//------------------------------// // Tonya's Day Out (RUNN!!!!) // Story: The More Things Change // by The Crane //------------------------------// And a new day for the five. "Aaahhh..." Tonya grumbles from one corner of the barn. She raises her head a little and looks around. Her mane is a complete mess, but that's perfectly natural for this one. "Hadn't slept like that for some time..." "Lucky you..." Amanda groans. "Anypony seen my pillow?" Kat asks from somewhere. The tan pony that is Tonya makes her way to her hooves and quietly lumbers her way to where the others have semi-gathered. As she approaches, she can hear yawns floating between them. One after another, their heads swing back as their jaws force out the exhaustive sound. As the others have gathered in an imperfect circle, Tonya sits with them. "Um... guys?" Three visible equines and one not so visible one turn towards her with baggy eyes. She can see that maybe this isn't the best time for this. They're all freshly awoken and supposedly none of them have been caffinated yet. "Nice to see you up and around," Amanda greets. "Are you feeling better?" "Y-Yeah..." Tonya replies. She uses a front hoof to scrape the back of her head. Not out of necessity, but out of habit. "Kinda got a kick in the head last night. Some weird dream with some black pony. Really weird. But..." "What is it, Tonya?" Bobbi asks. "Um...." she says with a hestitant voice. "I... It's... You know..." An invisible force slips around Tonya's muzzle and starts to move it about. "C'mon, Tonya," Kat says likely with a grin. While Tonya fights her off, Kat giggles and continues. "You move your mouth. You flap your tongue. Words come out. You of all people are good at this." And then she releases her friend's mouth and puts a foreleg around Tonya's shoulders. "I"m sorry..." Tonya says with a sunken head. "I let you all down when you needed me. And it led to all this. We would've put away that bitch if I had just gotten my shit together. Please... forgive me...." "Tonya..." Amanda says in a comforting tone as she walks closer. "You were in a horrible state when all that went down. You just lost something very precious. You were in no shape to fight. I for one am not blaming you." "It was a strategy," Casie points out. "I would bet money that those trolls we were fighting planned on that happening. They took advantage of your weakness and struck at the rest of us." "Tonya," Bobbi says, "I know you blame yourself for everything that's happened. Don't. I know you think we all think badly of you. Don't. These guys got forces far beyond what we can fight. They're trying to drive a wedge in between us." "Divide and conquer," Kat muses. "We got divided," Tonya adds. "And we got conquered." "Yeah, well," Kat says. "We ain't dead yet." Tonya starts to notice that all four of them have gathered close to her. "But, what can we do? We have our elements here, but we have nothing when we go back. What are we going to do?" "We'll think of something," Kat says as she tightens her hug. "We always do." "Thanks guys..." Tonya says with a little sob. "You're the best friends I've ever had..." "We're the ONLY friends you've ever had," Kat notes. However, the other three around Tonya start to glare in her general vicinity. "Whoops... Sorry..." "We're not friends," Bobbi says sternly. There is a long moment of shock as everypony looks at her with confused looks. "We're family. And family takes care of family." "Let's just put it behind us," Kat says quietly. "But if you DON'T 'get your shit together' by the time we get back, I WILL kick your ass!!!" "Seconded," Bobbi grins. "Thirded," Amanda sneers. "Fourthed," Casie finishes. "So, we're good?" Tonya asks quietly. "All is forgiven," Amanda responds. Just as the comment leaves her mouth, a sound is heard. Like a balloon being vented slowly. But, it quickly accelerates into a small but thunderous sound. The sound is distinctly heard from under Tonya's rump. "I'm... going to let that go," Amanda says with a wince. A moment later, however, Tonya's friends quickly zip away from her in four different directions. Some hold their snouts as the horrendous odor comes through. "Tonya!!" Kat scoffs. "What did you EAT?!" ==-==-== Later on in the day, both Amanda and Casie have departed their temporary home. Casie has run off to the workshop of the glassblower to practice her new talent. Amanda has left as well, presumably to go help Rarity. While not needed at the moment, Bobbi is relaxing in the barn with a newspaper floating in her horn's field. She hasn't had a lot of training on using the strange appendage, but she seems at least able to hold up things. While she sits there, she reads about the world around