrassed it before it found the foodstuff space. They always made it run, throwing not-foodstuff and making loud noises to scare it. Loud, piercing wails that sent cold into its bones. It would fight them for it. No matter what, the foodstuff space was HIS, and HE would protect it with HIS life. HE would fight them off, and protect the foodstuff. He crept into the space the sounds were coming from, looking to and fro for the interlopers. A loud cry sounded to his right, and he hadn't the time to shriek before a fleshy protrusion came down and crushed his head into a broken mess. "Oh, gross!" a voice proclaimed from the darkness of the room. "Aria, I like, think you killed it." "Ewwww, it's all over one of my...hooves, what in the name of Tartarus is vermin like that doing here?" "Zip it," came a third, and resolute voice. "The question we need to be focusing on is 'here'. Where are we? The last thing I personally remember is-" "Starswirl," Aria said with venom in her voice. "We lost, didn't we Adagio?" She asked of the third voice. "Lost is a subjective term. We are here, albeit in new forms," Adagio admitted, lurching from one leg to the other as she tried to keep her balance. "And yet I see no sign of Starswirl. Obviously he underestimated the longevity of his prison cell," she said, gesturing to the three tubes they had all crawled from. "Although it is obvious this domicile has been abandoned for quite some time. We must make our escape while we can, and hope our absence isn't noticed." Aria gave a loud snort of disdain, "Run? With our tails behind us as we scurry off in shame? I'd rather-" Aria made a grand sweeping gesture, toppling to the side in an attempt to regain her footing. The first voice moved to catch her, steadying her as she did so, "Get off me Sonata, stars, you can be such a pain sometimes." "You prove my point all too well Aria," Adagio admonished her, "I can't seem to change back, and we are all as weak as... as... as ponies," she spat with disgust. "You take that back," Aria snarled, struggling out of Sonatas helpful embrace. "Come over here and make me," Adagio shot back, watching with satisfaction as her sister did nothing but huff in frustration. They saw her wisdom. They would follow her again, just as always. The disastrous fracas with Starswirl would not lead her sisters to supplanting her as the unspoken leader of the group. "We find out what we can about the surrounding area, and find somepony to feed off of. Since we are as weak as we find ourselves, we MUST feed as soon as we find ourselves able. Do you two nitwits get that?" Her sisters both gave her a short nod of their new heads, hair flopping about from their scalps. Stars above, it made them look that much more like ponies. How disgusting. "And wipe off your hoof Aria, there's no point in tracking the corpse of that vermin through this entire place." "I don't think these are hooves," Sonata pointed out in a way she thought sounded helpful, "They're a little too fleshy, ya know?" "Sonata?" Adagio asked, glaring at the shadows where her sisters features lay. "Yeah-huh?" "Shut up." It was a peaceful afternoon. Isn't that how these things always start? It starts with an 'it', goes on to give a vague description of a day, like 'dark and stormy', 'warm and lazy', or something else equally insipid. That being said, this was a rather peaceful afternoon. I should have known something weird was around the corner. I was in the 'friendship castle', along with pretty much every one of Twilight's friends. The main five, anyway. Spike was here too, happily reading comic books while he lounged on his tiny little placeholder throne in the 'throne circle'. This room just looked so stupid, it was just seven crystal chairs sitting in a circle in the center of it. Big yellow... also crystal? Maybe it was gold? I don't know. I don't care. Twilight was busy organizing a scattered pile of letters and other assorted papers in the middle of the circle, Applejack and Fluttershy were currently shoving around a box -presumably filled to the brim with books, Twilight had been getting orders in all day-, and Rarity was busy... polishing her throne. How vain. Rainbow Dumbass was busy fluttering near the ceiling, out of sight. And what about Pinkie Pie, you may ask? You had to freaking ask. Little pink manic aberration of nature was currently sitting on my lap, leaning into my hand and demanding ear scratches. Needy little monster. This was a room open to the public, so you might be asking how I managed to get away with sitting out in the open, normal as you please. I wasn't that lucky. I honestly didn't think she'd keep asking me to continue every time I stopped, I thought 'hey, she just saw me giving Ferdy a simple ear scratch, she's just curious.' But no. Like a stupid cat, every time I stopped she turned and gave me those soul stopping eyes, those huge orbs of vulnerable sadness. And then she would grab my hand in her hoof, and place it right back up next to her ear. My legs were starting to go to sleep. They weren't my legs, though. Hooves at the end, both legs covered in a thick, shaggy hair. Still don't know what I am? Heres a hint, I now had two thick curving horns hooking out of my temples. That's right, I was a minotaur. Because I wanted to be able to walk around while Twilight had other peop-ponies delivering stuff. Books. Lots and lots of books. Anyway, I wanted to be able to walk around just like normal, without losing my fingers. I like my fingers, fingers are freaking awesome. You don't really realize just how awesome they are until you find yourself with a thick, flat edge for a hand. So... ear scratchies. I could stop anytime. I could, you know. Just... stop... and try to ignore... the eyes... "Awwwwwww, cmon Wade, just five more minutes?" She asked, dragging my hand back right behind her ear. "Excuse me Princess," a rather chipper, male voice sounded out through the room. Looking to my right, I could see a rather lanky looking guy wearing a blue jumpsuit pulling a cart of books. Books piled up higher than the cart lip itself, god that didn't look safe. "Where do you want all these books from Princess Celestia?" he asked cheerfully. It goes without saying that I used this distraction to remove my hand from Pinkies ear, and oh so very carefully clamp my hands around the armrests of the chair I was sitting in. If I couldn't have my hands to myself, then NO ONE COULD HAVE THEM. "The library," Twilight said assuredly. As if that was a clear instruction, the poor guy was going to be lost in this stupid castle for days. "Third door on the left," she said, pointing off to her left without even breaking eye contact with the book she was reading. Twilight was slipping. That door she just pointed to led to a room filled with ping pong tables last time I looked. "Even this one thats glowin' an vibratin'?" he replied tentatively. I watched as Twilight actually managed to tear herself away from one of her oh so precious books. I followed her gaze, seeing that there was indeed a book 'glowin' an vibratin'. What, so they have pager books? What was the freaking point of that? She levitated it down off the stack, flipping through the pages. This seemed to be a cue for everyone to stop what they were doing and pay attention to Twilight, who they all gathered around to better see the book for themselves. Even Pinkie Pie. My lap is free! My lap! No one elses! My hands! No one elses! SHE CANT HAVE THEM. THEY ARE MIIIIIINE. "What is it Twilight?" Fluttershy asked in concern. "It... looks like," Twilight started, squinting at the page as I stood up to try and get blood flow back into my legs. "A message to Princess Celestia from my friends at Canterlot High!" Canterlot. High. God, they were so uncreative they just named the school the same as the city it was in? What was actually surprising was that they apparently had some sort of... Phone... book.... god I feel so dirty even thinking that pun... Anyway. Phonebook. They apparently had one and were trying to contact Celestia? Ooooh, Twilight was going to be in trooooooouble~. "How is that even possible?" Rarity asked. A unicorn asked how a MAGIC book worked. Sometimes, I did love this world. They were just so all over the place. "I don't know..." Twilight admitted, "But... it sounds like they need my help!" Okay, wait, wait, wait. They contacted... Celestia. How the hell did that translate into... Twilight? "My skin is green," I groused once again, holding my arm up to better see it in the light. "Uh, yeah?" the humanoid abomination that was and was also at the same time not Rainbow Dash remarked. Humanoid. Sorta. They all looked KINDA human, but with a bevy of skin colors you definitely would never find naturally among the human race. Plus, I'm not sure I could prove this, but I could swear their heads were bigger. Bigger than normal, anyway, and I KNOW my eyes weren't this flipping huge before. Twilight had launched into a technobabble spiel after she had found the phonebook, eventually taking about half an hour to mcguffin up a mirror thing that even Mcguyver would throw up his hands in confusion and call bullshit over. I couldn't fathom why she didn't just take the train like she normally did, but she was on a roll. There was also some sort of nonsense regarding sighrens, but I'll be honest. I wasn't really paying that much to the conversation at that point. Hands. Mine. No one elses. Anyway, half hour later, and she turned to me and asked if I wanted to come with. A short explanation as to where it led -yeah, you might think I would have raged at Twilight for keeping the lid on the fact that she had a portal to a human world, but as she explained it was almost certainly a parralel world for her world. I'm just glad she was smart enought to realize that purple and cyan weren't normal human skin tones.