her. In one corner of their abode, Tonya continues to experiment with her powers, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. Mainly, she wants to become fully human again. Although being a small equine is not horrible, the thought of her natural self beckons. She manages to stand on two legs and start a shift into human form. Her legs lengthen. Her torso widens and grows (as well as producing two significant lumps on her chest). Her head loses its topical ears while side-born lobes grow out. Her muzzle shrinks into a flat mouth. Her arms stretch out and all of her limbs twist around to a human stance. Fingers grow out from her front hooves, toes from her rear ones. Her tail shrivels away. And so she stands as a (naked) human again. She smiles at the accomplishment and flexes her fingers. She bends her arms. "Three," Bobbi mutters quietly. "Two. One." Tonya's humanized form snaps back into a pony three times as fast as she changed out of it. The effect is so sudden and so hard that she is thrown upside-down into a pile of haybales a good ten feet behind her. The mute gold pony looks over at Tonya for a brief moment and sees that she is unhurt. The tan pony (invertedly) stares angrily into the distance as if to curse her fate. And Bobbi believes that as long as she's not howling in pain that she's not badly injured. There's been a fly buzzing around her for a fair amount of time. She tried to shoo it away on a number of occasions, but it seems to return whenever it wants. Kind of like a bad relative. While she reads one section of the paper, a second field wraps around the sports section of the newspaper and quietly rolls it up in place. Hoofball season is starting. The paper should deliver extra impact. Her eyes slide away from her reading material to the little buzzer floating around merrily. She uses one of the used cider barrels as a table, as do her friends. WHACK!!! Bobbi smiles a little and uses the rolled up paper to sweep away the bug. She's been told that Fluttershy is an animal lover, but even she could forgive something like this? Probably not. Best not tell her. Kat can't be seen, but there's a definite impression on a pile of hay in the corner. There's a fair amount of snickering coming from that direction as well. It could be very well that she's plotting something. And Tonya realizes that one of them has been delegated as her 'babysitter.' She's never been alone since the others have run into her reunion with them. And she realizes that this is no coincidence. She's being watched. Carefully. "Bobbi?" Tonya asks. "Yeah?" Bobbi looks over to Tonya's direction and sets down her paper. She sees Tonya before her. She looks a little worried and still quite depressed. But, not as much as before. "What is it?" She doesn't say anything, but grimaces as a new color washes over her body. It changes everything as it goes. Her coat goes mute gold. Her mane changes to blonde. Her eyes change to blue. And she grows a little. A horn rises out of her forehead to complete the image. Even the cutie mark on Bobbi's flank has been copied. "How do I look?" Even her voice is identical. "Not bad," Bobbi notes. A part of her is a little upset that her form has been copied without permission, but she lets it go for now. She's not in the mood to yell at Tonya. "Does it work?" she wonders as Bobbi raises a hoof to 'her' horn. "I don't think so," 'Bobbi' replies. "I don't feel anything from it. Ah, well... I can still stab somepony with it." "TONYA!!!" "Just kidding!!!" she spouts as she backs up and returns to her former self. "These ponies are really nice... I could stay here awhile. Heck, I'd stay here forever. Nice and peaceful." "Can't do that, kiddo," Bobbi notes. "We've got work to do, remember? Gonna need you for it." "Can we at least come back?" She smiles a little. "Sure. After we deal with our problems back home, we'll try to come back here. Unless of course we're UNABLE to come back..." "Right...." Tonya looks around a bit and finds that the two of them are the only ones in the room. "Bobbi? I'm gonna go out. I wanna see what's out there. I think it's about time I stretched my legs." There is a moment of thought for Bobbi as she considers this. It pleases Bobbi that Tonya wants to get out and do more. She's glad that her depression is losing its grip on her. But, this still IS Tonya. No force on Earth (or Equestria) can keep her from doing something really stupid. And making a mess in the process. Although, she might be in competition with the Cutie Mark Crusaders on that one. "Couple things," Bobbi tells her. "Yeah?" "Don't make a spectacle of your abilities. Don't go changing into every pony you see." Which Bobbi realizes-- she will. "But-- My