- and I leapt at the chance. Why the hell wouldn't I? The chance to walk around as normal, with nary a single grass eater pointing a hoof and going 'agh! the hell is that thing???' sounded like a pretty good deal to me. If I had known that I would be trading my normal skin color, about ten years of age and about a foot worth of height for my boredom I might have just stayed behind. Hindsight. Twenty twenty. Whatever. I was here, so I might as well try to enjoy my newfound freedom. "And these," the Rainbow... tween stated, grabbing onto one of my fingers and stretching it out for some reason. "Are fingers. We use them to pick stuff up, and overall to do awesome stuff you ponies can't." I gave her a look like she had suddenly grown another head, causing her to belt out a burst of laughter. "-ffffffffffaw, geez Twilight, I didn't know you were gonna be bringing over such a riot! What, is he your boyfriiiiiiieeeend?~" she stated in an innocent tone, causing said purple unicor-... Tween. Twitween. Her. Twilight let loose a low, frustrated sigh. "Everypony, meet Wade. He's been staying at my place for the past couple weeks. Wade, meet everypony. I'm sure you've noticed all the similarities?" "Everyone," I corrected. "What?" she stammered. "Every. One. You freaking correct me every time I say 'so and so and me', so I am darn well going to ride your butt with this one and get as much as I can out of it," I explained. "Out of her butt?" Rainbow Dumbass asked in a confused tone. "Are all your friends over here mentally special, or is it just this one?" I snapped back at Twilight, ignoring the round of hisses and chuckles I got from that remark. I managed to get a glare from Dumbass-tween after she realized how I had insulted her, but she didn't worry me. She might have been... damn, she was actually taller than me right now. Stupid portal. Anyway, if I needed to I could just morph Onyx or something and get her to back down that way. Speaking of, could I still morph? Would the portal make all of my forms... 'tween'ified? Good god, what would my minotaur morph be like? And why the hell was Spike a dog? Cause that seems like he got the short end of the stick. Poor guy, never get any respect. "I got my eyes on you, jerk," she spouted, before letting out a disgusted huff. "You insult me, I insult you," I retorted. "I didn't insult you!" she protested, an angry frown on her face. "You insinuated I was a complete idiot by assuming I didn't have the brainpower to know what hands are," I snapped, wiggling my fingers in front of my face as I took a long pull from my milkshake. They had all but practically dragged us to a sweets shop to get reacquainted, I could have sworn the lady manning the counter was the double of the lady pony that was at Pinkie Pie's place. Cake, something. Maybe it was just Mrs. Cake. No, god, that would be dumb. Applejacks double had footed the bill for me and Twilight, Rainbow Dash also piggybacking on with a, 'can I borrow a fiver?' They had shot the shit, introduced me, and Twilight talked some more about sighrens. Apparently they're a big bad problem or something, being able to use magic to mind control others and vampire suck their anger from them afterwards. Or something. Again, I wasn't paying that much attention. "Flash Sentry was asking about me?!!?" Twilight near squealed, breaking me from my thoughts. Seems they had wisely pushed my words out of the way to talk about other things. I stared at her in derision for a couple seconds, watching as she blushed and started playing with her hair. "Good god, you are such a girl," I squeezed out, trying to smother a laugh. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Applepri- Applejack double human or whatever asked, her voice reaching a dangerous tone. Damnit, NEVER invite a girls anger on you, you can never get out from underneath it. Quick... just.... distract! "Well, I've been living with her for a couple weeks, and this is the first time I've seen her act like anything besides an adult," I tried to save face, remembering that she did have a tendency to geek out over random shit, even her counterparts from the other worlds didn't act as... well, 'teenager-y' as she was right now. "Usually its like she's my mom more than anything," I stated, cringing as a giggle passed around the table, "But right now you're acting like you're a teenager. What's that about? Does that weird portal do something to your mind, as well as your body?" I asked as I neared the bottom of my glass. If I wanted more, I would have to ask Applejack for another freebie. Wonder if equestrian bits would worth anything over here? Not like I had any, and I'd have to be stupid to try to steal any. Maybe I could get some gems from Rarity? Nah. I wouldn't really want to impose on her. And again, stealing anything from her would be downright retarded. "It shouldn't be..." Twilight admitted, getting a contemplative look on her face. "But it is possible. Are you positive I've never acted like this before?" A round of silence poured over the table, along with awkward glances all around. I shouldn't have come, I was just making this weird for everyone. Especially bacon hair. I think her name was Sunset something. Shammy. Shim. Something. She just kept stealing glances at me from up on her perch atop the couch arm, like she was trying to figure me out. "Per...haps you can give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world?" Rarity cut through the silence, sipping tea daintily from a fluted coffee cup and trying her best to maintain a passable semblance of civility, I assume. It really was weird, watching all these people who I had come to SORTA know, and then being struck over the head with completely different versions of them. This wasn't even as weird as any of the anthro Equestria's, but it still gave me a sense of 'uncanny valley' Who would have ever thought I would think talking ponies were the 'normal' version to be had? "She's got an official title now!" Spike stated with a brash air. Oh yeah. Spike may be a dog, but he can still talk. Screw the fact that he shouldn't be able to with his current mouth structure, or vocal cords, and even more screw to his paws that shouldn't be able to make it look like he's playing a dog treat like a trumpet. Cause guess what? He was moving his paws and the little toes at the end of them around just as easily as if they were hands, mimicking as if he were playing a trumpet on his bone shaped dog cookie. Fluttershy had pulled it out of her backpack. Nevermind the fact that she apparently didn't have a dog, but she did have a bunch of other animals. A mouse, a cat, a bird, it was like she was TRYING to get in trouble with her school. You're not supposed to bring stuff like that to school for a reason. "Du-dad-da-da-da-doo! The Princess... of... friendship!" He crowed, making me wince and look around the room. I could tell straight off that animals weren't supposed to be able to talk here, but no one seemed to take notice of him. Damnit, I was the only guy at the table, they probably thought it was me making all this noise. "Wow, that's... really impressive," Bacon hair stated, her tone shifting between genuine happiness and for all that I could tell, it sounded a bit like jealousy. "Guess you really were Princess Celestia's prized pupil." Aaaaaaaaaaand there's the jealousy. At least it didn't seem like she meant it maliciously, if anything she seemed a bit sad with her admittance. "Whats new here?" Twilight asked, obviously trying to steer the conversation away from such a touchy subject. "I mean besides your school becoming the target of dangerous magical creatures from Equestria," She added on almost as if an afterthought. "Yeah," Rainbow human stated with a drawn out tone, almost like she was trying to get us psyched for a huge reveal, "So...that isn't exactly the only strange thing that's happened since you left," she ended this statement by digging around in her bag, dragging out her phone and almost instantly barraging us with a video clip. It started off innocently enough, just Rainbow blowhard having roped someone else into shooting a clip of her while she played her guitar. This quickly changed, as magical sparklies surrounded her, slowly lifting her from the ground as her hair grew, wings sprung from her back, and two definitively pony looking ears crept out of her hair on top. "Pretty sweet, huh?" She asked smugly, seeing the looks on our faces, "Happens to all of us when we play!" she ended by putting her feet up on the table, getting dangerously close to exposing her athletic shorts under her skirt to the world. "Did you edit that?" I asked, leaning forward to get a better look. "I mean, obviously you edited it a little, seeing as you have like four different cuts from different angles, so I have to imagine you just overlaid the original sound over the new stuff, but the glowing thing. Does magic actually work over here?" I asked, turning my head to look back at Twilight. "Yes, actually," Twilight said, taking in a deep breath as she prepared to break into 'lecture mode'. "We utilized the magic of friendship when I was here last time. My crown was returned to Equestria, but some of its magic must have remained here at Canterlot High," she mused. And yes. I did realize my blunder with assuming that she was talking about a school, in Canterlot. But an alternate world where Canterlot is apparently a highschool? Still pretty dumb. As for assuming that the entire city was called 'Canterlot High', I can't really blame her for that one. I used to identify the town I was in, and like four other towns nearby all as the same place for quite a while. Confused the hell out of people. "So... magic can be used here?" I asked, holding my hand up in front of me as I tried to summon some sparklies. Yeah, I know. I