powers are goofy here. I want to know what I can do. I can change my shape, but I can't be human again." "Probably not the best idea anyway," Bobbi notes. "I don't see any humans around. Ponies seem to be dominant here. Maybe whatever--" "--Or whoever--" "--maybe it's just for your own safety. Go, then. See what you can do. But, Tonya? Stay. Out. Of. Trouble." "Who? Me?" "Yes! YOU!!" Tonya smiles a little and starts to make her way toward the door. After all the time of her self-imposed exile, she's actually eager to get out for once. Bobbi is happy to see this as an improvement. It means Tonya's recovering from her trauma. However, Bobbi turns towards the haystack in the corner and shoots a tiny bolt of energy into the pile. It stops just short of contact by some invisible force. A rustle of motion displaces the hay as Kat rubs her tush. Bobbi just 'looks at her' and nods sideways towards the door that her other friend just exited. There is a slight updraft as the invisipony takes off and up through the hay loft. The large door at the end serves as a discreet opening and exit. Once outside, she hops onto a cloud and quietly follows Tonya down the road. She uses the cloud to ride like a kickboard, only using her wings to 'stroke' along. There's also an instinctive yet useless thought of using the cloud to hide behind like a bush. ==-==-== Tonya certainly brings new meaning to the term 'earth pony'. The natural definition in this world is that such a creature does not have wings like a pegasus or a horn like a unicorn. Some may think of the term as a complimentary way of saying 'nothing special.' But, in truth, earth ponies tend the lands and grow crops. While they don't have additional appendages like the other two, they are just as important. Tonya has a firm grasp on the earth element as she can make it bend to her will easily. She can easily make constructs out of the ground or destroy them as she wishes. No other earth pony here would ever come close to that. Additionally, Tonya can use the powers of the ground to add extra mass to her transformations. In the past, she has been able to change into massively sized creatures by borrowing extra mass from the ground beneath her feet... or as now hooves. Just as so, she shed that extra weight when returning to normal. And just as so, she can shed her normal weight into the ground if her desired form is smaller than her own. Her friends are no doubt jealous that she has infinite control over her own weight. As she wanders through the peaceful scenary, she sees that the land is lush and untainted. The air is as clean as ever. The water is pure. The trees are never ending green. The sky is unblocked by horrendously tall buildings. The grass is soft under her hooves. One day, the residents here will invent automobiles. Tonya frowns a little at the thought. Maybe they'll get it right where her own people got it wrong. She comes across a white rabbit as it hops along the road. She looks down at the bunny. It stops for her and seems quite impatient. Is it... glaring at her? What did she do so wrong? Maybe it's the fact that she's so much larger than it is. With a quick look around, Tonya sees that nopony is near her. She twists her muzzle into a strange grin and starts shrinking. Tonya's form changes as well. As her body dwindles in mass, her ears lengthen. Her tail shortens into a puff. And all of her legs shrink into her body. Yet her feet grow considerably, comparatively speaking. All her extra mass has been donated to the ground below her, blended in nicely so nopony would ever notice. The white rabbit used as a model drops its jaw in amazement and grabs its ears to pull them around its head. It then dashes off at a frantic speed. It would scream if it had a voice. Meanwhile Tonya checks out her new tiny body. White fur all around. She smiles a bit as she paws at her new long floppy ears. And she suddenly has a hankering for carrots. "What?" a quiet voice asks. "What is it?" Tonya remembers this voice. She looks up and can see why the rabbit was so scared. A giant yellow pony with pink mane towers over her. One misstep from her could easily crush Tonya. "Oh...." Fluttershy remarks quietly. "You found a new friend!!" Tonya's little mind compares this to 'Jurassic Park.' The creatures were so much larger than the humans, just as Fluttershy is to her now. 