could do it easier if I had a unicorn horn. I know. I just didn't want to freak anyone out if my morphing did still work over here, and while it strained me more I should still be able to get out a couple sparks. "Now that we're all back together," Twilight continued, ignoring my comment, "We can use that magic on the sighrens!" I paid her little attention, instead focusing on my hands. Come on, I just had a handle on it... right there... and push... outwards... "No offense," I heard Twilight say as I pushed a spark of magic out of my hand. "What?" I snapped, returning my concentration to the conversation, my lapse in control shooting a gout of magic sparkles out of my hands all over the table. "Oooooh, sparkly~" Pinkie Pie cooed as they faded into nothingness. Both Twilight and Bacon Hair had a look on their faces like I just revealed myself to be Princess Celestia in disguise, while the rest just looked like they had a case of mild surprise. "Mine," I muttered, sliding my hands out of her reach and placing them in my lap. I wouldn't have my hands get hijacked by TWO versions of her in the same freaking day. "How the heck did you do that?" Rainbow Gets-In-Your-Space asked, her eyebrow quivering dangerously. "Pushed it," I stated, not really denying her information yet at the same time not giving her much of anything to go on. "You can use magic even when you aren't in a unicorn morph now?" Twilight asked incredulously. She then tried to duplicate my efforts. Sitting there, straining, trying to push her magic out of her hands as her face turned a deep crimson in her effort. With a titanic blast of air, she let out a breath she had been holding, gulping down additional deep breathes as her arms slumped at her sides. "Disregarding Twilights freak out," Applejack stated, leaning over the back of her chair to better look at me, "What the hey is a 'morph', an' what exactly does Twi mean by 'in a unicorn morph'?" She asked. "Oh," I muttered. "Well, as 'Twi' forgot to mention, I was originally a human and somehow got stranded in Equestria," I shot Twilight an accusing glance, she had managed to just avoid a pretty important topic. "I gained an ability to transform into anyone I touch," I waved a hand in front of my face, watching as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dumbass both recoiled. No one else seemed to think much of it. "There's a more complicated explanation regarding DNA, nanomachines, and other stuff, but that's the basics. I have a morph of Twilight that gives me her basic DNA form, that of a unicorn instead of an alicorn." "Wait, doesn't that mean you turn into a giiiirl?~" Pinkie Pie purred out creepily. "Hey, yeah!" Rainbow called out, drawing a few glances from the other people in the shop. "Yeah. What of it?" I stated in a bland tone, staring Rainbow Dash down until she looked away. "But aint that weird?" Applejack questioned. "Can... you turn into a bunny?" Fluttershy asked hesitantly. She gained a look from her friends, "I... I think it would be nice to turn into a bunny..." "Only you, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash joked. "Wait a plumb tuckin minute," Applejack groused, "So yer sayin that not only are ya a human, like us, but yall've been stuck in equestrian? Well, problem solved then, welcome home!" she stated with a self satisfied snort. "Do you live anywhere nearby?" Shammy shim shim something or other Mc Bacon Hair asked. "Heck, you might not even be from this state..." "Ever hear of a state called Washington?" I asked, scratching at my ear. At their bland looks of confusion, I continued, "Country called America?" "Do you mean Mareica?" Pinkie Pie asked with a wide smile. "That's where we are!" Authors Notes I'm sorry. I had to. Bad puns are my kryptonite. "No. Although I probably should have just led with the fact that I know this isn't my world, due to all the various skin colors," I said, watching as the confusion on their faces deepened. "Wades skin color is more similar to Big Macintoshes," Twilight clarified, freeing me from having to continuously explain myself. "As he's told me, pretty much everypony-" "Everyone," I interjected, getting an exasperated look from Twilight. "Everone," she parroted back at me, "has pretty much the same skin tone, with varying differences in darkness and other factors." "But he's green," Rainbow dumbass pointed out. Not for any longer. I started my morph back to normal, hoping beyond hope that it would actually work. Anything to shut her up, and I'd take 'shocked silence' over a lot of things. I pictured what I should look like in my head, placing that image side by side with my much greener self, almost looking like a cartoonish representation by comparison. Thankfully I could feel my body stretching, my greenish skin slowly softening back to a pasty 'white' before my eyes. Something was wrong though, as I returned to my previous stature -only a little bit bigger, I was at least as tall as Rainbow now- I could feel a constricting tightness encircling my limbs. I wiggled in place, discovering the source of my discomfort. It was my clothes. When I had gone through the portal they had been changed along with me, shrinking to almost tightly fit my new body. As it was, now they were simply TOO tight. My shirt was dangerously close to becoming a belly shirt, and I swear I could hear the fabric straining with every twitch I made. "Dang. Is your head smaller?" Thanks Dash. I... I really needed that bit of commentary. "No, now its normal sized," I retorted. My shirt collar was tight against my throat, I was going to have to morph again if I wanted to continue breathing. "That was dumb looking," Rainbow Dumbass commented idly, as Rarity high tailed it for the restroom. I guess it was more than her stomach could take. "Hmmmmmmm," Twilight hummed to herself, looking down at her hands and apparently trying to summon magic like I had. "Was plumb disgustin', if you don't mind me sayin'," Applejack muttered, placing her half finished milkshake on the table in front of her. "No offense taken," I replied, trying to dig a finger inbetween my collar and my neck. "It was like squish! Skaaaaaaal. Willllilllilllilly. Blorp," Pinkie Pie exclaimed, ending on an unsure note. "Ooh! Can you be meeee?~" she asked in an excited daze. Everyone around the table -sans Rarity, who at this point was still absent- gave a massive flinch. "Eh, not to say nothin' badly 'gainst ya Pinkie," Applejack started, tipping her hat back, "But jes one o' ya is hard enough ta keep track of. Sides, nothing could possibly copy you," she hurriedly added on, probably to try and not sound like she was insulting her. "Awwww," Pinkie Pie pouted. "How exactly do your powers work?" Sunset asked thoughtfully. I continued my war of attrition with my collar, eventually giving up to respond, "Short version. I touch someone, I keep that touch going for about half a minute, then I have their DNA inside me. I can then....raaagggggggggggggg," I groaned, actively trying to rip the shirt collar now, "Then... use that at any time past that to turn my form... into... gggggggggggggg." I finally caved, my hands falling to my sides. Whatever the hell Rarity had done, she had made it nigh unrippable. Oh hey. Demonstration, plus momentary relief. I quickly placed a fingertip on the back of both Applejacks and Rainbow Dash's hands, seeing as they were the closest to me. Well, I guess Fluttershy was closer, but I already had her DNA. Well, their pony DNA. Wait, thinking of that, I technically had Applejacks too. A mixed version of it, but still... Oh well. "What are you-" Applejack stuttered, before the trance took over. "Hey, get your paws... offa... meeeeeeee," Rainbow Dash drawled, a line of drool escaping the corner of her mouth. Yes! Two for two, and they both got tranced. Today was my lucky day. I was probably going to get flak for taking without asking, but I was slowly being choked into unconsciousness over here. "Are they all right?" Fluttershy asked, waving a hand in front of Rainbow Dumbass's face. "They're fine," Spike answered, biting into his cookie. "Wade has one of me, it's completely safe. Plus it makes you feel really relaxed during..." "A touch based osmosis type spell?" Sunset Shammy Sho Sho asked, her hand on her chin. Twilight basically wasn't paying attention at this point, concentrating on her outstretched hands. "Kinda? Sorta? Maybe? Add some sort of 'transformation' modifier in there and you'll probably be close to whatever Twilight eventually decides to call it," I muttered, concentrating on the two in front of me. The acquiring phase behind me, I could see them slowly breaking free of their dazed expressions. I was literally feeling faint and seeing spots at this point, so I had to morph then and there or risk fainting in front of a bunch of girls. How embarrassing. I concentrated on the both of them, slowly raising my hands and placing them in front of me on the table. It happened a lot slower than my transition back to my normal form, which in fact now that I was thinking about it only took me maybe about twenty seconds. Much faster than it should have taken. As it was, I felt my collar slowly loosen from around my neck, and my clothes in general got a whole lot looser. not 'slip off my body' looser, but definitely enough to have room to breath. My hair slowly crept forth from my scalp, slowly covering my vision with an assortment of colors. When all was said and done ,I was finally able to breath again. Thinking back, I could have probably just gone back to my green skinned form. What can I say, I was halfway panicking, I just wasn't thinking clearly with my lack of air. "Blaaaaaaaaaa," I droned out, sweeping the mass of hair out from in front of my eyes with a noticeably daintier hand. It was an odd mix of the both of them, with Rainbow Dash's