'Don't eat me' runs through her mind. The knowledge of them being vegetarian doesn't seem to bubble to the surface. The rabbit model seems to be doing some sort of game of Charades with Fluttershy as it tries to get her to understand what is happening. With all its hand gestures, it starts jumping in place and pounding its foot on the ground. "Oh, Angel-bunny..." Fluttershy says happily. "Don't be jealous." And she misses the point completely, which causes the rabbit to face-palm. Tonya takes the opportunity to run as fast as she can. Away from both of them. The rabbit knows her secret, and it's only a matter of time before Fluttershy actually gets the point. Tonya would rather be far away at that point. A curious Fluttershy and the rabbit quickly pursue her. Tonya runs faster, but her tiny new form won't allow any additional speed. She might get caught and examined by these two. And that would not be a good day. From... somewhere, a powerful gust of wind comes in from nowhere and blows against Fluttershy and her bunny. While Angel rolls away in a white ball of fur, Fluttershy is tossed back into the shrubbery. And Tonya is given her advantage. She makes every use of it. ==-==-== After once again not being seen, she shifts her form back into herself. To regain her mass, she pulled up the ground beneath her hooves and added it to her body. Only four hoof marks are present as evidence. She found a spot on the road that seems to be fairly well travelled. She hides in the bushes alongside the road and watches ponies as they walk by merrily. They talk. They chat. They gossip. And most of it falls on deaf ears as Tonya knows nopony here. She could care less what they gab about. She's only interested in what they look like. Like the mint green unicorn mare with yellow eyes and a harp on her flank. She stays lying down behind the shrubbery as to not cause concern. As she watches her walk by, she quietly assumes her appearance. She looks herself over and changes back to herself within moments. Another earth pony walks by. She sees neither wings or horn on this one. It seems to be dashing after her previous test subject. Tonya lies low still and changes her form again. Pale yellow coat with a mane and tail of purple and pink. Wrapped candies on her flank. Another earth pony however doesn't interest her. She is one. She needs something... different. She knows that Kat is a pegasus. She'd like to try one of those. Tonya has had wings before by using her powers. She can surely get them to work for her. But, she needs to at least see one of them before she can try. And she can't SEE Kat. Fate is kicking her again. But, her curiosity is piqued as she sees such a target floats on by. Although this one is a bit strange. Even for this place. She jumps to her hooves and looks directly at the pegasus that has caught her attention. Nopony else is around, so this won't be all bad, right? And she changes. Her coat melts into an asphalt gray. Her eyes turn yellow. Her mane and tail are a definite blonde color. Her flank has bubbles on it. Wings sprout from Tonya's sides. But, something isn't right... Technically, they appear as twins. But, her 'friend' has something Tonya can't readily replicate. The pegasus before her smiles wide and bounces a bit at the sight of herself. Her eyes roll around a bit as she looks over her 'twin'. And then it hits Tonya. And Tonya subsequently hits her head against a tree. Once. Twice. Four times. After a sufficient beating, her eyes wander on their own just like her target. She flaps her wings and find that they can take her up. Her little friend waves her hoof from the ground and sees her off. Who knows where she's going. Who knows where she came from--although that would be a very good question. And did she just meow at Tonya as she left? Tonya finds that her wings are enough to keep aloft and starts to fly around in earnest around the area. Some time earlier, she noted that some of the winged ones were able to sit on the clouds as if they were nothing. Naturally, she's eager to try out this new feature. There are plenty of clouds in the area. Some are much larger than others. But, she finds one that is actually a decent size to sit on. Not huge. Not tiny. She leans her flank over to it while her wings continue to flap. Her newly gray butt sits on the cloud, and she believes herself to be fine. As soon as her wings fold in, Tonya falls through the puffiness to the ground below. "TONYA!!" Kat yells from nearby. She watches as her friend plummets to the ground while her wings flap aimlessly to get her airborne again. Tonya's in a tailspin and can't get out of it. The invisible pegasus darts towards her friend, but Tonya slams into the ground before she can be reached. "Tonya..." She can only look on in horror as Tonya has created a little crater for herself. "Ugghhh..." she moans as her unnaturally gray self raises a hoof. "That didn't work..." "Oh my!!" a sweet, quiet and caring voice calls from the edge of the impact. "Ah, no..." Tonya groans. A yellow pegasus with pink mane looks to find