main multicolored style but all the yellow was Applejacks comparatively mellower shade. Looking behind me, a long ponytail went all the way down my back, a long plump clump of yellow hair that had a jagged bolt of blue racing through it. My skin actually matched Applejacks skin color, surprisingly. I would have assumed I would get a deeper sort of orange or something. What the hell do you get when you add cyan to light tannish orange brown? "Why do you have so much freaking hair?" I muttered, trying to get it all to stay behind my head. Unsuccessfully. I waited for a response, and didn't get one. Finally getting my hair to sorta swoop over the top of my head, I finally got a look at everyones reactions. Dazed druggy confusion from my two donatees, both looking at me like I was trying to trick them. Pinkie Pie was worriedly wearing an expression of oblivious glee, silently bouncing in her seat in a jittery rush. Twilight... Was still trying to get her magic to work. Her face had actually developed a reddish tinge in her strain, one of us was going to have to break her out of it. Sunset sat on her couch arm, a look of impressed attention plastered on her face. I couldn't really see Fluttershy. She was sitting right next to me and... damn this stupid hair. Every errant twitch makes this unruly mess dance every which way. Must be why Rainbow Dash keeps hers relatively short. Or why Applejack keeps hers back in a ponytail. Nyeeeeeeeegh, stay out of my eyes you stupid hair... "Anyone have a spare scrunchie?" I joked, trying to break the silence. "I am on the verge of being swallowed up by all this freaking hair," I added. I felt a small circlet of fabric being pressed into my right hand. Probably from Fluttershy, which was kinda weird seeing as I don't remember her wearing one. I mean, I think I saw her wearing a hairclip... That just furthered my confusion. The only other person off that direction was Sunset something, and I don't remember seeing her with one either. Whatever, maybe just all girls carried at least one? I wrestled with the mass of hair, slowly reaching a point where I could squeeze the hair band thingy around it. Thank god, finally my vision was free, even though I now felt like I was trying to pull my skin off with the hair. Tight. My hair was never long enough to put in a ponytail before. I'm kinda thankful for that. "Thanks... whoever gave me that," I muttered, glaring at a bang that escaped the cage of its brethren. "Aaagh! I don't know how you managed that, but I don't think it's going to work for me," Twilight stated in a huff. "At least you can't do anything that would draw an undue amount of attention." "Thaaaaaaat ship kinda sailed a while ago, Twilight," Pinkie Pie tittered, having gotten yet another shake. This one was chocolate. Twilight snapped her gaze over to me, a bare amount of confusion as she tried to look past me. As if I was hiding behind myself or something. "Yeah. I morphed," I admitted. "A fair display of change blindness, no one seems to have even noticed," I reasoned. "Why didn't you just go back to your other form?" She asked. "Nyefffffrumblim." I mumbled, averting my eyes to stare down into my glass. "Okay then. Back to business, we should be able to easily defeat the sighrens with our magic if we just stick together... hey, where's Rarity?" "Bathroom," Rainbow Dash blunt stated. "Those stupid sighrens aren't even going to know what hit 'em!" She then did an over the top exaggerated display of 'martial art-ness' 'flippy-ness' in my general vicinity, which in turn ended with her laying one smack into my jaw. These girls, I swear. Everyone here was kinda... antisocial. Even more so than I remember my highschool being. I had long since abandoned my Rainpple...Appledash... good god that sounds just as stupid... My combined morph of Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Yeah. I'll just stick with saying that. Anyway, I was back to my green self, standing around in a cafeteria gym room thing at the school, where there was definitely an underlying tone of hostility permeating the room. I even saw this surfer looking guy almost punch this short kid. After which he immediately ran smack dab into Twilight. Like, full on contact, I know teachers that would have claimed they were trying to have sex on school grounds from something like that. Of course, almost all the teachers at my school had been weird like that. "Ahhh, bumped, into.... always, doing!" she stuttered in an embarrassed tone as he helped her back to her feet. "Such a girl!" I stated in a loud whisper, walking away before she could retaliate. I wanted more punch. "Who was that?" I heard whoever that was Twilight as I walked away. I didn't hear her response. I got to the snack table just as Pinkie Pie was leaving, stuffing a crappton of cookies into her hair in her haste. "That's not sanitary!" I hissed at her, watching as one cookie fell to the ground. "And that's how you get ants," I muttered, repeating a line from a tv show I had once heard. I meandered around, actively trying to ignore everyone else. It seemed everyone who was talking was just arguing. I didn't want to go through that sort of hassle, if everyone wanted to be belligerent, let them do it towards each other. I'll be perfectly safe over here in my corner, looking at the posters on the walls... "Taco Tuesday, huh?" I muttered to myself, reading one such poster proudly declaring it as an event. "Too bad, think I'm a bit late for that..." "I know, right?" a voice asked from beside me. And lo and behold, it didn't actually sound antagonistic. Kinda chipper. Not quite Pinkie Pie levels, but a mighty leap and bound above all the sourpusses in here. "They were really good though, and they had all sorts of different stuff you could put in your taco, it was reeeeeeeeeeeally good," she trailed off, audibly drooling. Bet you didn't know something like that was something you could hear. Guess what, I didn't think you'd be able to hear it either. Turning to identify the voice revealed it to belong to- wait for it. Are you waiting? In a school where there are a shitton of students, more females than males- a female student. I assume. They could just be crashing the party like I was basically doing, but that was highly unlikely. The only other ones doing that would be the sighrens, and this girl was definitely too damned nice to be an ancient devil serpent thing. I think I'd know. "Well, all the much more my loss," I stated, faking a shrug of my shoulders to go along with an equally fake sigh. "As long as one of us was able to enjoy it." I wasn't flirting with a girl ten years younger than me. Shut up, I'm not! I was just happy to talk to someone new, that wasn't all mopey and angry looking like the rest of the people in the room. "My names Wade," I said, offering a hand for a handshake. She looked at my hand for a few seconds before grasping it in her own. "Sonata!" she cheerfully chirped. "Sonata Dusk!" Such a pleasant moment was cut short, two other girls joining us. Her. Mostly her. "Looks like Sonata made a little friend," the one with two pigtails stated snidely "Run along, run along, go, mingle while we talk to our sister," the other -a girl with a truly MASSIVE clump of orange hair sprouting from her head, from where I was standing it looked super floofy- stated in a tone I could almost classify as... I don't know. Threatening? I didn't feel comfortable, that much was for sure. "Uh... kay. Was nice meeting you," I ground out, giving Sonata a smile. I turned around, getting more fruit punch. "OOOh, do you like the fruit punch?" Sonata asked from behind me, much to her sisters obvious chagrin. I Don't know what the hell their problem was, but they obviously didn't like me. "Er, yeah," I said, "Perfect ratio. Usually people put too much grape juice. This though... it's really good." A smile alit across her face, combatting the frowns that were going across her sisters. "Yes, good, now go away," Pigtails hissed, shooing me with an outstretched hand. I walked off, miffed about not being able to speak to someone nice anymore. All of Twilights friends were 'keeping radio silence', trying to keep an eye out for the big bad evils of the week. Blegh. What the hell was Twilight doing now? She had gathered her human doubles of her friends, standing in the center of the auditorium. Oh... Oh god no. It looked like she was about to... "There isn't going to be a battle of the bands!" she called out, her voice reaching the length of the entire room. I winced, mentally drawing in on myself. Please tell me she wasn't... "We're gonna make sure of that," she said, matter of factly. And now they were... holding hands... "Friendship... is... magiiiic!" she called out as she and her friends closed their eyes. To no obvious effect. "Oh god," I muttered to myself, turning and burying my forehead in my palm, "I can't believe she went and did that. What did she think was going to happen? For magic or something to burst out of the ground and do something? Good god I feel so bad for her..." Silence reigned around the room, and I could swear I even heard a few coughs. I crept ever closer to the exit, as long as no one saw me I wouldn't be drawn into such an embarrassing scene. "-if the Great, and Powerful, Triiiiixie has anything to with it!" some random girl across the room called out. Damnit, looks like I missed something. Again. Insinuations and insults flew across the gathering room space, filling what once had been silent with tones of dissent. At least I didn't have to worry about anyone focusing on me. Twilight and her friends hurriedly made their way towards the exit, meeting both me and Sunset Shimmer halfway there. Yes, I asked her what her last name was again. What do you take me for, some sort of jerk? Couldn't just keep calling her 'Shimmy Shammy'.