a mare lying within. How does Fluttershy keep finding her so quickly? "Are you... okay?" Setting aside the crater left by her impact, this could be a standard question. Angel hops in moments later and impatiently yanks on Fluttershy's leg. A paw of his points to his open maw as if wanting lunch. Probably does. "Will be...." Tonya groans. She manages to get her hooves under her and climbs out of her mess. She cracks her neck to the side and looks at Fluttershy with a mild curiosity. But, as soon as she looks at her, she slips and changes into her like she had been practicing earlier. "EEEPP!!" is about all Fluttershy can get out as her eyes widen at the talent that Tonya possesses. "You... You're...." And the bunny sidekick goes nuts as it points at Tonya enthusiastically. "CHANGELING!!!" is shouted from above. Both Fluttershy and her clone look up to see a diving pegasus as blue as the sky with her own personal rainbow. Rainbow Dash is quickly approaching and aiming directly at Tonya. Having seen the exchange from above, she already knows who's the fraud. And suddenly Rainbow drops between the two and quickly bucks Tonya away from Fluttershy. Her back hooves kick into Tonya's body and send her sailing back into the crater. "Get out of our town!!" But, Tonya cannot respond directly. She again escapes the hole she's made, only to find herself in a much deeper one. While her head spins from Rainbow's kick, her body turns into Rainbow Dash herself. "What a fraud!! NOTHING beats the original!!" During this whole fiasco, Kat floats above and tries to reason out what to do. It seems that Tonya has stepped into a very big hole, and Kat's not sure how to get her out of it. She seems to be something that the ponies fear, which could get her into big trouble by itself. She can't just airlift Tonya out without a larger problem for herself. "I hope this works..." she mumbles as an idea strikes. "I suppose I'm going to have to kick your flank then," Rainbow says with some enthusiasm. Her posture lowers and her legs spread as she begins to setup a fighting stance for herself. Something taps on Tonya's shoulder. "Run." is whispered into her ear as Tonya herself starts to fidget with confusion. Her legs buckle. Her muzzle bites itself. Her eyes slant with worry. And her body starts changing again and again out of fright itself. The mint green unicorn. Her companion. The strange pegasus. But, she eventually runs off as commanded. While she runs, a strong wind starts to come in from behind her. It gets stronger and stronger while not much time at all passes. Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy struggle against the sudden powerful gust. Neither can move enough against it to pursue and they can only watch as she gets away. And eventually the wind dies down as well. Fluttershy and Rainbow were both pushed back some by this strange event, but are otherwise unhurt. They look each other for a moment before looking in Tonya's direction. The bunny landed upside down and flails its arms as if saying 'whatever!' ==-==-== Tonya has finally stopped running and leans her exhausted body against a tree. She has finally shed her disguises and returned to herself. She breathes heavy for a moment as she recovers from her retreat. "And you made a mess," a voice tells her. "Yeah, yeah..." Tonya groans. "Nothing new. Thanks, Kat." "You owe me," Kat remarks. "If we're really lucky, they won't figure out that the two of us were involved in this. They didn't see your real self, did they?" "Don't think so..." "Then they'll be chasing a ghost while we get home. Now!" "Alright, MOM." "HEY!!! I just saved your ass!!" "Yeah... Sorry." "Really, Tonya. What ARE we going to do with you?" "I could think of some things...." WHACK!! An invisible hoof cracks her in the back of the head. "Not the time, genius!!!" ==-==-== And a short time later, Tonya returns home to the barn. Escorted by an unseen Kat, Tonya presents herself before Bobbi with a somber face. "Did anypony see you?" Bobbi asks. "I don't think so...." "Are you hurt at all?" "No..." Tonya replies. Although she may still be sore from that rough landing. Bobbi sighs and hugs Tonya. "Then I suppose there's no harm done." She then releases her. "This time." "Really?" Bobbi swings her front leg about and cracks Tonya in the back of the head. "No! Not really. You just created a panic in town!" But, Tonya ducks down a bit as she holds her head. "Sorry!! I didn't mean it!!" "I am going to have to keep you here until that little storm you created dies down. Do you understand?" "Yeah..." "Good. I will release you in time. And I hope that next time, you won't make such a mess." Somewhere in Kat's mind the words 'Good Luck' float around.